Decision Fatigue, Ego Depletion and the Intensity of Being a Designer.
September 9th, 2011 | Blog
Read this from The New York Times magazine.
One of the most interesting, enlightening articles I’ve read in a long time. Read it all – you’ll thank me, after the magnitude of what they’re talking about fully sinks in.
Decision fatigue helps explain why ordinarily sensible people get angry at colleagues and families, splurge on clothes, buy junk food at the supermarket and can’t resist the dealer’s offer to rustproof their new car. No matter how rational and high-minded you try to be, you can’t make decision after decision without paying a biological price. It’s different from ordinary physical fatigue — you’re not consciously aware of being tired — but you’re low on mental energy. The more choices you make throughout the day, the harder each one becomes for your brain, and eventually it looks for shortcuts, usually in either of two very different ways.