The Paradox Of Choice

Let us examine choice today. I admit this is not my idea and I am going to provide the right individual with credit, which he rightly deserves.

Most of us probably know that choice is good. We’ve been told that choice is good because then you have the freedom to choose what you really like as opposed to being constricted to only few certain options. The later option would signal the existence too little choice, which we generally do not like.

I grew up in Lithuania and my parents still remember times, when under the rule of the Soviet Union choice pretty much did not exist, that you were just given one or two things to wear, to eat, only certain movies to watch. But then, we came to the United States, which is the exact opposite. There is an abundance of choice. For everything that you do, there seems to be an option. Everywhere! It’s like, there is TOO MUCH choice! Is it possible? Yes, now I am convinced that it is. I believe that having too much choice is certain occasion is just as bad, if not worse, than having too little choice.

Too much choice paralyzes your decision making processes. You might waste so much time and energy just picking that one right thing and then still end being unhappy with it. Is that possible? Yes it is. In all reality, most of, at least our consumer choices, are still limited to what the companies make. Even then, the big question arises – do we REALLY know what we want? Or we are fed the illusion of choice. Those are not simple things to examine and evaluate, but I challenge you to watch the following video from TED and judge for yourself.

The point is that you must either know yourself very well in order to make informed choices and know exactly what you want, so even when you are presented with infinite choices, you would still have no problem choosing what you want. However, if you are not an expert of yourself, then it is best to limit choices available to you. That way you will not endless hours trying to make a decision and you will be much happier with the choice that you have.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO6XEQIsCoM&hl=en&fs=1&]