Random Decision Maker

This random decision maker will give you a perfectly random response to any question you might have. Please note this is just for fun – don’t use this tool to make any major life decisions.

I created this little random decision app to generate a variety of interesting response along with the usual yes, no, and maybe type of answers. This decision maker is just for entertainment purposes but hopefully some of these answers I picked are illuminating to the problem at hand.

I certainly had fun making this thing and I hope you have fun using it figure out how to make simple yes or no type of decisions. It works similarly to something like a Magic 8-Ball but with different answers from that "fortune-telling" toy.

How to use the Random Decision Maker

It's super easy to use, just think about your question and then push the button to generate an answer to your dilemma. The answer will appear immediately in the box just above the button.

What is your question?

Think clearly about your question and then click the Make a Decision button.

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Making Decisions with Randomness

Taking a walk and letting the traffic lights determine where your walk goes is a perfectly harmless way to use randomness - depending on how safe your neighborhood is.

Using it for more complex decisions should be approached with far more caution. If you are really torn between two decisions, sometimes flipping a coin for a choice can be helpful. The answer often becomes apparent during the flip.

The pressure of an imminent decision being decided by the coin often makes your brain focus and deliver an answer. It’s a little psychological trick that can help you decide between two options.

Ways to Make Decisions

One of the important factors in making a decision is figuring out what you’re really thinking. Here are a couple suggestions to keep in mind when weighing options.

1. Ask the Lazy Question. You just sat down at the table to have supper and you briefly think about how the food would go well with hot sauce but you decide not to get up and get it. The question you should ask yourself before making that decision is “Am I being lazy?” In other words am I rationalizing my decision and saying I don’t need the hot sauce or am I just being too lazy to get up and walk ten feet?
   
   If the answer comes back as “being lazy” then make your decision be the one that isn’t lazy. Make it be the decision you really want but requires some effort. This question can surprisingly apply to lots of different situations.
   
   
2. Long Term vs Short Term Decisions. One of the ways in which we sometimes make wrong decisions is in choosing the option that delivers quick results instead of choosing the answer that delivers better results but on a much longer time frame. Sometimes you need to be able to move towards something without reward for a long time. Again, making your inner dialogue clearer will help here.

Being able to see your own thought process and navigate that decision tree efficiently will help you make better decisions. Decision often don’t rely on facts but instead they rely on clarifying how we really feel about the facts of the situation. I hope between this advice and the random decision maker you come to a reasonable conclusion.

Language Versions

Random Decision Maker is also available in German (Zufallsgenerator), French (Décideur aléatoire) and Spanish (Tomador de Decisiones Aleatorio).