Skip to content

Overview⚓︎

Most tools help us get things done.
DMS helps us understand why we did them.

What is DMS?

The Decision Memory System (DMS) is a simple way to record, track, and learn from your choices. It ensures that your experiences—both good and bad—turn into wisdom you can use later.

The Problem⚓︎

We make big choices every day about our work, our teams, and our lives. But over time, the reasons why we made those choices start to fade.

We forget what other options we had.
We forget what we thought would happen.
We forget why we took the risk.

When we forget our reasoning, we end up making the same mistakes again. DMS solves this by saving your thinking, not just your results.

The Cost of Forgetting

We don't fail because we aren't smart; we fail because we lose the memory of our own logic.

The Flow of Wisdom⚓︎

DMS follows the natural path of a thought. It moves a question through a simple process to make sure you learn something from it.

  1. The Topic — You start with a question or a problem.
  2. The Explore — You look at different options and weigh the pros and cons.
  3. The Decide — You pick a path and write down what you expect to see.
  4. The Observe — You wait and watch what happens in the real world.
  5. The Review — You compare what happened to what you planned.
  6. The Lesson — You save a "nugget" of wisdom for your future self.

Is DMS a Note App?⚓︎

DMS is a thinking system. It is designed to be different from the tools you use every day.

DMS is for... DMS is NOT for...
Remembering Why To-Do lists
Comparing options Random notes
Tracking assumptions Long documents
Learning from outcomes File storage

Who Is It For?⚓︎

DMS helps you grow at every scale.

Build a "Manual" for your own life.
Stop guessing why you feel stuck and start seeing the patterns in your choices.

  • Goal: Understand your personal biases.
  • Question: "Why do I keep choosing jobs that burn me out?"
  • Value: You become more confident in your personal path.

Build a "Shared Brain" for your project.
Help new team members understand years of technical choices in a single afternoon.

  • Goal: Stop repeating the same technical mistakes.
  • Question: "Why did we choose this database two years ago?"
  • Value: The team moves faster because they don't have to argue about the past.

Build "Institutional Memory" that never leaves.
Ensure the company's best ideas and hardest lessons stay, even when people move on.

  • Goal: Protect the company's "Secret Sauce."
  • Question: "Why did we stop selling in that region in 2023?"
  • Value: The organization stays smart even during big changes.

What Makes It Different?⚓︎

Most systems try to be Fast. DMS tries to be Honest.

It keeps the "messy" parts of thinking that other tools hide:
Uncertainty — We record that we weren't 100% sure.
Disagreement — We record when the team didn't all agree.
Truth — We never rewrite history to make ourselves look better.

Explore the Pillars⚓︎

Ready to see how it works? Read the four main sections:

Pillar What's inside?
Vision Our purpose and why we built this.
Domain The simple words and concepts we use.
Behavior How a topic moves from start to finish.
Collaboration How people work together in the system.

The Purpose⚓︎

DMS doesn't automate your thinking—it honors it. It is a place where your thoughts live long enough to teach you something. It doesn't replace your judgment; it reveals it so you can understand yourself better.

The Bottom Line

DMS is the bridge between making a choice and gaining wisdom.