This Economist has an article this week on the dangers of decision fatigue.
Research suggests that people fall back into making "default" decisions when they are tired. Examples are cited from finance, law and medicine.
One thing that isn’t discussed is the obvious benefits of automated decision-making—computers don’t suffer from exhaustion. The more we can have computers advise decision-makers on routine decisions, the more humans can devote their limited energy to more complex cases.
The article notes that there may be value using software to monitor decisions and nudging people when the pattern of their decision-making changes. This is an interesting approach—have the computer critique the decision-making process rather than the decision itself.
Photo by Luis Villasmil on Unsplash
