I remember the feeling of being asked to answer a question that genuinely had many, equally correct answers. It was in uni, where we had to listen to a song on YouTube and “answer” with a song that, in our opinion, makes a good “response”. There were no expected answers; we all answered differently, and all were deemed equally correct. No, I haven’t studied music history, nor was this about a test with “participation trophies”. This was one of the most valuable lessons about how decisions work in the real world.
Usually, tests teach us that reaching a decision means finding the (one and only) correct answer.
Outside of school and crossword puzzles, day-to-day life contains very little of those. Mostly, making a decision means committing to an answer, and then not looking back for long enough to learn something about that choice.
In my case, clients usually come with an expectation of a complex formula that I can give them, where you put your costs in and a price pops out as an answer. A well-calculated, immutable, easily defensible price – the correct answer.
That can work for simple, faceless, commoditized products (with a lot of caveats).
But for complex expertise-based services? The best we can do are well-rounded options that we can commit to continue using until we learn enough about them. Doesn’t produce an immutable answer, but does produce one that works well.