My PhD was on skyline queries: finding the options no other option beats on every criterion at once.
The technical lesson was about algorithms. The lasting one was about decisions.
Most bad choices aren’t wrong answers. They’re answers to a question that was collapsed too early, with five criteria squeezed into one score before anyone looked at the trade-offs.
The skyline doesn’t tell you what to choose. It tells you what to stop considering: everything dominated, meaning options that are worse in every respect than something already on the table. That usually removes most of the options, and it makes the remaining argument honest, because every option left involves a real trade-off.
Before you rank, find the frontier. Then decide what you’re willing to give up.