βWe are our choices.β -Jean-Paul Sartre
Ok, time out. Β #ZachMorris
A few years ago, I read Kondo's international bestseller The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, her spiritual exploration of why you need a clean, de-cluttered house. Β Honestly, the only reason I read it was that it was December 31st, and I wanted to get one more book on my annual βBooks Iβve Readβ list, and this seemed like an easy read. Β I had zero intention of listening to what Kondo writes, but I got the gist: get rid of items in my home that do not spark joy.Β Β Β
In January 2023, Kondo gave an interview in The Washington Post where she said that being a parent of three children means that her house is now messier than ever before, and sheβs OK with that. Β Must be nice to confess this after selling 4 million books and getting two Netflix specials.
Ok, time in.
Β(The only thing Zach Morris and I have in common is that we both love Peter, Paul, and Mary.Β Look it up).
Iβm willing to give Kondo some slack on this hypocrisy, but the reality is that it is hard to give up our βstuff.β Β And, for some, itβs harder than others.
Take me. Β I love keeping my options open (have you seen my to-read pile recently?).Β Β I have 50 different blue shirts in my closet, over 300 podcasts saved on my Spotify account, and brought a bag of 10 different Haggadot to my sedarim this Pesah because I can never decide which one Iβll want to use.
Donβt judge me.Β My family loves me, even if they must tolerate the absurdityβ¦
But it turns out that if I was serious about optimization, I would embrace Kondoβs original message, hypocrisy or not.Β Turns out that there is a high cost when there are too many options.
Choice Overload
In Future Shock, Alvin Toffler imagines that βthe people of the future may suffer not from an absence of choice, but from a paralyzing surfeit
of it.β Β Somehow, in the future, we would have more choices than ever before, and be miserable because of it.Β Β ΒOverkill? Β Perhaps.Β But while Toffler was not a psychologist or an economist, his vision in Future Shock later became known as βchoice overload,β the idea that too many choices can lead to less satisfaction and decision paralysis. Β Ultimately, Tofflerβs dystopian vision later became backed by science.
Choice overload is a sibling of decision fatigue. Β If we assume that people become worse at making decisions when they must make too many decisions, it is almost axiomatic that offering too many choices will result in a similar problem, as choices are simply a series of options for a single decision.
A number of experiments have been done regarding choice overload, but my favorite is an experiment from Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper regarding jam in a grocery store.
Β Participants were given free samples of different varieties of jam along with a coupon to purchase one of the options later, only some participants had 6 choices of jam, and others had 24 options of jam. Β While more people sampled jam when presented with 24 options, more people bought jam when only presented with 6.Β ΒRegarding this experiment, Iyengar and Lepper argue that because βpeople seem to enjoy extensive-choice contexts more than limited-choice contexts, they may sometimes prefer to make available to themselves many more choices than they can possibly handle,β often resulting in a situation where βHaving unlimited optionsβ¦[leads] people to be more dissatisfied with the choices they make.β
The findings of Iyengar and Lepper are particularly important for people who make decisions for other Jews (i.e. almost all of the readers of this newsletter).Β Β While Jews-in-the-pews may claim that they want their synagogue, day school, JCC, etc. to offer as many options as possible, the evidence suggests that offering too many options can result in people choosing nothing at all, or choosing something, but being dissatisfied with the choice. Β No matter where you serve, thatβs bad for Jewish organizations and Jewish people.
That said, people will always claim to want more options, which creates a kind of paradox. Β Offer too little, and people will feel that their needs are not being met.Β Offer too much, and decision paralysis takes over.
The Paradox of Choice
Barry Schwartzβs The Paradox of Choice is by far the best introduction to choice overload (and if youβd prefer a video, you can watch his TED Talk).
Schwartz argues that people fall on a range in terms of how much they want a choice to be the perfect one, identifying those who want the greatest number of options as βmaximizersβ and those who are OK with the good enough option as βsatisficerβ (economist Herbert A. Simon coined the latter term.)Β Β A maximizer is a person who will βseek and accept only the best,β whereas a satisficer βhas criteria and standardsβ but will βsettle for something that is good enough and not worry about the possibility that there might be something better.β
While one might have a visceral reaction to the idea that the βgood enoughβ option is actually the better choice, Schwartz utilizes Simonβs work to point out that, all things considered, choosing the good enough option is actually βthe maximizing strategy.β
Β If someone spends hours upon hours doing research about every possible option without making a decision, they might become an expert on the options at the end of the process, but in all likelihood, they will be βnagged by the options they havenβt had time to investigateβ and are βlikely to get less satisfaction out of the exquisite choices they make.βReturning to the Jewish world, this makes me wonder if perhaps we are too dismissive of a βgood enoughβ Jewish institution. Most Jews are not maximizers when looking for Jewish life; they are not looking for an institution that fulfills all of their dreams but rather are satisficers who want something good enough (i.e. does this institution meet tangible needs?). For example, a parent looking for a congregational school is generally not going to make their choice based on whether or not that school was featured in Slingshot, but whether or not the school meets their childcare and transportation needs.
However, most decision-makers in the Jewish Community are maximizers and are diligent when making personal and familial decisions about synagogues, day schools, camps, and so on. Of course, there is nothing wrong with being a maximizer in your own life, but perhaps there are unintended consequences when a decision-maker imposes their personal standards on the broader population.
This tension is yet another reason why data is important because an aggregate number provides someone with a concrete idea of what βgood enoughβ might be. Β Unless one wants to be paralyzed by too many decisions, figure out a benchmark for βgood enough,β and when you reach it, make sure you stay there.Β Because if you worry too much about every decision, or wait for perfect data, you will be waiting forever.
Like many psychologists, Schwartz created a test to see where on the maximization scale you fall, which you can take by clicking on this link. Β Donβt worry about searching for other options. Β This one is good enoughβ¦
Katy Milkman AND Barry Schwartz?Β
The Easiest Choice I Made This Week.
Weekly Links
Remember that Photo of Pope Francis?:
Honestly, I thought it was real. Β Iβm not that bright. Β Hereβs an article and podcast on why so many were fooled (sorry for those who still think itβs a real photo).The Data Delusion: Moneyball is about a way of thinking, not blind fidelity to doing whatever the numbers tell you. Β Jill Lepore has an excellent piece in The New Yorker about the pitfalls of the temptation of blind adherence to data.
Research Proves Your Brain Needs Breaks: Brain scans show that sitting in too many meetings has had an adverse effect on our minds, and Microsoft has excellent research providing yet another example of why our minds need regular breaks.Β Read both.
Trans People Deserve Better Journalism: Iβm unequivocal in my support of the rights of transgender people, and many media sources have aided those who wish to spread hateful lies and myths due to a bias toward fairness that hurts real people. Β Vox has a devastating article that everyone needs to read.
The Anatomy of Work- Global Index: Iβm an Asana devotee, and like many productivity apps Asana collects research on work.Β Hereβs their latest research.
Props to my former boss Leslie Lichter, who first told me the quote, βThe food was terrible, and there wasnβt enough of it.β Itβs still one of my favorites to describe how contradictory feedback can be.
I always wanted to do that.Β Just like Zach Morris, who once skipped school to go to a Dodgers game by pretending he was Jewishβ¦
NERD ALERT: How did Saved by the Bell go from Indiana in the first season to California in the second season with most of the same characters, minus Ms. Bliss?Β The world will never knowβ¦
Frankly, I had to look up βsurfeitβ in the dictionary when I first read this passage. Β Donβt judge me.Β Surfeit means βexcessβ or an βexcessive amount.β
Alvin Toffler, Future Shock (New York: Bantam Books, 1970), 264.
Sheena S. Iyengar and Mark R. Lepper, βWhen Choice is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing?,β in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Volume 79, Number 6 (2000), 995-1006.
Ibid., 998.
Ibid., 1004.
Barry Schwartz, The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less (New York: HarperCollins, 2009), 77.
Ibid., 78.
Ibid.
If you want to read more about this, I would highly encourage you to read Carmel U. Chiswickβs Judaism in Transition: How Economic Choices Shape Religious Tradition.
The photo was originally created by Pablo Xavier, and created using software called MidJourney. Letβs give credit where credit is due.