Fake Buttons

A lot of toys for babies and toddlers just have a bunch of satisfying little knobs, buttons, and levers to mess with. They don’t do anything except provide some tactile feedback, but that’s plenty! Plenty of adult toys do this, too. I have a little “fidget cube” at my desk that’s just what it sounds like: a palm-sized cube with a different kind of button or switch on each side, to just fiddle with when I’m deep in thought.

Of course, as an adult, I at least know those buttons are fake. But like the toddlers, it seems like many adults don’t realize just how many buttons they’re pushing in their lives don’t do anything.

My father used to point to the “Push to Walk” buttons at crosswalks and say: “Do you know what that button is for? To give you something to do while you wait for the sign to change on its own.” (Of course, that isn’t true, though it is true that most of those buttons don’t work; they’re relics from when most crosswalks weren’t automated. Now that they are, the buttons are vestigial and truly don’t do anything, but they weren’t installed just to give you something to do.)

I read a lot about how to make better decisions. I read books on economics, psychology, statistics, and pretty much anything that addresses the mechanics of how humans make decisions. Most of my work is helping people make better decisions, so I’d better be good at it – though the reason my work appeals to me is that the question of human decision-making is fascinating to me to begin with.

I say that because after all my study, all my applied work, and all my experience in this field, I can confidently say that a sure path for most people to make better decisions is to make fewer of them.

Your mental energy and attention are finite resources. Likewise, your ability to learn from past decisions requires that the results of those decisions… well, actually result from the decisions you’re making. And both of those things are harmed by pushing a bunch of fake buttons, which is what most people do all day.

We are fooled (by a variety of intentional and unintentional features of modern life) into thinking that we have agency over a great many things that we do not, in fact, have any agency over. So first, we waste time making decisions about that thing (depleting our mental resources), and then later, we incorrectly attribute some future effect to being the result of that decision, clouding our judgment further about decisions we will be asked to make later.

Now, I’m going to give you a very controversial example and do something that I almost never do on this blog: talk a little about politics.

The example is this: I live in a very, very partisan state in the United States. In national elections, states like mine are called ‘reliable.’ There is zero chance that my state will deviate from the political party it has supported for ages in the upcoming national election for President of the United States. Given that condition and the rules of that election in this country, the absolute most sensible and rational thing for me to do is not only not vote, but to not even care or pay attention to it.

I can feel people’s hackles getting raised as I say it. People don’t like that, I’ve found. Hence why I don’t normally talk about it.

“But it affects you!” they cry. Sure, but that’s not the question. The question is: Can I affect it? And since the answer is no, why waste the mental effort?

“What if everyone felt that way?” Then the starting conditions would be different, and a different choice would be rational. I’m not exploring hypotheticals, I’m making good decisions based on the true and actual conditions of my life.

My small town has local elections. About 200 people vote in them, give or take. If I round up a few of my buddies and cousins, we can go make a major swing in that election. I can also go to town meetings (or just the local bar) and talk to most of those 200 people, too. At the local level, things affect me and I affect them, so it’s sensible to pay attention and care. That’s me being a wise shepherd of my limited resources for good decision-making.

At the national level, not at all. But here’s what happens: national politics (which actually has far less of a direct effect on your day-to-day life than various influences want you to believe) consumes your attention. You are cajoled into caring about it, goaded into expending limited mental energy trying to decide things about it. Forming and debating and defending opinions about it. Caring about it at the expense of something else. And then putting in the effort to vote. In real terms, you’re doing as much to affect the universe as that toddler with the big plastic button toy or me with my fidget cube. But you think that decision – your individual decision to pull a lever – had a profound effect on the world. If your guy wins, part of your brain attributes that to your actions. If life is generally good for you in the next four years, that same part of your brain will link that to the decision you made. That link will be utterly false, but it will further reinforce that you should do it again, like a mouse hitting a button and getting cheese.

Now, this isn’t just about politics, so I’m going to leave that be. But energy-draining and confusing Fake Buttons are everywhere. There are a thousand Fake Buttons on the dashboard of “Being a Good Parent,” and about 3 real ones. We get so distracted by all the fake ones that we don’t have the energy or knowledge to press the real ones at the right times.

There are a thousand Fake Buttons on the dashboard of “Making Healthy Dietary Choices” and about 3 real ones. Every weird label and misleading claim and bullshit statistic on an advertisement in the grocery store makes you think that your life will be dramatically different if you just tweak this level of this one weird protein or something, but they won’t add a second to your lifespan. What they will do is distract you from the basic concepts of good nutrition and exercise.

It goes on and on and on. Most decisions in your life are Fake Buttons. Most things either don’t matter at all, or they do matter but you can’t meaningfully affect them. But you sure can stress yourself out all the time! And you can cloud your judgment and deplete your mental resources so when you do get to those real, important decisions you either miss them or make bad ones.

“Go with the flow” is actually really excellent advice if you want to make better decisions in your life. Try it this week. Pick something you normally stress or obsess over and see what happens if you just stop thinking about it entirely. I’m willing to bet that the answer is nothing at all. I’m willing to bet, in fact, that if you stop pushing that particular button, the crosswalk will change all on its own.