Why Less is More: Ancient Philosophy and the Science of Choice Curation
Episode Summary
In a world of infinite options—from 50 brands of toothpaste to thousands of movies on Netflix—why do we feel more anxious and less satisfied than ever? In this episode, John Sampson dives into the "Paradox of Choice." We explore the neuroscience of decision fatigue, the psychological difference between Maximizers and Satisficers, and the ancient philosophical traditions that taught us how to find freedom by intentionally limiting our options.
Key Takeaways
The Brain’s Battery: Decision-making is a finite resource powered by the Prefrontal Cortex. When this "battery" runs low, we become impulsive and avoidant.
Maximizers vs. Satisficers: Why aiming for the "best" often leads to misery, while aiming for "good enough" leads to happiness.
The Ancient Filter: How Epicurus’ taxonomy of desires and the Stoic "Inner Citadel" can help us filter out modern noise.
Life Curation: Practical ways to design your environment to save mental bandwidth for the decisions that actually matter.
The Deep Dive
1. The Science: Why Your Brain Shuts Down
We discuss Decision Fatigue and Ego Depletion. Your brain’s Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) is responsible for executive function. Every decision—no matter how small—drains this resource. When your dopamine-seeking reward system takes over, you end up in a cycle of "novelty seeking" that leaves you exhausted and dissatisfied.
2. The Wisdom: Ancient Solutions to Modern Overload
Epicureanism: Epicurus taught that tranquility (Ataraxia) comes from satisfying "natural and necessary" desires and ignoring "vain" ones.
Stoicism: Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius practiced Prosoche (constant attention). By focusing only on what is within our control, we ignore the bombardment of external choices.
The Golden Mean: Aristotle (see Nicomachean Ethics II.6) argued that virtue is a balance. We need enough choice for freedom, but not so much that we lose our way in the excess.
Practical Steps to Reclaim Your Life
Become a "Satisficer": Set 3 criteria for a purchase or decision. Once they are met, stop looking.
Automate Low-Level Decisions: Use meal prepping, a "uniform" wardrobe, or set routines to save your cognitive energy.
The 1-In, 1-Out Rule: For every new commitment or item you bring into your life, remove one.
The Clean Desk Ritual: Reduce "visual noise" to lower the extraneous cognitive load on your brain.
Memorable Quotes
"Intentionally limiting yourself may seem irrational, but it is necessary in today’s world of seemingly infinite choices." — John Sampson
"The greatest fruit of self-sufficiency is freedom." — Epicurus
"If you relax your attention even for a moment, do not imagine that you will recover it whenever you please." — Epictetus
Resources Mentioned
The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz
Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Research on "Ego Depletion" by Roy Baumeister
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Full Transcript below
Introduction: The Digital Infinite
John Sampson: Welcome back to the show. We’ve spend the first 13 weeks exploring wisdom from ancient to modern, but today we’re evolving. From here on, we’re diving deeper into the intersection of ancient philosophy and modern psychology and neuroscience. This is The Synapse and The Stoa, with John Sampson.
Now, let me ask you a question. Have you ever sat down after a long day, remote in hand, and opened Netflix? You start scrolling. Five minutes pass. Then ten. Then twenty. You’ve just scrolled through hundreds of potential options—blockbusters, documentaries, cult classics—and yet, you feel like you can’t find anything to watch. You feel a weird kind of pressure in your chest. A slight frustration. Maybe even a little bit of anxiety.
What you’re feeling in that moment is a phenomenon called the Paradox of Choice.
In our modern world, we’re told that more choice equals more freedom. We’re told that having 50 types of toothpaste, 1,000 career paths, and a million potential partners on an app is the ultimate win for human autonomy. But today, we’re going to challenge that. We’re going to look at why having too many choices actually leads to anxiety, chronic dissatisfaction, and impulsive behavior.
We’re going to look at the Neuroscience of why your brain can actually run out of "fuel" when you have to choose. We’re going to explore the Modern Psychology of "Maximizers" versus "Satisficers". And most importantly, we’re going to look at the Ancient Wisdom of the Stoics, Epicureans, and the giants like Plato and Aristotle to see how they defined "the necessary" over the "superfluous".
By the end of this episode, I want to give you the tools to curate your life. Because intentionally limiting yourself may seem irrational in a world of infinite options, but it is the most rational thing you can do to find peace.
Before we go deep, I want to ask you one small favor. Go ahead and hit that subscribe or follow button, it’s free and just takes a second.
Alright, let’s dive in.
Part 1: The Paradox of Choice and the Modern Malaise
John Sampson: Let’s start with the psychology. Why does more choice make us feel worse?
Back in 2000, researchers Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper conducted what is now famously known as the "Jam Experiment". They set up a display in a high-end grocery store. One day, they offered 24 varieties of gourmet jam. On another day, they offered only 6.
Now, the big display of 24 jams attracted way more people—60% of shoppers stopped to look. Only 40% stopped at the 6-jam display. But here’s the kicker: when it came time to actually buy a jar, the people facing only 6 choices were ten times more likely to make a purchase.
Why? Because when you have 24 options, the mental effort of comparing them is so high that your brain simply shuts down. This is known as Choice Overload.
But it’s not just about jam. This applies to every part of your life. Psychologist Barry Schwartz, who literally wrote the book on this, points out that an excess of choice leads to three major problems:
Paralysis: You’re so afraid of making the "wrong" choice that you make no choice at all.
Increased Regret: When you finally do choose, you can’t help but think about the 99 other things you didn’t pick. You imagine they might’ve been better than what you chose.
Unrealistic Expectations: If there are 50 pairs of jeans, you expect one of them to be perfect. When they’re just "okay," you feel disappointed.
In Schwartz’s work, he identifies two types of people: Maximizers and Satisficers.
A Maximizer is someone who wants the absolute best. They will research 20 different lawnmowers before buying one. They want the best price, the best features, the best reviews.
A Satisficer, on the other hand, has a set of criteria. They want a lawnmower that costs under $300 and cuts grass reliably. When they find one that meets those criteria, they buy it and never look back.
Research shows that while Maximizers might technically get "better" results, they are consistently less happy, more prone to regret, and more likely to experience depression and anxiety than Satisficers.
So, I want you to ask yourself: are you trying to "maximize" every area of your life? Are you trying to find the "perfect" career, the "perfect" workout, the "perfect" morning routine? If so, you are likely burning yourself out before you even start.
Part 2: The Neuroscience—Your Brain on Decision Fatigue
John Sampson: Now, let’s get into the "why" from a biological perspective. Why does picking a movie on Netflix sometimes feel so draining?
It’s because of a concept called Decision Fatigue.
Your brain has an executive center called the Prefrontal Cortex. This is the part of your brain responsible for rational thinking, planning, impulse control, and making choices.
Think of your PFC like a battery. Every single decision you make—from what socks to wear to how to phrase an email—drains a little bit of that battery. This is related to a theory by Roy Baumeister called Ego Depletion. The idea is that our willpower and our ability to make good choices are a limited resource. Like a muscle, it gets tired after a long day of use.
When your PFC battery is low, your brain starts looking for shortcuts. You experience:
Increased Impulsivity: You’re more likely to snap at your partner or buy that junk food at the checkout counter.
Avoidance: You push off important decisions because you just don’t have the energy to think about them.
Suboptimal Planning: You start making errors in judgment.
Now, add Dopamine into the mix. We live in a digital age designed to exploit our "novelty seeking" behavior. When you scroll through social media or an endless list of products, your brain’s reward system—the mesolimbic pathway—is firing. It gives you a little hit of dopamine every time you see something new.
This creates a "trap." You’re seeking novelty (dopamine), but every new thing you see requires a tiny micro-decision (do I like this? do I keep scrolling?), which drains your PFC. By the end of an hour of "relaxing" on your phone, your brain is actually more depleted and more stressed than when you started.
This is why you feel that chronic dissatisfaction. You’re chasing a reward that your tired brain can no longer even enjoy.
Part 3: The Ancient Remedy—Simplicity and "The Necessary"
John Sampson: So, we have a biological battery that drains, and a world that is constantly trying to drain it. How do we fight back? This is where we turn to the giants of the past.
They didn't have Netflix or Amazon, but they understood the human tendency to want "more" and how that "more" can lead to misery.
The Epicurean Taxonomy of Desire
Let’s look at Epicurus. Often, when people hear "Epicurean," they think of fine wine and luxury. But Epicurus was actually a champion of simplicity. He taught that the goal of life is Ataraxia—tranquility, or freedom from disturbance.
In his Letter to Menoeceus, he argues that the "pleasant life" isn't about constant parties or expensive food. Instead, it’s about "sober reasoning which tracks down the causes of every choice and avoidance".
Epicurus gave us a brilliant tool to handle choice overload: his taxonomy of desires. He divided our wants into three categories:
Natural and Necessary: Things like basic food, water, shelter, and friendship. These are easy to satisfy and essential for happiness.
Natural but Unnecessary: Things like fancy food or a giant house. They are fine, but you don’t need them to be happy.
Vain and Empty: Things like fame, power, or endless luxury. These can never be satisfied and always lead to anxiety.
Epicurus’ advice? Focus on the necessary. By limiting your desires to what is truly essential, you remove the 90% of choices that don’t actually lead to happiness anyway. He famously said, "The greatest fruit of self-sufficiency is freedom". When you don't need the extra options, they lose their power to stress you out.
The Stoic Inner Citadel
Then we have the Stoics—Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, and Seneca. They practiced something called Prosoche, which means "attention" or "mindfulness".
Epictetus warned us in his Discourses that if you relax your attention even for a moment, you lose control over your mind. For the Stoics, the antidote to being overwhelmed by choices is the Dichotomy of Control.
Most of the "choices" the world throws at us are external. What other people think of us, the latest trends, the "best" new gadget—these are outside our direct control. The only thing we truly control is our moral character and our ability to choose how we react.
Marcus Aurelius would tell himself in his Meditations to "pay attention" and keep his mind free from confusion. By focusing only on what is virtuous and necessary, the Stoic creates an "Inner Citadel" that choice overload cannot penetrate.
Plato, Aristotle, and the "Golden Mean"
And finally, the heavyweights: Plato and Aristotle.
Plato believed that reality itself—the "Forms"—was inherently simple and pure. Complexity and multiplicity, he argued, belonged to the world of shadows and imperfection. In his Republic, he described virtue as a form of harmony and simplicity in the soul. If your life is a mess of a thousand conflicting desires, you have no harmony.
Aristotle, in his Nicomachean Ethics, gave us the Golden Mean. He argued that virtue is always a balance between two extremes.
Take our topic today: choice. On one extreme, you have Deficiency—having no choice, which is a lack of freedom. On the other extreme, you have Excess—having too many choices, which leads to the paralysis we’ve been talking about.
Aristotle’s "Less is More" philosophy isn't about being a hermit; it’s about Moderation. It’s the "balancing act." You want enough choices to feel free, but not so many that you are overwhelmed. Finding that middle ground is where the "good life" resides.
Part 4: Designing the Life You Want—The Power of Curation
John Sampson: So how do we apply this? How do we take 2,000-year-old philosophy and neuroscience and turn them into a better life?
It starts with the idea of Curation.
Think about it: Have you ever cleaned up your desk, or your room, and just felt an immediate sense of relief and calm? Removing physical clutter has a direct impact on your mental state. This is backed by Cognitive Load Theory. A decluttered workspace reduces the "extraneous load" on your brain—the visual noise that your brain has to process—freeing up your PFC to do actual work.
Removing clutter in all aspects of your life brings those same benefits.
Through careful curation, you can design your life in a way that limits the number of decisions you need to make. You are essentially automating your low-level choices to save your "mental bandwidth" for the big stuff.
Think about Steve Jobs. Why did he wear the same black turtleneck and jeans every single day? It wasn’t just a fashion statement. It was Choice Architecture. He knew that if he didn't have to spend 5 minutes deciding what to wear, he had more cognitive energy to decide the future of technology.
Intentionally limiting yourself may seem irrational in a world that shouts "Have it all!" but it is the most efficient way to achieve excellence.
Part 5: Practical Steps for the "Less is More" Life
John Sampson: Alright, let’s get practical. Here are some tools you can use starting today to reduce choice overload and reclaim your happiness.
1. Become a Satisficer
Stop looking for the "best." Set clear criteria for your decisions. If you’re buying a new pair of shoes, decide: "I want black sneakers under $80 that are comfortable for walking." The first pair you find that hits all three? Buy them. Stop looking. Remind yourself that "good enough" is often actually the most rational choice for your well-being.
2. Practice "Choice Architecture" through Defaults
Your brain loves the path of least resistance. Use this to your advantage.
Meal Prep: Decide what you’re eating for the week on Sunday. One big decision replaces 21 small, exhausting daily decisions.
Digital Minimalism: Limit your "infinite" options. Delete apps that give you too much "novelty seeking" dopamine. Set a "default" for when you use your phone—for example, no screens after 9 PM.
3. Use the "1-in, 1-out" Rule
To prevent clutter from building up—both physical and mental—adopt this rule. If you buy a new shirt, one old shirt must go. If you take on a new project at work, one old commitment must be finished or delegated. This keeps your life "curated" rather than "accumulated."
4. Apply the Epicurean Filter
Before you make a purchase or a commitment, ask yourself Epicurus’ question: "What will happen to me if that which this desire seeks is achieved, and what if it is not?"
Often, we realize that having that 50th option or that slightly shinier gadget won't actually change our baseline level of happiness. If the "what if it's not achieved" answer is "nothing really," then it’s a vain desire. Let it go.
5. Time-Block Your Decisions
Don’t make important decisions when your "PFC battery" is low. Do your deep thinking, your planning, and your hard choices in the morning when your self-control resource is highest. By 8 PM, your brain is in "impulse mode." That is not the time to decide on your career path or your budget.
6. The "Clean Desk" Ritual
Every evening, spend five minutes clearing your physical workspace and your digital desktop. As the Attention Restoration Theory suggests, a simple environment allows your brain to recover from the fatigue of the day. Starting your morning with a "clean slate" reduces the immediate cognitive load you face when you wake up.
Closing: The Freedom of the Limit
John Sampson: We’ve covered a lot today. We’ve looked at the messy biology of our brains and the ancient wisdom of men who lived thousands of years ago.
The core message is this: Having more does not mean being more. In fact, the bombardment of choices from the modern world is a cage, not a key. It locks us into a cycle of anxiety and comparison. But when you define what is "necessary," when you embrace the "Golden Mean" of moderation, and when you intentionally curate your life, you find a different kind of freedom.
It’s the freedom of Ataraxia—a calm, steady mind that isn't tossed around by every new shiny thing.
I’ll leave you with a final thought from Epicurus: "Of all the things that wisdom provides for living one’s entire life in happiness, the greatest by far is the possession of friendship".
Notice he didn't say "the possession of options." He said friendship. A simple, natural, and necessary thing.
Go out this week, clear some clutter, make fewer decisions, and focus on what truly matters.
Be sure to check out our show notes for this and every episode on our website at synapseandstoa.com. If you’re interested in ad free episodes, early access to new episodes, or connecting with me directly, join us on Patreon. Until next time, thank you for listening.
