Original thoughts have terrible UX

Sunil Pai argues that producing original thoughts is a costly, low-return activity: ideas may arrive spontaneously but require days of attention to understand, shape, and test, with no guarantee they’re useful. He contrasts that slog with the ease of adopting ready-made opinions - available instantly, already tested by others, and carrying built-in social benefits such as an audience, shared vocabulary, and predictable engagement. That instantaneous adoption is framed as economically rational because it saves time and delivers the same social payoff as laboriously crafted originality.

He drills into the downsides that make originality a bad product: it doesn’t scale, each new idea demands fresh investment and ongoing maintenance, and discovering a flaw forces broad re-evaluation. His proposed remedy is radical standardization: a small set of trusted opinion providers who curate perspectives across topics so people can subscribe and receive immediate, pre-packaged stances - essentially outsourcing thought. The piece closes with a mordant decision to stop forming personal opinions, presented in a sharp, ironic tone that highlights efficiency, social signaling, and the mental overhead of independent thinking.