David Epstein

speaker

469 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 29 Jun

David Epstein’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Good Life Project · Why More Choices Make You Less Happy | David Epstein · 29 Jun 2026 podcast

So there's this disconnect between freedom in the abstract and the reality of boundaries actually creating breakthroughs for people.

And not only do we believe this, this is encoded into models of humans in neoclassical economic theory, right?

So this is how we are modeled by scholars as we will always be better off with more choices.

How could you not?

There are more things to compare and you can choose – you can make a better decision.

But it's absolutely not the case.

I mean, let's take something really simple, like entertainment options.

It seems like how could anything but more be better, right?

And yet, since the introduction of infinite scrolling, international surveys show that people have been getting progressively more bored as the options have increased.

And so researchers that were trying to figure out the mechanism behind that

would do things like give people in a study they'd randomly assign some people to, say, have 20 videos that they could choose from.

And other people would only get one video from that same set of 20, and they just had to watch that one.

And the people with the one were less bored than the people with the 20.

And the theory is that because our brains are comparison engines—

that just the idea that there is something else that might be better than what you're currently watching undermines the experience of the moment itself.

And it leaves people much more basically regretting whatever choice they actually made in some way.

And so that's just one example of how the rational actor model of humans does not actually comport with our psychology.

To hem ourselves in.

So let's say if we're going back to that video example, right, is before you get sucked into wherever it is the algorithmic winds are trying to direct you and the various things that you can choose from is deciding what you're trying to do.

setting good enough rules.

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