Have You Ever Been Paralyzed by Too Many Choices

3 minute read

In 2000, at a grocery store in Menlo Park, California, two researchers set up a jam-tasting booth.

Sheena Iyengar from Columbia University and Mark Lepper from Stanford University wanted to test a simple idea: Does more choice actually help us? Here’s what they did:

Day 1: They offered 24 different jams.

60% of shoppers stopped to taste.
Only 3% actually made a purchase.

Day 2: They offered just 6 jams.

Fewer people (40%) stopped.
But 30% made a purchase.

It was a striking result. Too many options attracted attention but reduced action. People froze. That’s called decision paralysis.

Why am I telling you this story?

Because that’s exactly how I felt during my first IEEE PES General Meeting (GM) in 2025.

My IEEE PES GM Experience

It was a 5-day trip. I was excited. I had two papers accepted - one from my work at EPRI on grid-forming inverter hardware validation, and another from my PhD research on reinforcement learning-based controller tuning.

The first day was packed with my presentations. The second and third? I had full freedom to explore panels, papers, and sessions.

But something unexpected happened.

Every hour, 15–20 sessions ran in parallel. My mind jumped from “should I attend the AI panel?” to “maybe the IBR session is better” to “wait, there’s one on DER hosting capacity.” It was overwhelming.

I ended up not attending many of them at all. I froze. I did exactly what the jam tasters did—stood there, confused.

Not because I didn’t care. But because I cared too much. I had too many interests—IBR, DER, grid stability, AI, RL, EMT simulation…

And that’s when I remembered the jam experiment.

Why Too Many Choices Hurt Us

This is the same reason:

You and I get stuck picking movies to watch.
Fonts in design tool make my design sessions 5x longer.
My wife asks me what dress to wear—and asks me back the same question.
Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg wore the same outfit every day: to reduce decision fatigue.

In fact, in a video by Johnny Harris, he explained how our ancestors - cave people- were happier in many ways. Fewer choices. Less exhaustion. More clarity.

Can AI Help?

During the conference, I kept thinking: What if I had an AI assistant to suggest sessions tailored to my interests? One that could:

Filter irrelevant sessions.
Highlight overlaps with my past research.
Show session popularity or relevance based on my work.

A startup idea maybe? Let’s call it: “Pathway” - Your Personal Guide to Information Overload.

Life Updates (While Writing This on a Plane Back to Knoxville)

Attended my first IEEE PES GM.
Two papers presented - one selected for best paper session.
Almost done building my Obsidian Starter Kit - to help you kickstart your second brain with proper templates and docs.
Built an AI chatbot that answers questions about my YouTube videos: what to watch, when, in what order.
Wrote and published 5+ blogs.
Bought a new camera and lens for streamlined video recording.
And this blog? I’m writing it at 35,000 feet, reflecting on what I missed - and why.

Your Turn

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by too many options?
How do you deal with decision fatigue—whether at conferences, during content creation, or just in daily life?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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👋 About Me

Hi, I’m Shuvangkar Das — a power systems researcher with a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, currently working as a Research Scientist. I work at the intersection of power electronics, inverter-based DERs (IBRs), and AI to help build smarter, greener, and more stable electric grids.

My work spans large-scale EMT simulations, firmware development, reinforcement learning, and hardware prototyping. Beyond engineering, I’m also a YouTuber and content creator — sharing hands-on insights on productivity, research, and knowledge management. My goal is simple: to make complex ideas more accessible and actionable for everyone.

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