The Choice Paradox

The Choice Paradox

The more options you have to choose from, the harder it will be to choose.

I call this The Choice Paradox.

And TCP often leads to the worst possible outcome for creatives…inaction.

Analysis paralysis. Immobilization from fear of picking the wrong path.

I’ve faced this a lot over the past few months.

The irony of success is that the more traction you have, the more bad doors you’ll need to close before you can move forward through the good ones.

Those extra options create decision fatigue and leech from your creative energy. You spend more time deciding than doing.

The good news is, there’s an antidote to choice fatigue…constraints.

The first time I observed the power of constraints was watching Jack Butcher build Visualize Value.

Jack’s primary content flywheel for VV came from simple black and white images visualizing popular sayings, theories, and motifs.

He put max constraints on himself…he was only allowed to use black, white and the font t.26 carbon.

The constraints helped him to simplify his daily workflow.

All he needed to focus on was generating the best possible visual…because the rest was already decided.

And that’s the key…he reduced the number of decisions on a daily basis.

Not only did this help him develop a signature style, but also it gave him the optimal environment to maintain the consistency required to win.

So what’s the tactical takeaway for creators?

The key, when facing choice fatigue, is to apply/reapply as many constraints as possible, such that you can compound traction around a single channel, single style, or single category.

I shifted from making one type of video to experimenting with all types of different editing styles, delivery styles, topics, etc.

My hypothesis was that by offering many different styles, fans would like me more for me and less for the style.

What I found is that the freedom of optionality actually decreased my productivity….because I spent less time making and more time ideating.

I had something working, opened my choice aperture too wide, got distracted by all the options, and lost traction on my core focus.

If you’re like me…this will probably also happen to you at some point.

When you feel this happening, you should refocus on the one core thing that most closely aligns with your authentic self and shut the rest of the doors.

For me, this is finding interesting stories at the intersection of business strategy, tech and culture.

Every time I go away from this, and try to "take advantage of a trend or theme” I see working elsewhere, I end up shipping fewer videos and having less fun.

The extra choices weigh me down.

Use constraints to help eliminate choice fatigue.

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