We couldn’t decide what to call this section

Are you indecisive? Yes? No? Not sure? 

Same. In fact, it turns out there is an epidemic of decision paralysis and fatigue. Given that, every single day, we make around 35,000 choices, from when to finally get out of bed to when to finally go to bed, it’s unsurprisingly we’re all a bit over it.

We are now exposed to so much information and so much advice that our brains are working overtime. There are, for example, around 140 different categories of food available on your typical delivery app. Mongolian or Momos? Turkish or Tex Mex? Probably pizza again.

It’s not just everyday choices. Decision paralysis is affecting big life decisions like starting a family or investing for the future.

In response, the AMA has a number of recommendations, including delegating some decisions to help relieve the pressure. And so, of course, we’re going to talk about AI again.

Plenty of people use AI to help make decisions. There’s some great examples in a fascinating Dazed piece, including Nell, 32, who uses ChatGPT as a neutral sounding board to help her date. Nell is single.

Eric Hal Schwartz, a journalist at TechRadar, created the “perfect ChatGPT prompt” to help him decide what to stream. 

But there are obviously dangers to this approach. In the US, 60% of managers now rely on AI to make decisions about their employees. In Australia, fertility clinics are turning to the technology to help choose which embryos should be transferred into patients.

Making decisions is hard, and having someone (or something) tell you what to do can feel like sweet relief. But the tipping point between assistance and reliance is nearly impossible to predict and easy to cross. 

We may need to pull back from the precipice. Or not. It’s hard to decide.