Acronyms

And their implications for decision-making

Behavioral New World

May 1, 2025

Acronym month

FOMO: Fear Of Missing Out. I think we’ve all experienced this type of anxiety from time to time. Have I overlooked a good concert? Am I unaware of a community giveaway of trees on Arbor Day? Did I miss an email inviting me to a surprise party for a close friend? Did I forget to buy Polaroid at 8 ½? (Sorry, couldn’t resist that one from an old movie.)

And it is not just that we fear missing a good time (or a good investment). Recent research (link) shows that we can feel FOMO even about an event that is not fun. The authors write:

In our research, we focus on a very specific type of FOMO: the kind that occurs when people miss out on events that involve valued social connections.

With this kind of FOMO, we found that the pain of missing out is not related to missing the actual event or opportunity – although that could be there as well. The FOMO we study happens when people miss the chance to bond with friends, co-workers or teammates they care about.

How to combat FOMO? Conventional advice (link) focuses on being in the present moment (a good idea in general) as much as possible. Getting off social media and building idle time into your schedule (per last month’s newsletter; link here) are good places to start.

In addition, FOMO arises from the specific fear of missing valued social connections, the authors cited above suggest reminding yourself of the last time you experienced social connections; it might give you a sense of security that will mitigate your anxiety.

FOBO: Fear Of a Better Option is “the anxiety that something better will come along, which makes it undesirable to commit to existing choices when making a decision,” author and venture capitalist Patrick McGinnis told HuffPost. “This specifically refers to decisions where there are perfectly acceptable options in front of us, yet we struggle to choose just one.”

Although there is overlap between FOMO and FOBO, I don’t see them as quite the same thing. Specifically, FOBO involves having a specific option in mind or already in hand, e.g., a new car. The FOBO is that somewhere, there might be a better car. In contrast, FOMO often involves situations or events that may or may not occur.

What can be done to minimize FOBO? Consider the difference between “maximizers” and “satisficers” (the latter term coined by Herbert Simon, Nobel prize winner). Maximizers are like perfectionists—they want to examine every possibility and consider all their options. They want to make THE ABSOLUTE BEST CHOICE.

What’s wrong with that? First, there still may be anxiety—have I’ve done everything I could before making this decision? What if I’m making a suboptimal choice? Second, the best choice might not be much better than the next-best choice. Here, there’s been a lot of time and energy invested in not much improvement of the decision.

In contrast, satisficers settle for “good enough.” That doesn’t necessarily mean low standards—what’s good enough for brain surgery is a very high bar. What vegetable to cook for dinner, well, that really doesn’t matter that much. As Voltaire said, “Perfect is the enemy of good.”

Why is the distinction between maximizers and satisficers important? Simple: satisficers make better decisions and are, on average, happier than maximizers (link).

So if you recognize that you have maximizer tendencies, try out satisficing. You might be pleasantly surprised.

YOLO: You Only Live Once. Both good news and bad news here. The good news: YOLO can lead you to be more “present-moment” focused, and there are many benefits to that mindset (link). As the adage goes, “Don’t let the future steal your present.” And don’t let excessive rumination about the past steal your present either.

The bad news: A YOLO mindset increases your propensity to make riskier investment decisions (link), which might or might not be appropriate. Especially if coupled with overconfidence, the outcomes could be disastrous. “Let’s invest our life savings in the next meme coin that is issued”—probably not a good idea.[1]

So YOLO is inherently neither good nor bad. You need to reflect on how it is working for you and how it is working against you.

LOCO: Love Of Chillin’ Out (I just made that up, you heard it here first.) Per last month’s newsletter (link), downtime is good for your mental health and creativity. Going a little loco is good for you 😊.

BOGO. Buy One Get One. BOGO has little to do with decision-making beyond perhaps getting a good bargain, but I thought I’d mention it anyway. And I’ve always wondered where the “Free” is; shouldn’t it be BOGOF?

Readers: Care to make up an acronym of your own? Feel free to leave in the Comments section. Don’t miss out!

TTFN

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[1] Looking beyond investment decisions, I’m reminded of the joke, “If at first you don’t succeed, don’t try skydiving.”