The Real Cost of Infinite Choice

Every morning I walk the dog.

It's 75 minutes of peace. No emails. No meetings. No phone calls.

Just me, the dog, and something interesting to listen to.

Or at least that's the theory.

The reality looks more like this:

I leave the house, put my headphones on, and immediately start flicking between apps. Ten minutes vanish before I've listened to a single word.

Do I listen to music?
A podcast?
n audiobook?

A YouTube interview?

flick backwards and forwards between apps. I save things for later. I reject things after reading the description. I wonder if there's something better I haven't found yet.

10 or 15 minutes disappear and I've listened to exactly nothing. Zero minutes of anything. The first quarter of my walk is gone.

And I don't think I'm the only one.

We've Solved the Wrong Problem

For years, the internet had a discovery problem.

Finding good content was hard.

Now we've solved that.

There's brilliant content everywhere.

We are drowning in good stuff. Discovery is solved.

The problem is choosing between hundreds of good things. And every choice carries an opportunity cost.

If I listen to this podcast, what am I missing over there?

But the cost isn't just those wasted minutes. That flicking between apps, the second-guessing, the low-grade anxiety of wondering if you picked wrong: it leaves a trail.

By the time the walk ends, I'm not refreshed. I'm mentally tired from making trivial decisions.

And I've missed the chance to actually learn something that might have shifted how I see a problem at work or at home. Pick your own version: the dinner conversation you're too drained to have, the insight you almost had, the project that stayed stuck because you were busy curating your own menu instead of eating.

The more options I have, the less confident I become.

Psychologists call this choice overload.

I call it wasting the first quarter of my dog walk.

It's Not Just About Quality

I've realised something else.

I'm not simply looking for good content.

I'm looking for relevant people.

I'm 53.

If I want to hear about building a business, I don't really want Rafe, a 29-year-old influencer from Basildon, telling me what they've learned from six months of selling courses from their mum's kitchen.

I want someone who's been punched in the face (by business) and wears the scars.

Someone who's hired people, fired people, nearly lost everything, started again, and come through the other side.

Not because they're older.

Because they've lived it.

The same is true for creativity. Leadership. Family. Purpose.

I'm looking for people who have earned their opinions through experience rather than followers.

Finding those people takes time. Too much time.

Curators Matter More Than Creators

We've become obsessed with creators.

Everyone wants to make content.

Far fewer people help us navigate it.

Maybe the most valuable thing today isn't another podcast. It's someone saying:

"Don't worry. I've already done the searching. Start here."

That's what a great curator does.

They remove decisions.

They filter the noise.

They become a trusted shortcut.

And I've realised how valuable that is.

My Shortcut

That's why I keep going back to Do Radio.

The noticed it one morning when I realised my walk felt like actual quiet, not just a break from screens.

I'd been listening to a Do Radio Mixtape on building something. One clip from Sir Tim Smit (founder of the Eden Project) stopped me in my tracks with an idea I hadn't considered: he said that storytelling and dreaming aren't a nice to have if you're a leader. They're essential to achieving your goals.

I came home with ideas and thoughts sparking off in my head instead of the usual dull ache of lost time.

Not because there isn't better content elsewhere.

There probably is.

But because I trust the people doing the filtering.

Do Radio is from the same team as The Do Lectures and they've spent years curating talks from people like Sir Tim Smit, Sir Tim Berners Lee, Tim Ferris, Michael Sheen and Andy Puddicombe. They're not chasing celebrities with books to sell or gurus pushing another online course.

They're simply talking to fascinating people who've actually done interesting things.

Recently they introduced this idea of the Mixtapes and I absolutely love it.

You choose a theme that's on your mind today. Creativity. Wellbeing. Work. Whatever.

It then builds you a personalised mix from more than 300 hours of archived conversations.

Maybe it's one three-minute clip.

Maybe it's eight clips stitched together into half an hour.

If one guest really resonates, you can jump straight into the full hour-long conversation.

The clever bit isn't the technology.

The clever bit is that someone has already done the thinking.

When I leave the house now, I don't spend 15 minutes wondering what to listen to.

I let someone I trust make the first decision for me.

It makes the whole walk more enjoyable.

What I'm Really Looking For

I don't think I need more content.

You probably don't either.

I think what we need are better filters.

We need to find people and organisations we trust enough to narrow the field.

Because the scarcest resource today isn't information.

It's attention.

Every decision we don't have to make gives us a little more of it back.

So What?

Right now, tap over to the Do Radio Mixtapes site, pick a theme (creativity, work, health, whatever it is) and start the first clip. You're listening in under 60 seconds instead of burning 15 minutes deciding.

Where in your life are too many choices making you less happy?

Maybe the answer isn't finding more.

Maybe it's finding someone whose judgement you trust enough to choose for you.

Sometimes that's the smartest decision you can make.

Until next time,

Jon "Professional Content Browser" Kaye

Choosing to live more deliberately

P.S.

If your dog walks have become as indecisive as mine, give the Do Radio Mixtapes a try. You might spend more time listening and less time choosing.