Optimize

Consider three brief scenes:

• A parent dutifully sleeps in her car so that she preserves a spot in a renowned private pre-school for her 3 year old.
• A man spends several hours on the Internet researching which dishwasher to buy for his home.
• A couple drives an extra 10 miles to Wegmans to purchase just the right type of organic carrots.

If there is one piece of advice that the modern mind should heed in organizing its day to day affairs, it is this: Stop optimizing. Know when you are spending too much time trying to make 85% effective into 87% effective. Consider the first scene -- study after study show that where your kids go to preschool, or even whether they go to preschool, doesn't mean squat as to their ultimate academic performance or, more importantly, happiness. In that case, you're just working to make 87% become 87%.

As for the second scene, the reality is that the dishwashers are all about the same, and the "features" you'll be poring over on the Internet are probably just price discrimination gimmicks. You're much better off limiting yourself to fifteen minutes of selection time and spending those hours you saved cooking a good meal with your family.

And that brings us to the third example. It's friggin' carrots, and it's just a grocery store. They're probably gonna be boiled or something anyway. Organic food is just another price discrimination gimmick too.

Why do people do this? First, some explanation of what is meant by the "modern mind." Basically it means middle to upper class people in the United States who have way too much liesure time. The observation still holds for poor people who have little liesure time and money, as they are prone to optimizing too, and it's more serious for them because they can't often afford the mistake of spending an extra $250 on that dishwasher with spot remover. But it mainly addresses those with the means to afford choice.

Those folks do it because their brains are wired and trained to be very analytical, usually. You know the type: lawyers, stock brockers, politicians, professors, etc. They spend most of their professional lives becoming really good at sorting through a mass of information to find the essential points and then synthesizing those essential nuggets into a plan of action for the future. It really is what makes humans kick ass. And it's addictively enjoyable to do.

But it really is overkill for picking carrots, dishwashers and preschools. You're just playing around then, and wasting time and energy. Put the cool brain tools away for once and just "fire and forget", then focus on something meaningful, like helping your kid write a story.

Another good example here via here