The Rebuy

The question

Would you buy into this again, right now, knowing everything you know today?

That's it. For a job it's usually phrased with the number in it, because the number is the part people are defending. If you're on $95,000 and someone offered you this exact job at $95,000 tomorrow, with the commute you actually have and the manager you actually have, would you say yes?

Answer it out loud. People take about three seconds.

Why it works

Leaving and joining are the same decision seen from two sides, and we're much worse at one of them.

It deletes sunk cost. The four years you've already given are not an argument for the next four, but they feel like one right up until you're asked to buy fresh.

It deletes the exit conversation. A lot of people who want to leave are not weighing a career, they're avoiding one uncomfortable meeting. Buying doesn't require that meeting, so the fear stops distorting the answer.

It deletes status. The title, the company name, what your family says about it. Those matter when you're defending a position and matter much less when you're being sold one.

It makes you an outsider to your own life. That's the whole trick. You're allowed to see it clearly for the length of one question.

What to do with the answer

Clear no. You've already decided and you're negotiating with yourself about timing. The work now is a date and a first step, not more thinking.

Clear yes. Genuinely useful, and more common than people expect. Something specific is wrong and it isn't the job. Find out what, because leaving won't touch it.

A wobble. Usually the interesting one. Say the version you'd buy. "I'd take it at $95,000 if I could do it from anywhere" is not indecision, it's a spec, and it's often something you could go and ask for.

It isn't only for jobs

The same question works on a city, a course, a business, and it works uncomfortably well on a relationship. Would you choose this again, today, as it actually is rather than as it was when you chose it.

That's why it earns its place. Most decision tools handle one category. This one handles anything you're already inside.

Where it doesn't work

When you're in the middle of something. Ask it in a bad week and you'll get the bad week's answer. Redundancy, a breakup, an illness. Wait.

When the alternative doesn't exist yet. A no tells you this isn't right. It doesn't tell you what is, and it certainly doesn't tell you the next thing will be better. That's a separate piece of work.

When the honest answer is "I'd buy it, I just want a different life." Then the job was never the decision, and running this on it will keep giving you a yes while you get more frustrated.