Saturday, September 5, 2009

explosion of choice

psychologist barry schwartz argues in this TED video that some choice is better than no choice, but it doesnt follow that more choice is better than some. i heartily agree!

for example, when i walk into a store, i do not need 54 different types of toothpaste to choose from. its overwhelming, and i dont know how to make the "right" choice. having more and more choices increases our expectations about the product, and thus lowers our satisfaction if our final choice is not "perfect!"

simplification is the way to go.

this video is about 20 minutes, and well worth it in my opinion.

3 comments:

MikeS said...

Choice anxiety is, I think, the formal name for this. I'm waiting for some rich guy to found a company called "Just Damn Toothpaste" which will eliminate all this 67 sub-brand nonsense.

Anonymous said...

Go with what you know, in food,booze, cars, people...just about anything...don't deviate. Took me 15 yrs to dumo microshaft and switch to Mac...after the learning curve..i was perplexed why i didn't make the switch sooner..but what i knew became a problematic nightmare..which i finally ditched for a working, simple system. aLL THINGS SIMPLE, IS THE BEST PHILOSOPHY,,,for me.

ג. ג. said...

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