The re-read: when the same dilemma comes back
You decided once, then the ground moved. Watch one composite dilemma get read twice — same question, opposite call, nobody wrong. A test for telling a real re-read from a re-ask.
KarmaLens blog
Decide when you're too worked up to think.
Real, worked examples of hard decisions, with the Bhagavad Gita behind one clear call — and the reusable way of looking at your own dilemma that you can take with you.
The lens that scores your excuse, not your reason
A composite team lead defers a promised bonus 'for the team' — while quietly protecting his own promotion. A worked read on the one lens that separates a duty from a dodge, plus the swap test you can run tonight.
You'd fire them for cause. HR says wait. You say maybe.
A founder catches a mid-level hire padding expense reports for seven months. For-cause today, a slow paper trail, or a soft exit that protects his next job? We run all three through the eight lenses — and find the one the founder keeps ducking.
You're the child they didn't get to keep near
An only son sends money and calls every Sunday — and still hangs up convicted. A composite family dilemma read on four lenses, plus the Two-Column Ask Test to separate the help you can give from the grief you can only witness.
You forgave them once. They did it again. Now what?
A repeat offense feels like proof the first forgiveness was a mistake. Run one composite through four of the eight lenses and watch 'leave or stay' resolve into a third shape neither lens saw alone.
One lens lit up. You built the whole case on it.
A composite look at deciding to relocate for a partner when loyalty scores +4 and five other lenses come up empty — and why one tall column can't hold a roof.
You rewrote the prompt until it said yes
A composite of the re-prompter who softens one fact and sharpens another until a chatbot finally endorses the move they'd already made. Why a fixed eight-lens read can't be re-rolled by tone — and a deletion-diff test you can run tonight.
You promised equity you can't afford to keep
A founder verbally promised an early hire 2% equity, wrote nothing down, and now a tight cap table makes that promise expensive. Four lenses sort honor-it, quietly-shrink-it, and split-the-difference — and name the one move that's forgery.
They chose your partner. You didn't. Now what?
Your family lined up a match. You feel nothing for their pick and something real for the one they'd never accept. Before you call it love-versus-duty, run the eight lenses on the move you're actually making: the drift that avoids the conversation.
The role they built around you, not for you
"We can't lose you where you are" sounds like praise. Run it across four lenses and it reads as a cage you built and keep paying rent on. A committed verdict on indispensability.
Are you giving them space, or quietly leaving?
Restraint and withdrawal wear the same face — a quiet phone. A worked read on the eight lenses that separates letting someone move from checking out while keeping the label.
Which lens fires first when the answer is urgent?
A quality manager has 40 minutes to ship a pallet she suspects is flawed. Under a clock, one lens grabs the wheel — and it's rarely the one with standing to go first. A worked read of urgency-logic on all eight lenses.