Price: $0.99 Score: 9/10 Category: Productivity
Like a lot of people, when I’m faced with a tough decision, I bust out a pen and paper and draw up a list of “pros” and “cons.” But half the time, I stare at my list and feel like I’ve come no closer to making a decision.
That’s why I’m enamored with the quantitative decision making iPhone app Mmmh…, developed by Life Changing Apps. Instead of stumbling through a list of qualitative “pros” and “cons,” you can arrive at a decision that is grounded in some smart math.
As you weigh your options, you can enter various criteria, each of which will affect the decision you’re about to make. Then you can give more or less importance (weight) to each criterion, and finally you grade each option on each criterion. It’s a lot of work to input all of that information, to be sure, but for major life decisions will all kinds of repercussions, it’s worth taking the time to do so.
It’s the perfect app for making decisions where you can’t afford to follow your heart and need to use your brains exclusively. But should you find your heartstrings getting pulled as you enter your data, that can be a goof thing, too. As the developers explain, “If you find yourself manipulating the grades or weights to make a certain option win, well… that’s good, now you know the one you really want.”
There’s another element to this app that might not be apparent at first. Beyond making tough decisions, you can also use Mmmh… for scenario neutralization. What do I mean by that? I’ll let the developers explain:
“Say you are expecting some good event but you are feeling afraid it might not come true.
You can use Mmmh… to neutralize your fear of such a scenario by compensating it with good things if it were to happen. For example, if I don’t get accepted to this college, then I will travel to Thailand, get involved in volunteer work, buy a motorcycle, etc. Until the non-acceptance scenario feels (and scores) almost as good to you as the other.”
One downside of Mmmh… is that you are limited in terms of how many elements you can apply to each decision. 10 options and 15 custom criterions for each decision will generally be enough for most scenarios, it would be better if these were unlimited, for really big problems.
Overall, however, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better price on such an excellent decision-aiding iPhone app.
Mmmh… is compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation) and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.