peanut butter dilemma as a model for life

[thanate]

I've seen links talking about decision fatigue a couple times now, and finally clicked on one this morning. (Warning: this is a pretty long article, but entirely worth reading when you've got time.) And it was one of those moments of finding out that there's now scientific research connecting and supporting a whole pile of things I'd been slowly working out for myself over the years. The following is a(n incomplete) list of some of the things this theory explains:

*The conversation I had with grauwulf the other week where I was trying to explain how it's easier to work harder when you've got your goals & tasklist pre-defined for you by an employer, rather than self-motivating constructively.

*I have the opposite reaction to grocery shopping while hungry that others report; I will not come away with a cart full of cookies, but I won't buy anything that's not on my list, and usually not everything I do need, thus requiring more trips to the grocery store sooner than I might otherwise need to go. (I blame good childhood conditioning re: sugar consumption)

*Why sometimes eating ice cream actually *does* help, much to one's surprise.

*The hard parts of writing/world building (and possibly also writer's block, depending on how you define/experience that) that turn up when you're past whatever's in your head & have to choose how the next bit works.

*The utility of recognizing when you've come to the end of your usefulness and need to do something easy for a while. (read a book, pick up a simple knitting project or something...)

*Why to-do lists make life easier (not just memory, but pre-loading your decisions on what needs to be done.)

*My default spending/impulse control is based on the do nothing model. (For instance, while at a craft fair or suchlike, look at everything first, then go back to the things you still remember you wanted and decide if you really still want them, assuming no one else has bought them in the mean time. Possibly after getting lunch.)

*Why it is easy not to buy cookies, but difficult not to eat them once they're in the house.

And so forth...

(the peanut butter dilemma, for those of you not familiar, is fishy1's example in which you go to the store to buy a jar of peanut butter, take a look at the three shelf wide display of different types, sizes and brands, and utterly fail to make a decision because there's too much input that doesn't come with any terribly good criteria to evaluate it.)

Comments

[tam_nonlinear]

This would be why, when I am depressed, I will eat 'whatever in in the fridge' rather than go to the store and have to decide on something to make.


Good link, thank you.

[thanate]

Yes, it's definitely the "what's easy" approach to dinner.

[notyourwendy]

Oh peanut butter. Canada does not stock Jif. We had to have an emergency delivery last month.

[thanate]

Why Jif? I mean, is there a reason besides "obviously it is just the best"? (I am totally a whatever's cheapest peanut-butter person, though I reject Giant's store brand because it tastes weird, so I don't understand the panic.)

[notyourwendy]

Ignoring the fancy grind-your-own stuff, there are two options in Canada, one of which is kinda blah and the other of which is actively bad. I used to be a peanut butter agnostic too, until I was faced with those two choices. Jif is T's peanut butter of choice and since I don't care enough to pick between American brands, that's what we get.