What is paradox of choice?

Paradox of choice is a concept in personal epistemology: For most decisions good enough is better than perfect because the search cost exceeds the improvement.

Example: You need a new project management tool. A maximizer evaluates every option — Asana, Monday, Linear, Notion, Jira, ClickUp, Basecamp, Height, Shortcut — reads comparison articles, watches demos, starts free trials, asks colleagues, reads Reddit threads, and three weeks later picks one but keeps wondering if another would have been better. A satisficer defines criteria upfront (must have: Kanban boards, GitHub integration, under $10/seat), evaluates tools until one clears every threshold, and starts using it that afternoon. The maximizer's tool might be 5% better on some axis. The satisficer shipped three weeks of work in the meantime.

This concept is part of Phase 23 (Decision Frameworks) in the How to Think curriculum, which builds the epistemic infrastructure for decision frameworks.