Reversibility / Type 1 vs Type 2 Decisions
Updated 2026-07-31
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
A distinction popularized by Jeff Bezos in Amazon shareholder letters and internal practice. A Type 1 decision is a one-way door: it is irreversible or very costly to undo, so it warrants slow analysis and senior involvement. A Type 2 decision is a two-way door: it is reversible at acceptable cost, so it should be made quickly and delegated to those closest to the information. The claim is that most decisions are Type 2, and treating them as Type 1 imposes a heavy velocity cost. Reversibility is a judgment about the cost of exit, not about how important the decision feels.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Speed Triage: classify a decision before choosing how much analysis it deserves. - Delegation Rule: push reversible decisions down and reserve escalation for one-way doors. - Exit Cost Estimate: ask what undoing it would cost, not how significant it feels.
Anchor fast decisions
Slow decision-making is expensive in aggregate because delay costs compound across thousands of small choices, yet most organizations apply uniform rigor regardless of stakes. Separating decisions by reversibility lets rigor be spent where it changes the outcome, since a reversible choice can be corrected by acting and observing rather than by analyzing in advance. It also lowers the cost of being wrong, because the option to undo bounds the downside. The failure mode is symmetric: too much deliberation on two-way doors wastes time, and too little on one-way doors creates damage that cannot be recalled.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
account_treeGenealogyexpand_more
menu_bookReferencesexpand_more
Source support: Explicit
- en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversibilityverified
PRIVATE NOTES · Only visible to you
SAVED Q&A
ENTRY Q&A · Private saving available
Ask with a clear boundary
thinkingmodels answers from published entry context only.
Your question is sent to thinkingmodels. The answer uses public entry context only.
RELATED MODELS