Decision Paralysis
Anti-pattern: when given equally-weighted conflicting goals, the agent either gets stuck trying to satisfy all simultaneously or oscillates between solutions without converging — the most common LLM response to genuine goal conflicts.
Problem
The LLM, lacking the human contextual judgment to weigh competing objectives, never converges. It produces partial / oscillating outputs, or it appears to commit but the output violates each objective in turn. Distinct from infinite-debate (multi-agent), unbounded-loop (control-flow), or stop-cancel (no termination): this is cognitive paralysis on single-agent multi-objective input.
Solution
Pair with: priority-matrix-conflict-resolution (the resolution pattern), conflict-competency-gap (the underlying architectural limitation). Detect goal conflicts at request-construction time and reject or auto-resolve via the matrix.
When to use
- Never. Cite when reviewing agents given equally-weighted multi-objective input.
- Surface as a known failure mode in design reviews.
- Pair detection with Priority Matrix routing.
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