Monday, November 06, 2006
Coping with Copious Choice
The Paradox of Choice
By Barry Schwartz
304 pages
Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (January 18, 2005)
ISBN: 0060005696
Rating – 5 stars
We are living during a time of copious choice. Prosperity
washes us with abundant possibilities. Yet, when we receive what we thought we
wanted, we often find ourselves wanting.
Barry Schwartz, a Swarthmore College professor, citing
research results from psychologists, economists, market researchers and decision
scientists makes five counter-intuitive arguments in this book, The Paradox of
Choice: Why Less is More. We would be better off if we:
Voluntarily constrained our
freedom of choice.
Sought “good enough” instead of
“the best.”
Lowered our expectations about
decision’s results.
Made nonreversible decisions.
Paid less attention to what
others around us do.
Schwartz notes we are constantly being asked to make
choices, even about the simplest things. This forces us to "invest time,
energy, and no small amount of self-doubt, and dread." There comes a point, he
contends, at which choice becomes debilitating rather than liberating. Too much
of a good thing becomes detrimental to our psychological and emotional
well-being, he states.
In the final, Schwartz offers an 11-step program for
reducing choice’s “tyranny.”
Choose when to choose.
Be a Chooser, not a picker.
Satisfice more; maximize less.
Consider the opportunity costs of
opportunity costs.
Make your decisions
nonreversible.
Adopt an “attitude of gratitude.”
Regret less.
Anticipate adaptation.
Control expectations.
Curtail social comparisons.
Learn to love constraints.
I have always had trouble accepting the virtues of what
Isaiah Berlin, the political philosopher, terms “negative liberty” or “freedom
from.” In my mind “positive liberty” or “freedom to” is always the preferred
option.
Schwartz’s book makes a compelling case, however, that less
can be more.
Penned by the Pointed Pundit
November 6, 2006
10:24:50 AM
