JONTILLMAN.COM | part of the problem since 1976

Welcome to the 21st century, the age of “limitless potential”, meaning unlimited choices. There really isn’t a facet of our lives, from toothpaste to marriage, where we are now faced with a functionally infinite number of choices. As a society, we have let the perfect become the enemy of the merely excellent, and in doing so, have made ourselves easy to sell discontent and dissatisfaction to.

The stress and discomfort inherent in such ridiculous levels of “choice”, in the drive to have, do, and be absolutely everything we possibly could, now, is striking. We are told from a young age that we must “live up to our potential” and “always do our best”, which of course, means the best. As we grow older, this message is repeated in a million small ways. We are advised to “look at all our options” when choosing a college. Second, third and fourth marriages rarely raise an eyebrow. “Good enough” as a statement is almost a perjorative.

So, what exactly is wrong with things just being okay? Why does it matter that there is a more expensive, better(?) version of everything I own? Does it make any difference that I didn’t interview every sinlge person on the planet before deciding to marry my wife? If we have so much, why are we so dissatisfied with it and why do we want so much more?

No, I don’t think that it does matter much. So why have I been so worried about this?