Ohmaybe — How to make decisions you will not regret | ohmaybe.com
Sunk cost, default effect, choice overload, and analysis paralysis — recognition cues and countermeasures.
Sunk cost is the pull of what you have already spent. Its cue is a sentence that starts with "I have already ..." — time, money, effort that cannot be recovered no matter what you choose next. The countermeasure is the zero-history test: pretend you are starting today with no prior investment and ask which option you would pick. If the answer changes, the original pull was sunk cost, not reasoning.
The default effect is the pull toward whatever was already arranged — the renewal that proceeds unless you cancel, the plan someone else booked, the option pre-selected in a form. Its cue is the absence of a decision moment: you notice you are letting something continue rather than actively choosing it. The countermeasure is to force an explicit cancel-or-confirm step for every default you encounter.
On narrow screens, swipe or scroll the plate sideways.
Choice overload appears when you keep adding options instead of scoring the ones you have. Its cue is research that expands the option list rather than filling the criteria table. The countermeasure is a hard cap — two or three options maximum — because a fourth option rarely changes the winner but reliably doubles the work.
Analysis paralysis is choice overload's close cousin, but its cue is different: you are adding criteria, not options. You keep finding one more thing to measure, one more comparison to run, and the table never gets filled. The countermeasure is a written stopping rule with a deadline: "if I cannot decide by Friday 17:00, I take the reversible option."
All four traps attach to specific stages of the decision loop — sunk cost to revisiting, default to framing, overload and paralysis to comparing — which is why checking them stage by stage is more effective than a generic "be careful" reminder.
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