You are blowing my tiny mind right now.

I'm Angela Duckworth.

I'm Stephen Dubner.

And you're listening to No Stupid Questions.

Today on the show, how can you become less of a binary thinker?

My way is the right way.

Also, why does bargain hunting bring people so much joy? I was,

as a young woman, a great coupon clipper. Angie, I want to be less of a binary thinker, and I wonder

if you can help me. Well, Stephen, you know, there are two kinds of people.

People who like binary thinking.

Just kidding.

I couldn't resist.

Here's my problem.

I'm not sure whether this is me personally, whether this is the human condition, or whether

it's the human condition in the modern era, you know, society and politics and media being what they are in this early 21st century, I guess it is.

But I feel that the confluence of all these forces is constantly hurting me into yes or no, black or white, all or nothing choices.

You know, you can't belong to political movement X unless you

subscribe to all 20 of its tenants and precisely zero of the other movement's 20 tenants, for example.

Now, my brain, and even my soul, know that the world should not work that way, that there's so much more nuance and variation to how life should unfold.

But it's hard to not veer toward binary thinking.

So how can I and everyone get better at that?

Well, you're not alone.

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