Choicetech, Choice Inflation, and the Disappearing Defaults of Modern Life

Think about how often you get stuck on simple decisions: What to watch tonight, what to eat for lunch, whether to swipe left or right. Netflix queues, cereal aisles, and dating apps all promise to make life better, yet they bury us under endless options. These aren’t just small annoyances. They point to a bigger reality: we’re living in a world where the very tools meant to expand our choices also flood us with information, leaving us stretched thin.

And the stakes are high. This flood of options doesn’t just slow us down; it drives burnout, pushes us toward whatever the algorithm favors, and leaves us drowning in information overload while constantly reinventing routines that used to run on autopilot. Our ability to decide well is under pressure every single day. But this moment also carries possibility: it gives us a chance to question old patterns that never served us and experiment with new ways of living that might work better.

In this essay, I’ll explore four forces shaping that pressure: choicetech, choice inflation, information overload, and decision fatigue. You may not have heard of the first two before—that’s because I coined them through Remake The Rules to name dynamics that are everywhere but rarely recognized. We’ll look at how each one works, how they feed into each other, and why they matter for the way we live and work. Naming them isn’t just an academic exercise—it’s a way of giving ourselves power. When we can see these forces clearly, we can begin to work with them instead of against them.