Decisions Decision-making is one of the hardest things we do every day. Some decisions are acctually pretty easy. We don't think too much about what to dress each morning (in case that you are not a woman, that's a whole new story), or what to order for lunch or which movie we should watch. But there are situations when we have to decide about something important. For example which college or job we should pick, or in what city we should live. Than we would love to know what is the best option for us. First question is, if such best option or alternative does even exist? And what if there are two equally good alternatives? Second, for thousand people there are thousand different answers, so how do we evaluate the options? It's totally subjective matter! So any advice here can be very tricky. Of course there are some workarounds and methods how to solve this decision problems. Some of them are pretty sophisticated and are not possible to apply everywhere and in every situation. What I consider elegant is a method that Benjamin Franklin was using: He divided a pice of paper into two columns. One column named as 'Pros' and second one named as 'Cons'. Than in few upcomming days he filled these two columns. He didn't do it in one session but in several days, because he didn't want to be influenced by actual mood or state of the mind. Then he rate each reason in both columns. If two reasons we rated equally he strike them out. If one reason was rated as sum of other two reasons, then he strikes three out. And so on, until he reached the final decision...

What works for you in learning english? [First post] Hi! I´m wondering what is the best and fastest approach for learning english in your opinion. To be more precise, what are the best approaches, programs, sites, etc. for improving not only your grammar, but especially writing and speaking that works for you? This "notebook" idea looks great! But what about speaking? I´m new on italki so I wonder if someone could give me some tips to jump start. How speaking works here? What are your insights? I´ll also appreciate your ideas on another sites and groups focusing on speaking. Are there any skype groups, sites or whatever you consider better for speaking than italki? Oh, and one note: I should be free or student friendly ;) Thanks.