That one nasty comment is stinging, here’s how to decide what to do

Your video blew up overnight. The comments are flooded with praise, but there’s one, worded just sharply enough to sting, that you can’t shrug off. Your thumb hovers, ready to reply, delete, or screenshot it and send it to a friend. This is exactly the kind of moment the 10-10-10 decision-making rule was built for.

Developed by Suzy Welch, a three-time New York Times bestselling author and NYU Stern professor, the rule asks three simple questions before you act: how will this look in 10 minutes, in 10 months, and in 10 years? The ten-minute answer is about the immediate sting, the ten-month answer shows the likely fallout, and the ten-year answer tells you whether it will matter at all.

Welch says the framework applies well beyond social media spats. A founder can use it to weigh a product pivot, a parent can use it to decide whether to cave on screen time, and someone weighing a job offer with better pay but a worse commute can use the same three questions to reach more clarity than a pros-and-cons list.

The rule doesn’t work for genuine emergencies that demand an instant call, but for everyday dilemmas, it offers a way to stop the spiral. Most people, the idea goes, do not lack good judgement, they simply lack the ten seconds it takes to reach it.

Image: Wikimedia Commons/by S Sepp