What does it mean to choose material things based on their utility?

This question is based on the Gita-daily article – “17.14 – Differences that make a real difference – and differences that don’t”

What exactly does the below statement mean?

We learn to choose things based on their utility: what do I need from this? And not bother: what all can I get from this?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
question this is a based on the Gita daily article differences that make a difference and differences that don’t what exactly does it mean to choose things based on their utility when it says what do I need from this and not what all can I get from this sir whenever we choose something we have some specific purpose for which we need it and along with that there are many additional features that might also be there in it for example we need a cell phone for communication now that might have a camera that might have a recorder that might have many other features like that so generally speaking when we get caught up in trying to get the best in everything that we do then we start looking at all these additional features irrespective of whether they really they’re really needed or not and then we get caught up in too much nitty-gritty of details Barry Schwartz is a American psychologist and sociologist who’s written a book called the paradox of choice so there in that book he talks about paralysis by anxiety of choice and he says that people can be basically classified into two categories optimizers and maximizers so maximizers are those who try to get the best in everything that they do and because of this attitude they subject themselves to endless anxiety so they have to purchase something as simple as a t-shirt and they will go and look at all the hundreds of varieties of t-shirts that might be there and then sometimes just selecting a t-shirt can become a day-long affair and similarly every single thing that they have to choose so three things happen by this first is that they take a lot of time and secondly go through a lot of anxiety and third also at the end of it they remain doubtful and regretful that maybe I could have got something better if I had just kept searching a little bit more in this way which in all three ways these optimizers actually lose they lose mental energy they lose time and they still feel regret of course these are maximizers on the other hand optimizers they keep a balanced picture of the whole life and okay this is what I want from this particular thing okay this works fine there might be some things better than this but I don’t have to necessarily get the best in everything because there is many other things that I have to do in my life so optimization is in a sense also maximization but maximization within limits that means that if I am going to cook sweet for a program and now if I cook it extremely carefully maybe I can cook it much better than if I cook it with not so much attention but suppose I have to cook a full meal and I just spend all my time in cooking the sweet alone because I want to make it well I’ll make the sweet but that will not be enough for the meal so similarly the maximizers are those who whose time goes in just getting one thing best and many other things of their life get neglected and they feel pressurized and they feel burdened by that so choosing things based on their utility means that okay this is what I primarily need and if something is providing me this then fine I’ll accept this and move ahead there are many other things I had to do if there are some other features in it also okay that’s good I can use them also but just to get more and more additional features one doesn’t tax one’s brain and let one’s time go away in that so that is the idea of choosing things based on their utility focus what do I need and then based on that need optimize I got this take it move ahead that’s