A few weeks ago, I realised the books in my room resembled the aftermath of a warzone. So out of pure necessity, I tidied up my bookshelf which now looks like this:

Still kind of messy, but much more accessible and aesthetically acceptable. However, there’s a problem: with my bookshelf now clean, I’m chronically exposed to books that just beg to be read. Some books have been recommended to no end (e.g. Sapiens), some tickle my curiosity (e.g. Antifragile), some are just fun reads I like to revisit (e.g. The Little Prince) and some are books I’ve promised to read but haven’t gotten around to yet. It seems like a great luxury to have all these options, but to be honest, seeing all these books stare at me is paralysing. A little pang of guilt hits me every time I glance towards my bookshelf, knowing that there’s so much to learn but not much time.

Of course, this is a trivial and first-world problem to have – having more books at your disposal is better than fewer, right? Well… maybe not. Recently, I saw a Ted Talk called The Paradox of Choice | Barry Schwartz which, as you can probably guess, explores the paradox of choice. According to Prof Schwartz, an American psychologist, there are four reasons why choice makes one miserable, despite it being designed to improve welfare:

1. Decision paralysis (So many choices, what to choose?)
2. Reduced satisfaction (So many choices, they’re all pretty good, none will blow me away…)
3. Escalation of expectations (So many choices, the best better be worth it!)
4. Self-blame (So many choices, did I choose the right one?)

Prof Schwartz does admit that in some circumstances, having choices can be a luxury and is beneficial. For developing countries, the ability to choose between locations of clean water is a fantastic problem to have. Yet, for most of us in the developed world, he argues there is a severe excess of choice and this is, without question, harming us.

What to do then? The natural answer seems simply to remove the burden of choice from our lives. But is throwing out my bookshelf, deleting some phone apps and donating half my clothes really necessary? In some instances, perhaps. For me, that’s where ad-blockers come in, for inhibiting binges on Chess.com and YouTube via desktop. (On a side note, bullet chess – chess with a 1 minute time limit – is a dark and dangerous hole, don’t go down there).

But the true antidote to this decision paradox seems to require a change on the internal, rather than external environment. Change such as the ability to focus on a task at hand and ignore competing distractions. To respect oneself enough to complete a task at hand to brilliance. To be less bothered by material things. To be grateful. The dangers of choice are abundant and can be deeply paralysing, but it is in one’s control to determine whether they let these perils seep into their lives.