If using Occam’s razor is working smarter, you might wonder why most people don’t do it. The problem is that we love to keep our options open. Dan Ariely, author of the book Predictably Irrational, and his collaborator Jiwoong Shin demonstrated through a series of psychological experiments that people cling to options, even when those options no longer provide any value whatsoever.30 “We have an irrational compulsion to keep doors open,”31 Ariely noted. To perform at your best, discipline yourself to shave away any options that you stick with for psychological comfort alone.
