“Solomon’s paradox of wise reasoning, in which performance of wisdom differs when reasoning on an issue in one’s own life vs. another’s life, has been supported by robust evidence,” write Wentao Xu, Kaili Zhang, and Fengyan Wang in Frontiers in Psychology.

Sometimes, we’re too close to the problem; maybe it’s directly in our blind spot. Solomon’s paradox is why friends, or other people—including strangers—can sometimes offer starting points or perspectives that actually enable us to make better decisions; they don’t feel the heat of emotion or the closeness to the situation.

Asking for feedback is usually a good idea.