Barry Schwartz: Why Less Is More. How To Avoid Choice Paralysis.

[@HocusFocus-gg1to]

Interesting topic.

[@itskarinabarton]

Can you relate to this? It’s so counterintuitive, right?

[@HocusFocus-gg1to]

@@itskarinabarton I do relate. Yes, very counterintuitive. It makes sense because (as your guest mentioned) we’re less likely to feel like we picked the best item the more options we have. Ever try picking the perfect shade of paint? 10 shades of red for example is difficult enough to go through and compare , but I believe most people would be able to narrow it down by comparing the different shades side by side until they’re left with their favorite shade. This will give us the feeling of “ I picked the best one” which will eventually lead to “ I love this shade of red, it’s perfect!” Now try doing this with 200 shades of red. Do most people even have the mental energy to compare all those different shades? Or the time, patience, and focus? So we scan the 200 red shades quickly and gravitate to one section of maybe 20 shades. Then we narrow it down as mentioned before. We’re less likely to get that feeling of “ I picked the right one” because all the other options were not fully processed and compared to each other like we processed and compared the 20 shades we choose from. It gives that feeling of unfinished business and maybe even a sense of failure by not being patient and looking through all 200 shades. We might feel we were being careless with our money by not making sure we picked our favorite option. Many other negative thoughts and emotions will also come into play. Just a silly example to express my thoughts on this topic. Now let’s imagine an item with way more characteristics than a color of paint. That’s going to be a disaster. Lol Decision fatigue sets in. Anxiety sets in. Sometimes we just pick an item out of frustration even though we know it’s not going to give us the feeling of picking the perfect option. It’s almost similar to panic buying. Just grab whatever item out of frustration. Of course there’s much more involved , but these are my first thoughts. I still haven’t finished watching your whole video, but interesting topic and great video. 👍 Another point I want to make is that in the 90’s before everyone had a cellphone when we were taking long drives , all we had was the radio for music ( if there was no cd player) and it was interesting how songs on the radio were enjoyable during the car ride that weren’t enjoyable songs when we were home with our cd players. Says a lot about the way our brain works. At home we had more control over what music we could listen to and could be more picky. In a car with only a radio influenced us to lower our standards and not to expect much which resulted in us enjoying songs we usually wouldn’t enjoy at home. We were happy with what we got. Now fast forward to 2024 with apps like Spotify. We have endless options and endless access to all types of music , but it seems more difficult to find songs to enjoy. I don’t think it’s that the songs are lower quality. I think it’s because we have so many options that are expectations and standards have raised to almost an unrealistic level. I can’t remember the last time I came across an album I listened to over and over again, But in the 90’s if I bought an album , I would listen to it on repeat and enjoy every moment. Says a lot about expectations,perspective, and mind set amongst many other things. Hope I didn’t lose you along the way. This topic opens the doors to a lot of thoughts and to a lot of other topics. Great conversation starter.

[@itskarinabarton]

Absolutely loved reading it and I couldn’t say it better. It happened to me way too many times, e.g., buying things that made me feel worse but I just didn’t have patience to go through all the options, time, frustration, you name it. Options are great and it’s a privilege to have it, but at some point the utility is fleeting.