THE COST OF BETTER CHOICES
The Cost of Better Choices I didn’t fail to choose because I was careless. I failed to choose because I was trying to choose correctly . An air fryer with ten modes. A CCTV camera that also runs on solar power. Phones with endless configurations. Robot vacuum cleaners that promise intelligence. I didn’t buy most of them. Not because I didn’t need them but because the number of options quietly overloaded me. Repairing my old phone had a lower cognitive cost than choosing a new one. This wasn’t minimalism. It was exhaustion. The same pattern repeated elsewhere. I couldn’t buy a watch for my brother. The options were endless, the standards invisible, and the fear constant: What if there’s a better one I’m missing? When my other brother finally bought it, I felt relief not because the decision was made, but because the responsibility was no longer mine . Buying gifts became another trap. Too many choices meant no single choice felt sufficient. Once, I bought two gifts ins...