Wouldn’t it be a great to have an infinite number of choices for each product you’d like to buy? For example, when you’re buying a car, wouldn’t it be nice if you could choose between twenty different ones that all fit your criteria?

The Problem

Ironically more and more research is beginning to show that giving people too many options causes them to be more stressed than if you give them just one or two. In fact, Barry Schwartz has written a whole book around this concept called The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less:

Autonomy and Freedom of choice are critical to our well being, and choice is critical to freedom and autonomy. Nonetheless, though modern Americans have more choice than any group of people ever has before, and thus, presumably, more freedom and autonomy, we don’t seem to be benefiting from it psychologically.
—quoted from Ch.5, "The Paradox of Choice", 2004

Consider the super-market. When I go to Dominick’s I get to choose from 10 different types of sugar. They’re all different brands, different sizes and different prices. To even determine which is the best value I have break out a calculator. I actually prefer Aldi’s where I have less choice because it just makes for much faster shopping trips!

The reason that I feel the need to compare every option is due to my personality. You see, dear reader, I’m a maximizer…

Two Types of People

According to Schwartz, the problem really boils down to the fact that there are two types of people in the world:

• Maximizers: Maximizers are the people that need to consider every possible choice before making the final decision. At the supermarket, they are the ones breaking out the calculators and trying to translate a pound to an ounce. It’s getting harder and harder to be a maximizer as more and more options for a given product exist. The web is making this even worse because there are websites devoted to nothing but hundreds of different types of beach towels. It’s easy to provide infinite choices within a niche when you aren’t required to keep inventory. Or consider digital cameras. You could spend a lifetime considering all the options. In fact, there are sites that specialize in just that.
• Satisficers:Satisficers aim for adequacy rather than trying to find perfection or the optimal solution. They are happy with something that is “good enough” and don’t feel the need to compare every option. As bad as this sounds (to a true maximizer like me), you will actually be happier and more efficient in your life if you are a satisficer rather than a maximizer.

These terms were originally coined by a researcher named Herbert Simon. He discovered was that humans lack the cognitive ability to compare every possible option and and outcome. We don’t have the true precision of mind that is necessary and our memories are flawed. According to Simon, we should take this into account when trying to make decisions and not try to come up with the “perfect” answer.

The Solution

So what is the solution if you are a born Maximizer and you just can’t accept second-best? Here are some techniques to make those of us maximizers a bit more like our satisficer brethren:

• Consider the Cost: There is an opportunity cost to all of that time that maximizers spend comparing options. If you take two days to look at all the digital cameras out there and in the end save $5, have you really made good use of your time? When I think about the cost of my time that often helps me to make quicker decisions and reduce my tendency to try and compare all the options.
• Timeboxing: Timeboxing is a technique that originated in the software development world, but has been picked up by the productivity folks as an effective way to control your time. With timeboxing, you set a specific amount of time that you will spend doing an activity. For example, if you wanted to buy a digital camera, you might give yourself 2 hours to research after which time you will make a decision regardless of whether you’ve looked at every possible option or not. This helps to curb perfectionism and make a maximizer more like a satisficer.
• Voluntary Simplicity: Many of the choices that we struggle with in life are centered around buying new consumer products (e.g. – What digital camera, cell phone, car etc do I need to get next?). Voluntary simplicity is a lifestyle choice that checks out of that rat-race by de-emphasizing the accumulation of stuff and instead focusing on spirituality, health and quality time with family. There are lots of excellent books and blogs that can give you tips for living a simpler life.

At the end of the day, it’s much like the rule we’re often told about raising children. Kids will be happier if they are given boundaries rather than being able to choose whatever they want. Sounds like it’s the same with adults as well.

"Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black."

-Henry Ford

There’s a fascinating new study from Carnegie Mellon which shows that people prefer confidence over expertise:

The research, by Don Moore of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, shows that we prefer advice from a confident source, even to the point that we are willing to forgive a poor track record. Moore argues that in competitive situations, this can drive those offering advice to increasingly exaggerate how sure they are. And it spells bad news for scientists who try to be honest about gaps in their knowledge

It’s yet another example, why it is important to have and display self-confidence. Even if you don’t know what you’re talking about, people will trust you more if you are sure that you’re correct.

I’ve seen often seen this effect in business situations where a self-confident hard-driving executive can change the direction of a project just because they are absolutely sure they know the right way to do things. Even if there are other team members who have the real expertise on the project, they get overruled and steamrolled by the confident folks.

There is a classic phrase that applies here which states that leadership is 20% given and 80% taken. In other words, you have to have the necessary confidence to really take on the leadership role. Let me frame this another way, could you imagine going to see a surgeon who is not confident in his abilities? Ironically, most people would probably choose a highly confident surgeon over one who is an expert but cites all the things that could go wrong.

The original article cites another realistic example of a reluctant expert:

With complex but politicized subjects such as global warming, for example, scientific experts who stress uncertainties lose out to activists or lobbyists with a more emphatic message.

So it isn’t the people who are correct that win the hearts of the public, it’s the people who have the most confident message. That’s slightly scary, but it’s true. You don’t connect with people from the head – you connect from the heart.

That was a large part of the takeaway message from the excellent book Made To Stick. They emphasized that to connect with people, you can’t cite statistics, instead you need to focus on human stories. I’m reminded of the debates between Bush and Gore where Gore cited so many statistics that he lost the heart of the viewer while Bush’s next-door neighbor confidence won the day.

The article closes by stating how important this concept is for people who sell their advice or consulting services. People will more likely buy from you if you are confident. But what if you’re not confident enough? Are there ways to improve your confidence? Here are some excellent techniques to improve confidence:

• Act As-If: Think about what a confident person would do in the same situation? How would they feel and what would they say? Just thinking about these questions forces you to step into a more confident state. It’s like how thinking about vacations or your kids makes you happy. My wife used this technique to great success when skydiving.
• You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take: This is a FANTASTIC Wayne Gretzky quote. You may lose out on some of the chances you take, but if you take no chances you’ll never succeed. So be confident that while you might fail this time, it’s just part of the process. You have to get 100 “no”s before you get a “yes”.
• What’s the worst that could happen?: People are often afraid to speak up or take action because they are worried about the consequences, but the consequences are often much less severe than people imagine them in their head. The worst thing is usually that someone will reject you in some way. As long as no long-term damage will be done, the up-side nearly always outweighs the downside.

“Who has confidence in himself will gain the confidence of others.”

-Leib Lazarow

Sometimes I think we get a little too comfortable in our cozy homes, and we need to be reminded that the wild world abounds with adventures. Often people think comfort is what they need, when what they really need is something to throw their passions into – something they can chase with all their heart.

I witnessed a literal example of this last weekend. We were at my mom’s house and had brought our dog Dolly with us. In her heart, she is a hunting dog. In fact, that’s what her lineage (the Mullins Feist) is bred for. But she has settled nicely into the lazy life of a suburbanite dog of occasionally chasing tennis balls and running, but mostly relaxing in the house.

Last weekend, Molly was walking Dolly along a wooded path near my mom’s house. She was trying out a new collar and didn’t realize it was not clipped on properly. Just a few minutes out the door, Dolly had spotted a rabbit and slipped out of her collar. In an instant she was in the woods chasing the rabbit.

Molly tried in vain to retrieve her, but was unable to, so she came back to the house to get my help. With a hotdog in hand as bait, we tromped into the woods after Dolly. We heard her high-pitched “YIP, YIP, YIP!” which she makes after spotting prey. So we knew she had found something, but it was no rabbit…

Seconds later Dolly came crashing out of the woods running at top speed with her tongue hanging out a bright twinkle in her eye. You could tell she was in her element. After noticing the glee on her face, I began to wonder why she was running so fast out of the woods?

Then I noticed a huge animal bounding behind her, it was making all kinds of noise as it jumped out of the woods after her. At first I thought is was some kind of gigantic wolf or dog. Once I got a clear look, I realized that it was a huge deer and it was MAD!

Normally you picture a deer as this tranquil animal hopping through the forest. Not this one — It’s face was snarling and it was snorting. I imagined that it must be protecting some newborns. You’d think that Dolly would have been scared to be getting chased by an animal about five times her size, but she loved it. She had a look on her face like she was playing a rip-roaring game of tag with the deer!

And sure enough, after seeing us, the deer turned around back into the woods and Dolly started chasing it! Luckily, we got her attention and she decided that she wanted the hot dog that I was holding more than the deer. When she got close enough we clipped her collar on properly and her wild adventure was over.

But it got me thinking, she seemed so happy during that crazy romp through the woods, even when danger was near. Maybe a tame life isn’t always the best one?

"One day you’ll see him and another you won’t. He doesn’t like being tied down–and of course he has other countries to attend to. It’s quite all right. He’ll often drop in. Only you mustn’t press him. He’s wild, you know. Not like a tame lion."

-Mr Tumnus from The Chronicles of Narnia

Do you ever feel like you don’t have enough time in the day? In our busy world that’s becoming more and more typical. Between keeping up with the Joneses and getting the kids to soccer practice there never seems to be enough time in the day.

There are a handful of ways to solve this problem:

• Sleep Less
• Do Less
• Time Machine (Crossed off due to lack of delorean and flux capacitor)

The truth is that everyone is given the same twenty-four hours each day and we can’t change that. So let’s dig into the first two options.

Sleep Less

Recently I was reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It’s a classic and an insightful book for programmers or really anyone trying to focus on “quality”. As I started to research the life of the author, Robert M Pirsig, I ran across this quote:

In a 1974 interview with NPR, Pirsig stated that the book took him four years to write. During two of these years, Pirsig continued working at his job of writing computer manuals. This caused him to fall into an unorthodox schedule, waking up very early and writing from 2 a.m. until 6 a.m., then eating and going to his day job. He would sleep during his lunch break and then go to bed around 6 in the evening. Pirsig joked that his coworkers noticed that he was “a lot less perky” than everyone else.

Talk about making something a priority! This guy was serious about making time for his writing. I’ve always liked the idea of writing a book but I’ve never been quite that serious about it.

How many of us would modify our sleep schedule and rearrange our entire day just to write a book? Do we make anything that much of a priority? If you interested in becoming an early riser like Pirsig, I recommend the canonical resource on the topic – Steve Pavlina’s How to Become an Early Riser.

Do Less

For those of us that don’t want to mess up our sleep schedule, another option is just to do less and focus on what the real priorities are. I’ve always thought that Leo Babauta from Zen Habits has some great techniques for cutting your day to the bare essentials or how through focusing on less, you can be more productive:

It may seem paradoxical that Do Less can mean you’re more productive — and if you define “productive” as meaning “get more done” or “do more”, then no, Do Less won’t lead to that kind of productivity.

But if instead you define “productivity” as a means of making the most of your actions, of the time you spend working (or doing anything), of being as effective as possible, then Do Less is the best way to be productive.

Consider: I can work all day in a flurry of frenetic activity, only to get a little done, especially when it comes to lasting achievement. Or I can do just a couple things that take an hour, but those are key actions that will lead to real achievement. In the second example, you did less, but the time you spent counted for more.

This is also called the 80/20 or Pareto principle. Basically focus on stuff that matters! Make time for the “big rocks” in covey-speak.

It sounds simple doesn’t it, but I’ll bet if you look at your day you spend a lot of time on things that just don’t matter. Especially in our modern age with all the email, twitter feeds and Facebook status updates we can get sucked into the never-ending flow of unimportant information.  The key is to disconnect every now and then to work on priorities.

Priorities

When someone says “I don’t have enough time for that,” what they’re really saying is “that is not a priority in my life.” And if the activity is insignificant it’s probably OK that they aren’t making it a priority. But that line should never be used as a cop-out for something that is truly important.

When someone says that what they really want to do with their life is write a book, become an actor, or the next NBA star then the first thing I ask is how often they spend on it. Because whatever you prioritize and spend your time on is what you’ll be good at. That’s the bottom line.

So the next time you’re about to say you don’t have enough time. Consider how important it is to you and whether you should make a priority.

There is not enough time to do all the nothing we want to do.

-Bill Watterson

A few days ago, I was out at a new client site and I had forgotten to bring my GPS. Usually I’m obsessive about ensuring that I have it with me when I’m going to a new place, but this time I’d forgotten it. I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to figure out how to get there. I was a bit nervous without the GPS. It had guided me successfully to so many new places, I wasn’t sure that I could still do it on my own.

So when I started up the car, I pictured the map in my head and started driving not sure if I’d make it to the right place. After it was all said and done, I ended up taking a better (less turns) and quicker route than the one the GPS would have taken me on. My mind still worked and, in fact, I was better without the GPS.

It reminded me of that scene in Star Wars: A New Hope where Luke is flying in the trenches of the Death Star and gets set-up to use his automatic targeting system to fire the critical shot. Obi-Won’s disembodied voice tells him to use the force instead. He is resistant at first. How could he make the shot on his own? But finally he turns off all his electronic gear and nails it.

Our world is so saturated with technology we’re just not used to living without it. We begin to question ourselves. And our own skills are probably weakened from lack of use, but they’re still there.

It reminds of the old debate about the impact that calculators are having on the brains of budding mathematicians. Are we really exercising our brains the same way if we’re just punching numbers into a calculator?

Recently I’ve heard studies of how Google and the internet are changing how we read. People no longer like to dig through and focus on one dense texts. Instead they are being conditioned to jump from one short excerpt to another.

Also, we rarely have to memorize anything anymore now that all of our important information from phone numbers to addresses can be easily stored on our cell phones.

Just tonight the internet was going slow (not off mind you, just slow) and it was like the world had shut down in our house. We couldn’t access our usual sites that had become so routine for us to view without a moments notice.

Don’t get me wrong, I love technology and make my living by it, but there is no doubt that it is having a profound impact on us. Some for better and some for worse. It’s probably too early to determine the overall impact as we’re the first truly wired generation.

But I have to think that sometimes it’s good for us to walk away from the computer and try to solve problems on our own. Sometimes it’s important to stop texting and talk to the person in the other room.

Soon we’re going camping with cub scouts and there will be something nice about being unwired for a night.

“Technology makes it possible for people to gain control over everything, except over technology”

-John Tudor