The Paradox of Choice, the researcher Barry Schwartz informs us that this nasty little feature of how our brains handle decisions goes even further.4 When we make a decision in the face of many options, or just while perceiving that there are lots of other options that we don’t even know about, we are less happy with our choice. The problem here is not just the options we had and didn’t pursue (the options we “keep open”)—it’s that mountain of options we never even had time to check out.
