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The Tarot Method: Making Tough Decisions Without Losing Your Sanity
Created on 2024-12-05 16:38
Published on 2024-12-05 18:00
When you’re a software development leader, decision-making isn’t just part of the job, it’s the WHOLE job.
What if I told you there is a thousand year old tool that can help?
Allow me to introduce The Tarot Method.
INTRODUCTION
Most decisions are easy: there’s some clear choice on what you need to do. Typically folks will go with the classic route: grab a piece of paper, draw a line down the middle, and craft a pro and con list like the responsible adult you pretend to be in meetings. But what happens when everything is relatively equal? Sometimes, even after you’ve exhausted the list, deliberated every angle, and color-coded your choices in a Google Sheet, both options seem equally valid.
Now what?
You could flip a coin, and honestly, that’s not the worst idea. But flipping a coin feels too random, too disconnected from the subtle, nagging feeling that’s been scratching at the back of your mind. You know the one, it’s your gut trying to tell you something.
The problem? You don’t know how to translate that feeling into something actionable.
The “Gut Feeling” Problem
Your brain is a master of pattern recognition. It’s constantly analyzing, categorizing, and making connections faster than stores put up Christmas Decorations the day after Halloween. The result? Sometimes you just know the right choice, even if you can’t articulate why.
But as amazing as your brain is, it’s also it’s worst enemy. All those connections it’s making are also creating doubt, and so it starts over analyzing everything. When the gut speaks, the brain just keeps on thinking.
Sometimes, we need a way to shut that brain down, and listen to our gut instead.
What is the Tarot Method?
It’s not some pseudo-science occult magic trick.
There are No crystal balls, no chanting under a full moon (unless that works for you), just a practical, creative way to give your subconscious a voice.
TL;DR of what we’re about to explore: grab a deck, focus on your question, and start interpreting the pictures.
Sounds ridiculous? Sure.
Effective? Absolutely.
Step 1: Gather Up Your Divination Tools
Option A: Tarot Cards
If you’re brave enough to go full witch mode, grab a tarot deck. Don’t have one? Amazon’s got you covered, but if you’re in a rush, any card deck with pictures will do, your kid’s Pokemon cards, Cards Against Humanity, LLC, even a bunch of business cards (with logos) you got at the last developer conference you went to.
Option B: Random Pictures
If tarot feels too occult for your tech-loving brain, go grab any random stack of images. Ask your friends to post up some memes and print them out, go click Google’s “I Feel Lucky Button” a couple dozen time, or just grab a popular magazine with all the pretty pictures in it. You want about 30 images to shuffle around.
The key here is to get physical – going through the motions with things you can touch is an important part of the process (but if you can’t it’s ok to just randomly shuffle things digitally).
For the example today we’re using the Original Rider Waite Tarot Pack (if you want to follow along on your own).
Step 2: Set the Scene
Think about the decision at hand, and write it down on a piece of paper. (Again, got to trust the process here). This ensures you stay focused on what you’re trying to answer, and when you start answering that question, you’re not letting your brain get away with making excuses later.
Are you debating whether to rewrite that legacy codebase in Rust? Or maybe you’re wondering whether to promote the junior dev who keeps committing directly to main. The key here is to focus on one question. None of this vague, “What’s my purpose in life?” stuff—stick to specifics.
For today’s exercise, we’re asking the question:
EXAMPLE:
“Should I take the job offer for Director of Software Engineering at Amazon or the VP of Software Development and Technology at Google ?”
Sit down somewhere quiet (or as quiet as your office gets). Light a candle if you’re feeling dramatic. Stare deeply into the abyss of your coffee cup for added gravitas. Now you’re ready.
Step 3: Focus and Pull a Card
Think of your question. Hold it in your mind like it’s the only thing standing between you and the last Dunkin’ mini-apple fritter. Then shuffle the deck (or the images) and pull one.
Look at it. Really look at it. What do you see?
There are no wrong or right answers here. You need to READ into the image whatever you feel like reading into the image. Write down your thoughts and what you FEEL you think it means.
Put this card aside once you’re done.
EXAMPLE:
I pulled The World upside down. It’s round like chrome’s browser, but then I see the blonde dude in the bottom corner staring at the Eagle and it reminds me of Jeff Bezos and how he owns the The Washington Post . He feels angry about something…
NOTES:
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If you’re using a magazine, flip to a random page (if there’s a picture use that, if not, flip again – or if you’re feeling brave drop your pen on the page and see which random words it lands on).
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If you’re going all digital, number your pictures 1 – 30 (or whatever), and then use a random number generator (or dice) to pick a picture for you.
Step 4: Interpret and Repeat
Time to wash, rinse and repeat.
Pull another card or image (if its a duplicate, skip and draw another). Write down what you are feeling it means.
After a while you will start noticing a pattern to start to emerge. What story is starting to take shape?
Continue repeating this process until a pattern becomes clear. You’ll start to notice your gut pulling you toward one outcome or away from another. Once you get there, you’ll notice that all your “readings” become stronger and stronger, until every reading is telling you roughly the same thing.
Congratulations—you’re actively tuning into your intuition.
EXAMPLE:
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Next I pulled the Hanged Man. I remember a story from one of my friends at Amazon telling me how much extra overtime she’s forced to pull working at Amazon and feels trapped, it’s like her world is turning upside down.
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The five of cups, This guy is sad he ran out of stuff to drink, reminding me of the BoNenKai party I had with the team from Google Japan a few years ago, and feeling sad I wasn’t chosen back then, so am pretty happy I got the offer from Google this time around – something I don’t want to miss this time.
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Finally I drew death upside down. Every time I open up too many browser tabs, chrome crashes, and I vowed that I’d figure out a way to fix that thing. Getting to work on the Chrome development team at Google would ensure I would be able to do this.
So what do you think it all means?
INTERPRETATION:
To me, it’s pretty apparent I don’t feel to great about Amazon, and feels like the Google offer is the best of the bunch. So based on this reading, I feel pretty confident with the decision.
But here’s the beauty in this. To you it might mean something completely different – the key is these readings are your readings to help you pull meaning out of your gut and help it use its pattern-recognition software to help you choose.
NOTES:
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If you are using a random number generator or flipping through a magazine, you might wind up with the same picture from before. If this happens, draw another. The goal is to get you in front of as many different images as it takes – not repeat previous “readings”
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You can keep doing the reading until you get there. It could take 1 card, 10 cards, or 100. How you feel is really up to you (I do caution going too deep, if you aren’t getting any more clarity in which way to go after about 5 readings, skip ahead to step 5).
Step 5: Still Stuck? Flip a Coin
Sometimes the cards will weave a tangled web of ambiguity, leaving you no closer to a decision than when you started. This is where the good old coin flip comes in.
Not because fate will decide for you, but because flipping the coin forces you to just make a decision. And if everything is roughly equal, you don’t really have a strong feeling one way or the other, both outcomes would be ok – then forcing a choice ensures you escape any decision paralysis you might be encountering.
It may not be rocket science (or magic), but it’s a surefire way to get your moving forward again.
PRO-TIP: Once you’ve made your decision. Stick with it. Don’t second guess it or reconsider alternatives (otherwise your back at square one). Own it and move on.
Why Does This Work?
The “secret science” behind tarot cards, or any image exercise, lies in how our brains interpret abstract symbols. This taps into the same cognitive functions as making a pros-and-cons list, except it bypasses your analytical noise and lets your subconscious take the reins.
Psychologists call this projective testing. By interpreting ambiguous imagery, you project your inner thoughts and feelings onto the external image. It’s the same principle behind Rorschach tests, but with cooler aesthetics.
Isn’t this a bunch of woo-woo? Possibly. It can sound like hocus-pocus, but everyone makes decisions based on gut feelings all the time. The difference here is that you’re giving your instincts a visual prompt to work with. That’s not woo-woo; that’s user experience design for your brain.
Final Thoughts
Following your gut isn’t about mystical forces or esoteric rituals, it’s about learning to trust your inner voice. The Tarot Method simply gives you a framework to untangle your thoughts and focus your intuition.
So next time you’re stuck deciding whether to rewrite the legacy codebase or leave it to future archaeologists, grab a deck, pull some cards, and let your subconscious work its magic.
At the very least, you’ll have a new perspective, and maybe a few laughs, along the way (if you decided to use the cards against humanity).
Reading List:
https://ijastro.shodhsagar.co.in/index.php/ijao/article/view/8
P.S. If you want to geek out over the actual science behind all this (or alternatively if you’re into occult things and want a $1,500 super deluxe Tarot Reading), DM me.
#IOPsychology #SoftwareLeadership #DecisionMaking #TarotCards
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