Option E

The Problem

Most decision making under uncertainty presents itself as a choice between options. Option A or Option B. Sometimes C or D. The assumption is that the answer exists within the options presented, and the task is selection.

This assumption is wrong often enough to be dangerous. When all presented options are suboptimal, selecting the least bad one still produces a bad outcome. The person who chose it just feels better about the process because they “weighed their options.” This is the false dichotomy trap — not a logical error in a philosophy textbook, but a daily operational failure in businesses, careers, and strategy.

Option E is a protocol for escaping this trap. Not by choosing better among bad options, but by questioning whether the options presented are the right ones at all.

What Option E Does

Option E is a structured approach to reframing. When the available options all feel wrong, the protocol shifts attention from the answers to the question. It asks: which constraints are real and which are assumed? What is the actual problem behind the presented problem? What would the solution look like if none of the current options existed?

This is not brainstorming. Brainstorming generates more options within the same frame. Option E questions the frame itself. The output is not a fifth option added to A through D — it is a redefinition of the problem that makes the original options irrelevant.

When Option E Works

Option E is most powerful in situations where smart people disagree not on the answer but on the question. When two competent strategists look at the same data and propose opposing solutions, the disagreement is usually not about analysis. It is about framing. They are solving different problems and calling them the same thing.

Option E also applies to personal decisions under complexity: career pivots where neither staying nor leaving feels right, product decisions where both building and buying have fatal flaws, and strategic choices where every scenario modelled produces unacceptable outcomes.

The Warning: The Loop

Option E has a critical constraint: it is not always available. Sometimes the options presented are genuinely the only options. Sometimes the frame is correct and the answer is simply unpleasant. Seeking Option E when it does not exist is a failure mode called The Loop — an infinite reframing cycle that delays commitment indefinitely.

The discipline of Option E is knowing when to use it and when to commit to the best available option within the existing frame. This judgement is what separates reframing from procrastination.

How Option E Relates to Other Frameworks

TSSK provides the foundation: before you can question the frame, you need verified reality to test it against. K²OK²S provides the exit: once Option E reveals the right problem, the execution razor eliminates everything between the new direction and delivery.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you reframe a business problem?

Reframing begins by separating the stated problem from the experienced problem. What is the organisation actually struggling with, versus what it says it is struggling with? Option E provides a structured protocol for this separation, testing which constraints are real and which are inherited assumptions.

What are alternatives to pros and cons lists?

Pros and cons lists assume the options are correct and the task is evaluation. Option E questions whether the options themselves are the right ones to evaluate. When all columns show more cons than pros, the issue is not your scoring — it is your options.

How do you avoid false dichotomies in strategy?

False dichotomies survive because they are efficient. “Do we build or buy?” is easier to discuss than “Is build-or-buy the right question?” Option E makes the harder question visible by surfacing the assumptions embedded in the framing.

What is decision making under uncertainty?

Decision making under uncertainty is the process of committing to action when the outcome cannot be predicted with confidence. Most frameworks address this by improving prediction. Option E addresses it by improving the question being predicted about.