calculating opportunity cost.

according to barry schwartz of swarthmore college, the more choice one has in one's life, the less happy one will be when finally making a decision:

As Americans, we assume that more choice means better options and greater satisfaction. But beware of excessive choice: choice overload can make you question the decisions you make before you even make them, it can set you up for unrealistically high expectations, and it can make you blame yourself for any and all failures. In the long run, this can lead to decision-making paralysis. And in a culture that tells us that there is no excuse for falling short of perfection when your options are limitless, too much choice can lead to clinical depression.

i don't necessarily think this is nonsense: for instance, my coworker enjoys casually dating -- when she finally does choose someone with whom to share a committed relationship, she feels antsy to break up, ostensibly because she feels she's missing out on something else.

this "paradox of choice" is further explored in the new yorker:

It helps explain why so many people at age thirty are still flailing about, trying to choose a career—and why so many marriageable singles wind up alone. You await a spouse who combines the kindness of your mom, the wit of the smartest person you met in grad school, and the looks of someone you dated in 1983 (as she was in 1983) . . . and you wind up spending middle age by yourself, watching the Sports Channel at 2 a.m. in a studio apartment strewn with pizza boxes.

see more here.