Hello all.

I'm looking for help/tips/advices on decision making because it's something I find very hard to do. I've probably spent more time in my life trying to decide what to read than reading, trying to decide what to play than playing, trying to decide what to watch than watching, trying to decide what to listen to than listening, trying to decide what to learn than learning, trying to decide what to do than doing, etc...

I woke up this morning feeling like doing constructive like learning or starting a project. On the learning side there are various programming languages that I started learning and a couple of game engines, there is also re-learning all the math, physic and electronic I forgot in the last 30 years as well. On the project side I've got one of the first netbook that I'd like to convert in either a DOS machine or a BASIC machine (i.e. a machine's who's O.S. is BASIC like the old Commodore 8 BITs computers).

Some of those things are as easy to start as clicking a link to an ebook and continue where I left it, others depends on factors I know nothing about like can FREEDOS be installed as the main O.S. on a netbook and will I be able to access its full video and sound capacity? Same thing for Ethernet or WiFi but I can work without those.

Making the netbook into a BASIC computer might need me to learn x86 assembler for the boot loader and refresh my C for writing the Interpreter/OS. I think I can refresh my C knowledge on the job without having to re-learn it from scratch even if it's been over 10 years since I've done anything in C.

To show how bad I am at making decision here is something that happens often:
I spend hours in front of my video library without choosing anything in the end. Same thing with my GOG library.
I've been "interrogated" by librarian in public or school libraries before I spent so much time perusing the books without choosing anything, days after days, weeks after weeks,

Choices where there are only a few alternatives that aren't time consuming are easier, like choosing what to eat in a restaurant. Choosing the restaurant is another thing entirely.

I sometime wonder if this is a form of OCD.

If you don't have any advices but are like me than don't be afraid to contribute with your own stories of life in Choice Hell.

I'm kind of afraid if I threw some ideas at you, you'd have trouble choosing one.

I wanted to post a funny demotivational on the topic of choices, but couldn't decide on one...

:-/

Here you go -- problem solved! :-P

http://easydecisionmaker.com/

What the hell.

Seriously, guys. Can't you say "donkey" for "donkey" ? What's this "ass" thing ? It is very distracting.

I googled for an english entry about "l'âne de Buridan", and I found this.

A simple trick I know is to divide your choices into two groups, then flip a coin. When the choice is thus made for you, you may find yourself unhappy with the choice made for no particular reason you can discern. That's fine, just go with the other choice in that case. Repeat the process until you only have one choice left. It's an excellent way of forcing subconscious preferences to the surface. Of course, if you're happy with the choice that is made, just go with it.

Humans are creatures of habit, and we emulate what we see. Being bombarded by unnatural advertising imagery (of which we are subjected to by the thousands just walking around, not counting television and internet media ads) leaves us with an unreal view of how things in the world should be and how we perceive ourselves.

Also keep in mind that OCD is one of those made up afflictions (like restless leg syndrome) that the pharmaceutical companies use to brainwash us into believing that we need to take pills, pills and more pills.

Maybe it’s time to start teaching yourself to make those decisions? It’s a matter of conditioning, and breaking the old habits. If you work hard at changing habits, for about three months, you will begin to learn by rote (it starts to become second nature). Any can do this, try it and see.

Next time you are standing in front of your video library, pick out three movies you like, and then make a decision on just one to watch, or to watch all three in a certain order.

When starting larger projects, just weigh the time and effort it will take to complete it, and if that outcome is worth spending the time to work on it. Perhaps you will see that your efforts might be better spent doing something else.
Lastly, when there are things you know you absolutely have to get done, but can’t decide which to do first, make a short list and prioritize it by necessity.

Hope that helps. :)

Well, then for simple things use random.org :P

I do not want to start a debate in this thread but I fear that this might discourage some from participating. I just want to say that I disagree that OCD is a made up affliction. I won't post my reasons as this is not the point for this thread.

I’ll agree that OCD is certainly a symptom, and as such is a real thing, and also agree not to turn this thread towards a debate about such things.

I also hope you won’t let that statement overshadow the rest of my post as merely suggestions for your consideration of trying new approaches to your decision making dilemma.

I won't.

I don't know netbooks, but I assume that as long as it's x86 you can probably install freedos on it. A big problem is that DOS didn't have much in the way of device drivers, programs were written directly for specific hardware and I doubt that your netbook has a soundblaster, for instance. If you were prepared to program on the level of device drivers (and if you're thinking BASIC, you probably aren't), then you might be able to get some voices out of it from your own programs, but no original software would play anything.

As far as strange ideas go, you could perhaps fake something like it by running DOSBox on Linux. You could probably even have it automatically start it at boot so that it gets you right to the dos prompt. I'm not sure why you'd want to do this, though, and it might not be what you want anyway. Dosbox is basically just meant for games, it's not a realistic virtual machine where you'd tweak config.sys etc.

I can relate, somehow. So recently I figured this one out:
when there are no valid striking arguments for one or the other thing, I am obviously neither in control of enough information to make a profound decision nor will I be so in the near future. So any pondering about the topic is futile. Accepting this makes it easy to just take the first option, let someone else decide for you or even let a random number generator do the job.

A small comment here. There is a difference between and [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsessive%E2%80%93compulsive_personality_disorder]OCPD. Many people confuse the two though, thus leading to even more confusion.

Indeed, yet the two are interconnected, ultimately responses to being overloaded by stimulating influences. Let's just say I've had my own personal experiences with such issues. ;)

I would also add, from a philosophical perspective, the Symptoms listed for the OCPD wiki are the same or similar to issues caused by an adherence to an ideology (the enslavement of thought).

Still this doesn’t help the OP (original poster of Thread ) in finding ways to approach decisions in a new light.

So, another idea for the OP. Before going to the library to choose a book, how about deciding on a Theme first, or a specific author, as examples, you might decide that you want to read a good Detective Mystery, or want to read some of Arthur C. Clarke’s works. The Theme will get you halfway there, and maybe that will be enough. The same might work for picking a movie (or three).

Every journey (or adventure) starts by taking the first few steps...