Did I Make The Wrong Choice

I believe the phenomenom of Over Choice was one of the reasons why German brothers Albrecht invented ALDI, the world's first discount grocery, in 1974, and why it was (and still is) such a phenomenal worldwide success. Because having a choice of 50 different brands and sorts of, let's say, marmelade, doesn't really make you happy, it just gives you so much stress that you end up buying Nutella again instead because you simply couldn't decide. I still remember when I went to California for the first time and visited my first American grocery store: after just 20 minutes, the sheer amount of choices there felt so overwhelming that I had to leave the store, fearing that my brain would explode. ALDI just gives you one or two choices: either you take it or leave it. What a relief.

Decades ago i saw a sketch from a german comedian, Dieter Hallervorden. He was the waiter, and a customer asked him for a coffee. The waiter asked, with or without sugar? Oh, uh, with sugar. Condensed milk or pasteurized milk or fresh milk? .. and so on more and more options until the customer lost it and asked for a coffee now. To which the waiter asked...whatever options there were. Then i did not connect this to the concept of overchoice, but watching this video it looks like this was what the comedian was making a caricature of. Its true, the more options you have, the more you will doubt your decision later, and the harder making a decision will be. There are people who get so scared of choosing the wrong one out of a mass of options that they wont make any decision at all.

Knowing about over choice was incredible helpful for me. I can tell myself: "Hey, you researched like 10% of the possible options, stop, that's enough. You can't look through all, and even if you could, it won't help much. But even so you will very likely get one of the best options anyway". Framing it that way helps to avoid regret. That, and acknowledging that having choices at all is a huge privilege.

Zu viele Bäckereien? Das jibbet nicht. 🤣

Exactly how I feel shopping on Amazon, especially when I get deep into the reviews. Not to mention the guilt I feel when I think I should just go to a "real store".

Often when I watch a video by The Nalf, certain images linger in my subconscious. They’re like unexplored secrets that keep drawing me back to ponder them again and again. I instinctively know they’re significant, but my slow mind simply can’t figure out why. One such image is his use of the waterfowl. Just last night a solution drifted up from my dreams. Ducks are water birds, creatures of lakes and streams. In their natural environment they are graceful and sure. But quite often The Nalf shows them on land, out of their element. In that setting they are a bit awkward and hesitant. Now, I can understand why The Nalf uses images of them so frequently. They represent a person taken from his natural surroundings and challenged to learn his way in a new one. TSGO

Some 35 years ago (pre-internet), I stumbled on to a poem by Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken. I read, re-read it, and have read it at least 6-7 times a year, since then. It helped me then and still helps me today, whenever I have to make a choice, or if I don't know what choice to make. I have shared this poem with many people, but here I'll just give the last three lines: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. I always narrow down my choices down, to, surprise, surprise, two. The last line, is the one that puts everything into perspective for me, and gets me looking forward to the coming days and weeks.

love this. also, i really enjoyed unicorn town - it is beautifully and poignantly put together.

1:21 Can't be a coincidence that the ad on the bus says: "Only when you try it out you will know if it's not for you."

Choice paralysis.... I knew about it. But regret, that's even more pernicious.

There is no choice. You already know what you're going to do.

I chose to quit my job and start something totally different. I know that phenomenon quite well.

Every breath we take could influence a change and a different "path" so I don't really think about it. The paths don't really get chosen from waypoint to waypoint, but are a continuous flow in which you can navigate like a river, tides and waves pushing and pulling at you in the process. Stay afloat and try swimming up if you get dunked under, enjoy the swim wherever possible and you'll be doing everything you can for a happy life.

Schwäbisch Hall wasn't really on my "go to" list. I spend several weeks a year going to southern German (mostly) towns and cities admiring the half-timber (Fachwerkhäuser) houses there. But after watching many of your videos with views from above and in the streets, I'm off to the Schwäbisch Hall area on September 23 for 6 days. One day visiting Schwäbisch Hall itself and Vellberg. The next day I'll spend at the Freilicht Museum "Hohenloher Freilandmuseum". Then another day off to Schwäbisch Gmund. And the last day off to Backnang and Heilbronn. thanks for the inspiration - and take care of your knee! BTW - excellent point at the end of the video. Can only say "BINGO". And that as an almost 70 year old who was also faceed with choices, all of which in their own ways led me to where I am now. Could have turned out a LOT different. Since I don't really believe in either luck or karma, I suppose there were other more concrete reasons for having made the choices I did. Some where kinda forced onto me - not the "what" or the "where" but rather the "time" - being pusheed from circumstances to change those circumstances. So ... wondering what my next choices/chances will be....

My wife and I loved Unicorn Town! I had my parents watch it and have told my friends. Really compelling story and great execution!

This is one of the best videos you made so far

...you are thus gradually developing into a wise phylosopher! 🤣🤣 nice video

How right you are I remember the first time I visited the states and was overwhelmed with trivial choices. I saw the cereal aisle and lost the will to live - yes a whole aisle devoted to breakfast cereals, and at a very young age I wondered that a country could haves so much choice of cereal yet only two choices for government which, to my young and untrained eye, were hardly distinguishable And that I think is the key. In Italy if you ask far a coffee you are given an excellent espresso unless you ask for another option (with milk). In Starbucks the permutations are infinite, but basically unsatisfactory We are given trivial choices yet for most of us it is an illusion of choice over the bigger option which we may have little or no control p.s 5 bakeries is fine. They probably all sell pretty much the same thing to the same quality

When the author Bill Bryson returned to live in his native US after two decades away he observed that the need to make choices dominated even the simplest of tasks. He went into a coffee shop and asked for a coffee and was bamboozled by a 5 minute stream of the options available from skinny lattes to macchiatos whether foamed, frothed or flat and with a dozen different milk options. In his frustration he finally said ‘Look every morning when they get out of bed millions of Americans make themselves a coffee, I want one of those’

your "bidde" when ordering the coffe was on point, impressed