Life can be like a massive shopping carts. We fill it with experiences, products, people, memories, food, drink, laughter and sorrow. These items in our carts sometimes are easy to find and sometimes are hidden deep underneath a bunch of other crap we either didn’t need in the first place or that we used and have no need for. And this works across three dimensions. Physical, mind and digital. Managing this cart can either make our lives easier or more difficult. To make things easier we look for sensible defaults. These are knowing traits that address our current, immediate needs. Finding our sensible defaults means that we are not overwhelmed or distracted. Our cart is lighter.

At the start of our journey, our tastes are immature. We’ve not really had the time to sample things to see what we like and what we definitely don’t like. There is a period of exploration that precedes settling on the thing that makes the most sense, most of the time, for the time. Life doesn’t need to be heavily spiced. Equally when it does not have enough spice, it becomes bland. Sensible defaults let you reach a sweet spot of balance.

A sensible default is a the steady state we reach after experimentation. As we grow older, we begin to settle into place. Our go to wine. Our favourite type of slipper. The optimal notebook. Sensible defaults allow us to spend less time feeling cheated by something that is not meant for us.