The Paradox of Choice

I recently read a book called "The Paradox of Choice." It's about how the glut of choices we have available to us in the United States is actually decreasing our overall happiness. I was in Whole Foods last night, which is one of my favorite places to be in the world, and I marveled at the number of cheeses on offer. There are hundreds, I'd say, of options. Hard, soft, French, Austrailian, smelly, white, yellow, etc. One could spend all day deciding. Yet that is precisely the problem. We are losing life satisfaction over these choices. How?

• We lose precious time making these decisions.
• Because of the large amount of time it takes to make a decision, we have a greater stake in making sure it's a good one. When it turns out bad, we hate ourselves even more.
• We suffer the illusion of perfection: with all of these choices, the perfect one MUST be out there. When it eludes us, our expectations of perfection are shattered, leaving us disppointed.

Those are the reasons I can remember, anyway. One I'd add is that focusing on these product choices makes us farther apart from our loved ones - if we place so much importance on our purchases, we cannot devote the time on relationships.

Of course, SOME choice is good. One who has no choices is unhappy for obvious reasons. One who has a few choices is happy and is not plagued by the threats listed above. However, there is a diminishing marginal return on each additional choice. Eventually, the detriments of added choices overtake the additional satisfaction you might have received. You descend into choice hell. The graph below illustrates beautifully.


That's the post for the moment. Adieu.