We’re Drowning in Choices and It’s Killing Our Productivity
How to avoid overwhelming options from shortcircuiting our brains.
It’s 2019 and we have options for every single facet of our lives. We have more choices than ever before in recorded human history.
From the shows we watch, to the food we eat, to the friends we make, to the partners we choose, we have more access to options than people could have thought feasible even twenty years ago.
Here’s an interesting conundrum: logic tells us that the more options we have, the more likely we are to reach that perfect, idealized life where we’ve customized every aspect of our existence to suit us perfectly.
“It is another truism, in the developed, Western world, that more freedom brings more wellbeing, and that more choice brings more freedom.” — Barry Schwartz, psychologist and professor of social theory
But we’re not logical beings. Human brains are not perfect reasoning machines who can input unlimited amounts of data, and output the perfect answer. In reality, too much choice has been demonstrated to reduce our happiness, increase our stress, and, in economic terms, reduce…
