Second Opinion Protocol
If you knew nothing about this situation, what would you ask first?
Describe your decision to someone who has zero context — no backstory, no politics, no prior involvement. Give them only the facts and the options. Write down the first question they ask. That question is almost always the blind spot you've been too close to see.
You've been deep in a decision for days and your thinking feels circular.
The decision requires domain expertise that a general perspective can't provide.
Why it works
Proximity creates framing effects you can't see. Someone with no context isn't smarter — they just aren't trapped inside your assumptions.
The longer you sit with a decision, the more your framing calcifies. You stop questioning the premises and start debating the details. A fresh perspective doesn’t work because the other person is wiser — it works because they haven’t absorbed your frame. They’ll ask the obvious question you stopped asking weeks ago: ‘Why are these the only two options?’ or ‘What happens if you just don’t do this?’ The protocol works best when you resist the urge to give context. The less backstory you provide, the less your framing infects their thinking. Their naivety is the feature, not the bug.