What is Hick's law and how does it relate to too many options in a UI?

Hick's law (Hyman–Hick) is a model from decision science: the time to choose among n equally probable alternatives grows with the logarithm of the number of options, roughly speaking. In product design, the lesson is: reduce simultaneous choices, use smart defaults, group options into scannable categories, and surface recommendations. A pricing table with 12 nearly identical plans is worse than 3 with clear differentiators. Search and filter change the model, but a long flat list of radio buttons is still a Hick problem. The law is a tendency, not a law of physics, but interviewers use it to see if you think about choice overload, defaults, and progressive disclosure together.

3 plans, clear names
vs
12 plans, same price column
# cut or tier + 'contact sales'

Start simple: try this concept in a tiny project before moving to advanced tools.