Many times you are faced with so many choices or simply two but the final decision is so hard that you get frustrated!
At least now you have a name for it! The Buridan’s donkey (or Buridan’s ass)!
By the way even that may not be the first CHOICE for originality since a similar conflict was mentioned before!
Now the Buridan’s donkey (or Buridan’s ass!) is a famous philosophical thought experiment about free will, rational decision-making, and paralyzing indecision.
The original analogy describes a hungry donkey placed exactly midway between two identical piles of hay!
Then comes the conflict! Because the donkey is completely rational and sees no reason to choose one pile over the other, it cannot make a choice!
Unable to decide, the donkey stays still and starves to death!
The average young man or woman also faces the same choice between two (or more!) eligible men or women and fails to make a choice and misses the bus eventually! Becoming a Buridan’s ass!
Similar ideas were discussed much earlier by philosophers like Aristotle who used examples of a person stuck between equally appealing food and drink!
The concept was used to mock or debate moral determinism, showing how a totally rational agent might fail to act without a distinct preference or external push!
We also act like Buridan’s ass most of the times!
We are the generation with the Infinite Menu and choices!
Streaming platforms, online shopping, and career paths offer millions of nearly identical choices, turning simple decisions into exhausting mental hurdles! Plus the added regret when you do make a choice and regret or do not make it an regret even more!
The Illusion of Optimization or perfection!
People freeze trying to find the single “perfect” choice, fearing that picking wrong means missing out on an optimal life!
Just like the logical donkey, over-analyzing pros and cons triggers stress in the brain, making doing nothing feel safer than making a move!
So how do you break the Modern Deadlock?
Best is to simply flip a coin! Or picking at random breaks the trap of trying to logically differentiate identical options!
Setting hard personal limits—like a time limit or a budget—reduces the field of choices instantly.
Finally accept “Good Enough”! The single act of giving up the search for perfection allows you to commit, act, and move forward with life!
Nothing is perfect! Even life! Accept life and decisions along with its imperfections!
Classical Indian schools of thought (such as Nyaya, Vedanta, or Buddhism) analyze motivation (iccha), volition (kriti or prayatna), and action (karma), but they frame decision-making through causal inputs and psychological karma rather than symmetrical logical paralysis!
So do not be an ASS of the Buridan! Make a choice!
Then again if you want to choose some old song to listen then you can simply MUKESH it!
And sleep well!
Shubh ratri!
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