What is values-based decision making heuristics?

Values-based decision making heuristics is a concept in personal epistemology: Clear values eliminate entire categories of decisions — you simply choose what aligns.

Example: Priya runs a small design studio. Every week brings a stream of decisions: which clients to pursue, which projects to decline, whether to hire a generalist or a specialist, whether to take on a lucrative but misaligned corporate rebrand, whether to attend the industry conference or spend that week on deep creative work. Before she clarified her value hierarchy — creative integrity above revenue, craft above speed, long-term relationships above short-term contracts — each of these decisions consumed hours of deliberation, spreadsheet analysis, and anxious conversations with her partner. After she clarified it, most of them resolved instantly. The corporate rebrand that would pay six months of rent but require design-by-committee? Decline — creative integrity ranks above revenue. The conference with networking opportunities but no craft development? Skip — craft ranks above exposure. The generalist hire who could do more things versus the specialist who could do one thing excellently? Specialist — craft over breadth. She did not become less thoughtful. She became less burdened. The decisions were still real, but her values had already made most of them before she sat down to deliberate.

This concept is part of Phase 76 (Value Hierarchy Refinement) in the How to Think curriculum, which builds the epistemic infrastructure for value hierarchy refinement.