I’ll be honest, I used to treat ChatGPT like a fancy search box. Ask a question, grab the answer, move on. Then I came across a post that flipped that habit on its head, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.
The original poster, a founder now running an AI startup, shared something that hit me hard: most people use ChatGPT to get answers, but the sharpest founders use it to make better decisions. That gap, the author says, is bigger than most of us realize. I think they’re right.
What I love about this LinkedIn creator’s take is the honesty. They admitted that for years, decision-making was the thing that slowed their company down the most. Not execution. Not the team. The quality of the thinking going into big calls. They described sitting in rooms, going back and forth, then walking out with a gut decision dressed up as a strategic one. We’ve all done that.
So the expert laid out 20 prompts that change how you reason through choices. Not vague “ask AI for advice” stuff. Actual frameworks that mirror how clear-headed operators think. Below are the eight they reach for most, broken down so you can put them to work today.
The 8 decision frameworks the author swears by
- Strategic Decision Matrix. Compare your options across goals, risks, costs, effort, and probability of success. The creator says it forces you to stop trusting your gut before you’ve actually done the homework. Think of it as a scorecard for any tough call.
- First Principles Decision. Strip the decision down to plain facts, real uncertainties, and the assumptions you’re carrying. Then rebuild from scratch. The author says this kills most bad choices before they ever get made, because you stop copying what everyone else does.
- Devil’s Advocate. Point the AI at your own reasoning and tell it to challenge you. It surfaces your biases, weak assumptions, and the information you’re missing. The original poster runs this on every major call before committing, and I think that’s a habit worth stealing.
- Multi-Scenario Future Simulation. Build the optimistic, realistic, and pessimistic paths side by side, then compare them. Instead of betting on one rosy outcome, you see the full spread before you choose.
- Regret Minimization. Judge each option from a future lens. Ask which path creates the least regret at 1 year, 3 years, and 10 years out. The expert uses this to cut through short-term noise and focus on what you’ll actually be glad you did.
- Risk vs Reward Mapping. Sort possible outcomes into risk and reward buckets. Assess the probabilities, the worst case, and the real upside. It turns a fuzzy “this feels risky” feeling into something you can actually look at.
- Founder-Style Strategic Choice. Weigh a decision the way a sharp founder would: market potential, competitive advantage, how it makes money, and long-term defensibility. Great for product and business bets, not just personal ones.
- Ultimate Decision Copilot. This is the heavyweight. One prompt that clarifies your goals, assumptions, tradeoffs, opportunity costs, future scenarios, and biases all at once. The creator pulls this one out when the stakes are highest.
Why this clicked for me
The core reframe is simple, and it’s the part I keep coming back to. As the author puts it, ChatGPT is not a search engine, it’s a thinking partner. But only if you use it that way. Most of us never give it the structure to push back, so it just agrees with us and hands over a tidy answer. These prompts force the structure.
The quality of the thinking going into big calls is what separates a real strategic decision from a gut feeling wearing a suit.
How to actually use these
You don’t need all eight at once. Here’s the simple way I’d start, based on what this savvy professional shared:
- For everyday calls: run the Strategic Decision Matrix to lay out your options cleanly.
- Before you commit: hit it with the Devil’s Advocate prompt to catch your own blind spots.
- For long-term moves: use Regret Minimization so you’re optimizing for the version of you a decade from now.
- When the stakes are huge: bring out the Ultimate Decision Copilot and let it stress-test everything in one pass.
The contributor pointed out something I see too: founders make big calls every week on thin reasoning. You probably know someone like that. Honestly, I’ve been that person. The fix isn’t more meetings or more gut instinct. It’s better inputs into the thinking itself.
What struck me most is how practical this is. You already have the tool open. The only thing changing is the quality of the question you bring to it. That’s a low cost for a much sharper outcome.
The author closed with a question I’ll pass along, because it’s a good one to sit with: what framework do you rely on most when a decision genuinely matters? Worth a think.
Go read the full LinkedIn post for the original breakdown and the rest of the 20 prompts. It’s a sharp piece of thinking, and the person who shared it clearly learned this the hard way so you don’t have to.