The Paradox of Choice
This Ted Talk from Barry Schwartz is a few years old but I think his take on the paradox of choice is interesting and still relevant today. In this talk Barry shines a light on two of the negative effects of too much choice:
1) Choice produces paralysis, rather than liberation. With so many options to chose from people find it very difficult to chose at all.
2) We end up less satisfied with the result of our choice than we would have been if we had fewer options to chose from.
Barry explains in further detail why we are less satisfied when we have more choices, not less. With so many options available to us, it's easy to imagine we could have made a choice that's a lot better than the one we made. This imagined alternative induces us to regret our decision. The more options we have the easier it is to regret anything at all that is disappointing about the choice we made.
