Saturday, February 19, 2022

Analysis Paralysis and the Paradox of Choice

What do you do when there are so many choices, and many of them are good things?

For example, on Netflix right now, there are so many interesting-looking series and movies that it's hard to decide what to watch next. "What if I pick the wrong one? What if I pick one and it's good, but I miss out on something better? What's my filter for deciding?"

Of course, that same indecision plagues us in many arenas of life. "I have some free time this afternoon - what do I do with it? Do I spend time with friends? Catch up on housework? Clean my room/office/garage? Spend time on a hobby? Read a book? Watch TV? Go to a movie? Write a blog post?"

And then you spend so much time trying to decide, you end up wasting the afternoon. By default you narrow your choices: "No time to do that now. What choices are left?

It's a problem that previous generations didn't really have to deal with the way we do.

It ends up being a question of priorities. But that's something we don't usually spend a lot of time thinking about.

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