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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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.

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

And they tend to be less happy with that.

And this goes in much more important areas than purchases.

So in relationships, for example, there's a trend now documented that the psychologist Scott Stanley refers to as sliding versus deciding, where in the interest of keeping your options open –

Someone will not mentally commit to a relationship.

They'll say, you know, I'm not sure if this is right.

I'm keeping my options open.

But they'll really end up kind of sleepwalking into escalating commitment anyway, because that's what happens when relationships get longer.

And when that ends up leading to moving in or to marriage, it's much more likely to be an unhappy relationship and to end in divorce versus people who just decide, say, I'm either in or I'm out.

And you make that commitment psychologically.

Where sliding, again, is basically treating optionality as an end in your decision-making, always making decisions in order to keep your options open.

And while that can make some sense, I think, especially early in people's work lives –

I think there's evidence that some maximizing tendencies are actually on the rise around the world, the theory being that because it's so easy for us to compare to all the other people we could be or things we could be doing.

And so preserving optionality is becoming an end unto itself.

So people are making decisions specifically to just keep their options open and that never ends.

And it turns out to be absolutely antithetical to getting meaning out of life and satisfaction.

Yeah.

And if they're out, they're out.

And that's a fine decision to make too.

But the problem is when you're in, but always kind of, you know, something's not perfect here, right?

And nobody's perfect.

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