Decisive Consideration
also Decisive factor
A single factor that by itself settles whether an option succeeds or fails at a goal, regardless of how it scores on everything else.
A decisive consideration is a factor that, on its own, determines the outcome of a decision relative to a goal. CF gives the idea a precise mechanism. In the binary factor multiplication method, each factor is converted into a pass/fail (1 or 0) sub-goal — “is this option good enough on this dimension?” — and the factors are multiplied. Because any single 0 zeroes the product, a factor that fails is decisive: no number of passes elsewhere can cancel it. That failing factor is the decisive consideration; it answers the whole decision.
This is the decision-making twin of decisive criticism. A decisive criticism shows an idea will fail at its purpose; a decisive consideration is the factor that triggers (or could trigger) such failure. Both express CF’s binary stance: options are judged refuted-or-not for a specific purpose, not scored by degree of goodness.
CF sharply opposes this to the weighted-factor or argument-strength model, where many factors each add or subtract “weight” and a weak point can be outweighed by strengths elsewhere. CF argues such addition across unlike dimensions is mathematically invalid, and that it wastes effort optimizing local optima with excess capacity instead of locating what actually limits success — echoing the constraint in Theory of Constraints. Practically, the method directs attention to the few considerations that could be decisive (typically just one, rarely more than a handful), rather than tallying every minor pro and con.