Why you cannot pick anything to watch
You open the app. There are thousands of things to watch. Thirty minutes later you are watching an episode of something you have seen twice, and you are slightly annoyed with yourself.
The problem is not you. It is the thousands.
In a well-known study, shoppers offered six flavours of jam bought far more often than shoppers offered twenty-four. More options should mean a better match. Instead they mean more comparisons, more chances of picking wrong, and a nagging sense that whatever you chose, something better was in there. At some point the effort of choosing exceeds the value of the choice, and people stop.
That is why you fall back on the familiar. It is not laziness. It is the only option that does not require you to evaluate the other 2,000.
Two things help. Decide what mood you are in before opening the app, in one word: funny, tense, nothing. That shrinks the set. And give yourself a rule that ends the search: three options, pick one, no going back. The rule sounds restrictive and is the opposite. It gives you back the evening.
The same thing happens with pension funds, health plans and phone contracts, with rather higher stakes than a Tuesday night. Fewer, clearer options are usually the kinder design, even though more options sounds like more freedom.