#fobo

#fobo

"FOBO, or 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." McGinnis coined the term FOBO, as well as FOMO, back in 2004 when he was a student at Harvard Business School and wrote an article titled "Social Theory at HBS: McGinnis' Two FOs." He believes that FOBO is "an affliction of abundance." Our on-demand world overwhelms us with seemingly endless choices, thus compelling us to keep all our options open and hedge our bets.

Lately, I have been feeling a little FOBO. With the rise of AI, I worry about my contribution to the field. My FOBO stems from another FOBO: If my clients and my editor start opting for better, faster, and cheaper options, what happens to me? I can feel my FOBLO rising. Given my FOPO, my FOMU will probably trigger FODA. I won't change, I won't adapt, I won't do anything, leaving me with full-blown FOBA in a world that has already moved on.