Summer means one thing: it's time to trade your office chair for an inflatable tube and your computer screen for endless blue skies.

There's something almost magnetic about these little town roads lined with mom and pop shops, hometown restaurants, and tchotchke stores that seem to exist in their own pocket of time. But what exactly draws us to these places, and why do they feel so much more meaningful than their corporate counterparts?

Stand in the cereal aisle of any modern grocery store and you'll face over 300 different options. Open Netflix and choose from 15,000+ titles. Browse restaurant options in any major city and confront thousands of possibilities. We live in an age of unprecedented choice—and it's making us miserable.