The following Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Marxist and is narrated by Brock Armstrong.

Are you suffering from decision fatigue? Plus, what to do about it?

The world is a maelstrom of choices. From smartphones, iPhone or Android, diets, primal or

paleo or vegan, cars, electric or gasoline, SUV or sedan, health plans, PPO, HMO, or

health savings account, to entertainment, TV or Twitter, or YouTube, or Xbox, or Netflix,

we've never had more options from which to choose.

This is supposed to be a good thing. It's supposed to be liberating.

Having more options is supposed to help us make better decisions, but in reality,

something called decision fatigue gets in the way. A recent study examining the factors determining the

outcome of parole hearings illustrates this concept. All of the things you'd imagine determined a parole decision,

the nature of the crime, the history of the criminal, laws broken, had little to no impact on the

outcome of the hearing. The likelihood that a criminal received parole depended primarily on one

variable, the time of day the hearing was held.

Early morning hearings were more likely to decide in favor of the criminal.

Hearings held just before lunch were more likely to decide against parole.

Immediately after lunch, it switched back.

The judges were more likely to grant parole.

As late afternoon approached, they again grew more likely to deny parole.

What gives?

The judges were burning through their decision capacity.

Making decisions is like using a muscle. You get fatigued. Granting parole is a harder

decision because it takes more brain power. If your decision muscles are exhausted, it's easier and

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