AI / Analysis & Decision Making
The Most Expensive Irreversible Part
Separate the decisions you can undo from those you cannot
Here is my plan: [plan]. Find the most expensive irreversible parts: 1) Label each decision as reversible, reversible at a cost, or irreversible; 2) For the irreversible ones, state exactly what undoing costs — money, time, relationships, or opportunity; 3) Point out which decisions can be split into two steps, starting with a small reversible version; 4) Recommend an execution order: what to do first, what to push back as far as possible; 5) Which single wrong call would make the whole plan impossible to continue.
How to use
This works best on a plan that fits on one page; if it is longer, split it into modules first.
Good for
- The plan contains one-shot, public moves (a launch, a signature, a data migration, a public promise) while the rest can still change later.
- You want to move fast but you know some things can't be taken back — you need someone to sort reversible from irreversible.
Not for
- The whole thing is nearly reversible (trying a new tool, changing your writing style) — item-by-item classification just complicates something simple.
- The irreversible part already happened (the contract is signed, the data is migrated) — now the job is damage control, not classification.
Example
Input
Plan: migrate the company site from Webflow to a self-hosted Next.js build, change the domain at the same time, and launch the new version publicly this month.
What you get
You want it to identify the domain change as the one genuinely irreversible step (backlinks, SEO equity, and saved bookmarks all take the hit) and split the work into “migrate the stack, keep the domain” and “revisit the domain in three months.” It should also name which wrong call would stall the whole plan — self-hosted ops capability, not the design.
Common mistakes
- Labeling everything irreversible — the plan then looks mined, and you're afraid to do anything.
- Only accounting for money and ignoring irreversible time and relationships: money comes back, public promises and team trust don't.
Try tweaking it like this
- Change “label each item's reversibility” to “assume we have to undo everything tomorrow — rank by cost” — the retreat view exposes the truly expensive step.
- Add “which irreversible moves could be done internally first” — irreversibility turns into a concrete reversible version.