Life is about choices: Do you want to eat a green salad or a burger? Should you buy the red cardigan or the blue one?
Some of these choices are easy to make, but there are others you should take your time to think about. The modern world offers us too many choices and it can be hard to choose among so many options. Although some can handle this overload of choices, others become paralyzed by them, unable to choose among the simplest options. Now, there is a new term to describe this paralysis: Fear of Better Options, or in short FOBO.
New York-based venture capitalist and author Patrick McGinnis came up with this term and defines it as “the insidious twin of FOMO (fear of missing out). It keeps you from committing to any choice in case another, more optimal opportunity comes along.”
People suffering from FOBO fear that whatever they choose, there is always a chance they are not making the better choice. The more choices you have, the more you have to think about when trying to make a decision. People with FOBO think, what if I choose the wrong thing or what if something better comes along the second, hour, day, or month I just opted for something else?
Experts believe that FOBO is triggered and has developed into a social behavior because of technology and the internet, since people are now comparing their choices with a larger pool of others.
