Pros and Cons Scorer
Enter your pros and cons, set an importance weight for each (1 = minor, 5 = major), and get a verdict based on the weighted total. Built for decisions you keep going back and forth on.
Pros
Cons
A standard pros and cons list treats all factors equally. A weighted one does not — and most decisions are not equal.
If one pro is "career-defining opportunity" and one con is "slightly longer commute," counting them as equal misrepresents the decision. Weighting forces you to be explicit about what actually matters versus what you are using to avoid making the call. The verdict the tool gives is not necessarily right — but the process of assigning weights often is.
How weighting works
Each item is scored 1 to 5 for importance. The tool totals the pro weights, totals the con weights, and calculates a percentage split. A score of 70% pros or above gets a clear recommendation. Between 55% and 70% is a lean. Around 50% is genuinely uncertain. Below 45% is a lean against, and below 30% is a clear recommendation against. The verdict labels reflect where you fall in that range.
Questions
Should I trust the verdict?
The verdict reflects the weights you assigned, not some objective truth. If the verdict says "do it" and you feel uncomfortable, that is useful information — it means either the weights do not capture what you actually care about, or you have a fear that is not represented as a con. The tool is a mirror, not an oracle.
How many pros and cons should I add?
Enough to represent the real situation, but not so many that you are padding. If you are adding items of weight 1 or 2 to make the list look more balanced, those are probably not the factors driving the decision. Three to six on each side is usually sufficient for most decisions.
What if the result is 50/50?
That is genuinely useful too — it means the factors you have listed are balanced and the decision comes down to something you have not listed. Look for the factor you are avoiding writing down. That is usually the real deciding factor.
Decision made. Back to research.