Our brains evolved for a different world. Hunter-gatherer ancestors made perhaps a dozen significant decisions daily: - Where to hunt or gather - Whether to move camp - How to respond to threats - Who to cooperate with
These were important decisions with clear feedback. Choose wrong, and consequences were immediate and obvious.
Modern life presents thousands of abstract decisions with delayed, unclear feedback: - Which health insurance plan optimizes coverage? - Should you refinance your mortgage? - Is this the right career move? - Which investment allocation matches your risk tolerance?
We're using stone-age hardware to run space-age software. No wonder we're exhausted.