Decision Fatigue (2011)

My applied takeaway:

> “Good decision making is not a trait of the person, in the sense that it’s always there,” Baumeister says. “It’s a state that fluctuates.” His studies show that people with the best self-control are the ones who structure their lives so as to conserve willpower. They don’t schedule endless back-to-back meetings. They avoid temptations like all-you-can-eat buffets, and they establish habits that eliminate the mental effort of making choices. Instead of deciding every morning whether or not to force themselves to exercise, they set up regular appointments to work out with a friend. Instead of counting on willpower to remain robust all day, they conserve it so that it’s available for emergencies and important decisions.

I wonder what effect this has on YC interview decision making.

Would be great to do an analysis on the acceptance rate in the morning or just after the break vs later in the day and see if there are significant deviations in the rate.

NYTimes.com wants to Download multiple files? WTF?

Gist of the download: https://gist.github.com/selfcommit/fba6d3c38b6365625bce