One dimension of our personal and professional lives, which does not receive the attention it deserves is decisions made when people hit the “low road”.

There are three kinds of low road decisions I would like to explore: emotional low road decisions, AI low road decisions and digital low road decisions.

Let’s start with emotional low road decisions.

Be it the decision to attend a party in the wrong island with the wrong people, the decision to invade a country, the decision to invite investors to fund your business, the decision to get into a relationship, to break up from a relationship, many people take emotional low road decisions.

“Emotional low road decisions” are decisions without impulse-control, out of anger, with inadequate emotional regulation and self-regulation, based on overconfidence, overestimation of one’s abilities, underestimation of consequences, distorted perception of reality, poor empathy, moral licensing, a sense of infallibility and so on.

All of these are rich in emotional data. Unfortunately, many do not access this emotional data or pay attention to it. The inability to be aware of, access and use emotional data reflect poor emotional intelligence. (Which is different from being emotional. One is to be hijacked by emotions and the other is to be informed by emotions.)

Let us now look at another rapidly evolving global development: the “AI low road”.

Blindly following AI is in no way different from being blindly led by one’s emotions.

Because, when you blindly follow AI, you are stopping to apply your own thinking, not testing hard realities, listen to your contextual and native intelligence, ascribe more to AI and its abilities than it deserves. To surrender to “AI said so” is a low road too.

Finally, as we discuss the subject of mental health in the life of millennials and gen zs today, it can often be traced back what I would like to call emotion led decisions made from the “digital low road”.

One dimension of this digital low road is succumbing to the algorithmic influence or believing what you see or what is amplified or what bombards you and deciding on that basis.

The other dimension of the “digital low road” is decisions made from the pressure of social comparison (likes, comments, and perceived popularity that shapes choices, often subconsciously)

Then there are decisions made from the fear of missing out rather than thoughtful choices.

This low road can run contrary to the popular belief that millennials and gen Zs have a mind of their own. It takes a lot of emotional intelligence to be reflective, question things, discern the intrinsic value and of course not be addicted to the overload of information and stimulation.

For these reasons, it is my belief that decision making will emerge as the most critical dimension of life skills in the decades ahead.

Youtube: https://youtu.be/zOgyf5L5RSo