"I wish I was a slave to an age old trade, like riding around on railcars and workin' long days" ("Down in the Valley" by The Head and The Heart)
Let me know if this sounds familiar: you want to go out to eat so you look up restaurants near you and there are way too many to choose from so you just end up eating takeout from the same place that you always go instead of trying to make that impossible decision. Or maybe you actually do go out and try a new restaurant. You walk in, sit down and one look at the menu makes you panic. There are so many options that you cant possibly decide, and then the waiter lists off the specials in addition to that, and you have to decide what to drink and what sides you want and how you want it cooked, and there seems to be a million options at every step. Sound familiar? What you've just experienced is choice overload.
That's the idea that too many options paralyzes us, and it often does. I was out to lunch with my friend where he ordered the same thing as he did last time and he told me later, "I wish I had ordered something new, but there were just too many options." Too many options seems to be the motto of American life. We have too many options for cars, food, education, majors, schools, electronics, music, movies, seemingly everything, and that's what makes it all one big joke. Having choices does not make us happier, in fact the exact opposite is true.
People in third world countries are much happier than we are because they have fewer choices to make. This is a well documented phenomenon and research shows that people with fewer important choices are much happier. Which takes us back to the lyrics I started this article with, "I wish I was a slave to an age old trade..." these people do not have to make decisions about their career, or their major, or worry about if they will hate their job because that decision has already been made for them from the time they are born.
In most third world countries people simply do what their parents did. They are farmers because their fathers were farmers because their fathers were farmers and they wouldn't want it any other way. A college student choosing their major and career plan is arguably the most difficult, and stressful decision that they have to make. There are just too many options and they all feel that they need the best possible one. So what is a solution to this issue?
In short, contentment. There are two kinds of people, those who are okay with meeting the requirements and those who must have the best option, i.e. those who just go to a new restaurant just because it sounds interesting versus those who research every restaurant and read all the reviews. Many studies show that those who are okay with just meeting the requirements are much happier than those who need the best option.
People who just meet the requirements, lets call them sufficientists are happier because the fact that there may be a better option doesn't worry them. Those who need the best possible option, maximalists, are constantly worried that maybe there was a better major they could've chosen, maybe there was a better career path they could've gone down, maybe there is a better restaurant to eat at, and they also worry much more about wasting their time on new experiences.
A maximalist will worry that if they go to a new place and they aren't entirely sure that it will be amazing, they will worry that they are wasting their time, whereas sufficientists are completely okay with trying new things knowing full well that they may not enjoy them.
Maximalists are too busy worrying about getting the best out of life to see that the sufficientists are already doing just that.
