Let's talk about frameworks. You know those fancy diagrams consultants draw? I believe they can actually be quite useful :)
There are five things that make a framework useful:
1. It should help you make the most of whatever's hard to get (your scarce resource)
2. It should help you figure out when to say no
3. It should show you where you have an unfair advantage
4. It should help you spot what is valuable
5. It should help you scale
Remember the BCG matrix? It was popular in the 80s because capital was scarce, and it helped companies figure out where to put their money. McKinsey came up with "portfolio of initiatives" in early 2000s because capital was not as scarce as talent. It is good to ask: What's really hard to get right now? What's stopping us from getting stuff done? That's what your framework should help you manage.
When Steve Jobs came back to Apple, he looked at their 350 products and was like "We will simplify to 4". Then he drew a super simple grid: Pro & Consumer, Laptop & Desktop. Derek Sivers has this "Hell Yes or No" rule - if it's not a "Hell Yes," it's a no. Warren Buffett has this "10 punch card" idea - imagine only getting 10 investment decisions in your life. These ideas make it easy to say no.
Porter's Five Forces is an example of a framework that helps you examine where you might have an advantage.
People don't value the drill - they value the hole in the wall. They don't value the online course - they value the career change it enables. Think hard about the "job to be done".
Amazon has this "working backwards" thing where they write a fake press release before building anything. Paul Graham talks about "Default Alive or Default Dead" which is a simple way to think about finances.
People roll their eyes when someone pulls out a framework. But when done right - they're helpful tools for thinking through problems.