Why more is less

In "The Paradox of Choice," Barry Schwartz explores how having too many options can lead to anxiety and dissatisfaction. Here are eight key lessons from the book: 1. Choice Overload Too many choices can lead to paralysis and anxiety. When faced with excessive options, individuals may struggle to make decisions, leading to frustration. 2. The Cost of Opportunity Every choice comes with an opportunity cost—the regret or remorse about what could have been. This can detract from overall satisfaction with the chosen option. 3. The Importance of Satisficing Rather than striving for the perfect choice, individuals should consider "satisficing"—settling for a satisfactory option that meets their needs, which can reduce stress and increase satisfaction. 4. Escalation of Expectations More choices can lead to higher expectations. When individuals expect perfection, they are more likely to be disappointed with their decisions, even if they make good choices. 5. Regret and Self-Blame Having numerous options increases the likelihood of regret and self-blame when things don’t turn out as hoped. This can lead to feelings of dissatisfaction and lowered self-esteem. 6. Simplifying Choices Reducing the number of options can lead to better decision-making. Simplified choices can make the process less overwhelming and more manageable. 7. The Role of Context The context in which choices are presented can significantly impact decision-making. The framing of options can influence perceptions and preferences. 8. Focusing on What Matters Prioritizing values and what truly matters to you can guide better decision-making. By aligning choices with personal values, individuals can find more fulfillment in their decisions.

In the spirit of Alvin Tofflers' Future Shock, a social critique of our obsession with choice, and how it contributes to anxiety, dissatisfaction and regret. Whether we're buying a pair of jeans, ordering a cup of coffee, selecting a long-distance carrier, applying to college, choosing a doctor, or setting up a 401K, everyday decisions have become increasingly complex due to the overwhelming abundance of choice with which we are presented. In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz explains why too much of a good thing has proven detrimental to our psychological and emotional well-being. In accessible, engaging, and anecdotal prose, Schwartz explains how a culture that thrives on the availability of constantly evolving options can also foster profound dissatisfaction and self-blame in individuals, which can lead to a paralysis in decision making and, in some cases, depression. With the latest studies on how we make choices in our personal and professional lives, Schwartz offers practical advice on how to focus on the right choices, and how to derive greater satisfaction from choices that we do make.

Really important book for me. Refers to some great research. Some highlights: Prologue: - “choice no longer liberates, but debilitates” -“choice overload” - we’d be better off if we embraced some limits on choice instead of rebelling, by seeking “good enough” rather than the best, by lowering our expectations about our decisions, by making our decisions nonreversible, and by not comparing ourselves to others as much I. When We Choose 1. Let’s Go Shopping - 30% of people bought from the small sample of jams, only 3% bought from the large sample (those buying from small sample were more satisfied) 2. New Choices - healthcare, beauty, religion - 65% say they would choose own treatment if got cancer, but only 12% actually do this - work is unconstrained by what your parents’ did or geography: a 34 YO has already worked for 9 companies - in fact staying with a job doesn’t show loyalty, but a lack of ambition.

II. How We Choose 3. Deciding and Chooosing - experienced, expected, and remembered utility rarely line up faithfully - Kahneman et. al.’s remembering utility by “peak-end” rule (people preferred noise that ended less unpleasantly even though maximal unpleasantness lasted longer) - people rated "colonoscopy plus" as less unpleasant than rival (even effected 5-year follow ups) - James Twichell: “Ads are what we know about the world around us”. - availability heuristic (we think there are more words that start with “t” than have it has 3rd letter) - saliency: people are swayed by vivid video on how police are even when told it is atypical case - people think accidents kill as many as diseases (though latter kill 16x more), homicide = strokes (latter kills 11x more); dramatic deaths overestimated (and this correlated with newspaper coverage). - a chooser thinks about consequences, values, and can create choices or refuse to make any; a picker just hopes for the best 4. When Only the Best Will Do - maximizers seek and accept only the best, which is a difficult decision strategy when there are many options; satisfacers are ok with “good enough” - Herbert Simon (who coined the term) thought that satisfizing was the maximizing strategy - maximizers savor the positive less and do not cope as well as satis., take longer to recover from bad stuff, are not as happy/satisfied with life, more pessimistic, more regret, and more depressed (extreme max. score=borderline clinical depression). - “buyer’s remorse” diminishes satisfaction with choice made and can be anticipatory - many choices+maximizing=unhappiness

III. Why We Suffer 5. Choice and Happiness - “Choice is what enables us to tell the world who we are and what we care about”; has expressive value - close social relations are most important for happiness (though decreases autonomy) - the less barriers to autonomy we have, the more disturbing the remaining ones are - income affects happiness only until people stop being poor (tested by looking at different countries at the same time and the same country at different times). - happy people can attract others and being with others can make people happy - it takes time for form close connections, to maintain them - rules, standards, and routines can be good - we are drawn to people who meet our standards, and than we stick with them out of routine (we don’t think about it everyday)

6. Missed Opportunities - economics says we should only consider opportunity costs of next-best alternative (so if soccer costs $3 and bball is next best alternative, the total cost of soccer is $3 plus missing out on bball) - participants chose the safer more expensive car, rather than the cheaper and more dangerous one regardless of price - 75% of MD’s tried a med instead of referring to specialist, however 50% referred instead of choice of 2 meds (a way of avoiding a decision). - negatives stand out more than positives - neg. emotions makes for bad decisions and vice versa (candy made residents faster and more accurate diagnoses). - students offered 6 topics more likely wrote essays & they were better than those offered 30 topics - students exposed to 30 chocolates liked them less & would rather take $ instead more often than those exposed to 6 - people marry 5 years later than a generation ago, and people stay half as long at jobs - evolution may have only prepared us to separate good from bad, not better from best (a ala Nozick) - people want to be able to reverse decisions, however few do, and those that have the option are less satisfied (the former put more psychological work into making things OK)

7. The Problem of Regret - postdecison (buyer’s reget makes things less enjoyable) and predecison (which can paralyze) -bronze medalists are happier than silver medalists (near misses hurt more) - people rarely say “things could be worse” (gratitude), they usually see how things could be better (can inspire) sunk costs: coaches also give more time to high paid players irrespective of performance 8. The Problem of Adaptation - we get used to things and take them for granted and people don’t anticipate this - 1973: 13% of Americans thought AC in cars was a necessity, today: 41%. - lottery winners not more happier and accident victims were still pretty happy -adaptation can be good in a world of misery - hedonic and satisfaction treadmills

9. Why Everything Suffers from Comparison - comparisons to: what you hoped/expected, other experiences, other people’s experiences - “the curse of discernment” - poor teens talked about benefits of internet, rich teens talked about drawbacks - upward comparisons to others is bad a lot (though can inspire), downward comparisons can boost self-esteem, increase positive mood, and reduce anxiety - when cancer patients encountered other cancer patients in good shape they felt better - only compare to people in our “pond” where we have good chances of being successful (this was necessarily the case before) - most respondants choose better relative position over absolute position with IQs - happy people were minimally affected by other’s skill at the anagram task, they were not affected by feedback given to their partner (unlike unhappy people); the former can distract & move on, the latter ruminate (all this pertains to maximizers vs. satisfisers as well which is paradoxical as “the best” should be independent of how others are doing)

10. Choice, Disappointment, and Depression - Seligman: you’ll get depressed at failure/loss of control that is attributed in a personal, persistent, and pervasive way (as opposed to global, transient, and specific attribution); “optimists” do the latter with failure and the former with success, “pessimists” do the opposite - suicide is second leading cause of death (after accidents) among US High School and College students; rate among College students has tripled in last 35 years - it matters if failure is our fault (Americans buy 50 million diet books per year and spend more than $50 billion on dieting); ultathin cultures have women that are double as depressed as men - unattainable expectations + tendancy to take personal responsibility = badness

IV. What We Can Do 11. What to Do About Choice (1) Choose when to choose - costs are subtle and cumulative; focus on subjective, not objective - You could make a rule to visit no more than 2 stores when shopping for clothes or to consider no more than 2 destinations when considering a vacation (2) Be a chooser, not a picker - choosers reflect on what makes a decision important, whether even none of the options should be chosen, or a new option created, and the expressive value of a choice; pickers are passive selectors from what is available - shorten or eliminate fuss about unimportant decisions, use freed up time to reflect on what you want, think about what options would need to be created (if so) (3) Satisfice more and maximize less (4) Think about the opportunity costs of opportunity costs - a “good investment” for a satisficer may be one that returns more than inflation. Period. (5) Make your decisions nonreversible - I’m simply not going there, I’ve made my decision so this option has nothing to do with me. I’m out of the market, so end of story - you can pour your energy instead into improving the relationship, rather than second-guessing it (6) Practice an “attitude of gratitude” - the same experience can have delightful and disappointing aspects and its up to us what we focus on - everyday list 5 things that happened which you are grateful for (you may be surprised) (7) Regret Less - practice gratitude for what is good in a decision rather than focusing on bad (8) Anticipate adaptation - develop realistic expectations about how experiences change with time and how we satisfied with only higher levels of experience over time (the double wammy) (9) Control expectations - remove excessively high ones, allow for serendipity (10) Curtail social comparison - learning that good enough is good enough will automatically reduce social comparison - focus on what makes you happy and what gives meaning to your life (11) Learn to love constraints - they can be liberating this choice overload context - following rules can free up time/energy for situations where rules don’t work

I first heard of this book from a friend, who explained it in terms of dating. In the span of time between her first date with her husband and the day they finally got married, she had married and divorced someone else. Why? Because when he first met her, he couldn’t decide. There were so many other women available he was afraid of missing out on “the right one” and wanted to try out more options. That is the paradox of choice. The more options that are available, the harder it is to decide. All of that seemed perfectly logical to me, but until I read this book, I didn’t think it applied to me. I’m not indecisive. But what I discovered after reflecting on what I learned from this book is that I’m a decision avoider. Unlike my friend’s husband, I’m not apt to try out many options. I don’t shop around. As a matter of fact, I barely shop at all. And while this does simplify things, it’s not a balanced approach either. The book makes the distinction between maximizers, people who shop around to find the best possible option, and satisficers, people who settle for “good enough.” It’s better to be a satisficer than a maximizer, and I did test closer to satisficer on the quiz (what good self-help book doesn’t have at least one?), but because regret over past decisions is a maximizer trait that looms large in my life, I’ve been forced to conclude that I’m a satisficer in food, clothing, and entertainment, but a maximizer over the big deal decisions of my life: education, career, relationships, and child-rearing. As I’ve said in other reviews, one of the main reasons I want to go to graduate school is that I want a second chance at the college dream I bungled so badly the first time. I don’t enroll because I can’t afford to, but my job seems all the more boring as a result because I keep thinking that graduate school would be a better use of my time and talents. Goodreads is my continuing education, of course, but it doesn’t entirely satisfice while I’m at my job. I’d rather be reading or writing for Goodreads. The book does give advice on how to become more of a satisficer, and though it’s solid advice, it wasn’t anything I didn’t already know. Basically, the advice is two-fold. First, practice an “attitude of gratitude” so that you’ll see the good in what you have. And second, since the idea that you’re missing out on some better option is a product of the imagination, imagine options that could be worse than the one you’re in. After all, those happen, too. But you know what? I just can’t give up hope that there’s something better out there. Imagining worse is what keeps me from seeking change, but that’s fear. I’m as paralyzed as my friend’s husband was. This, the book says, is regret aversion. I have it big time. So all in all, this was not a “feel good” self-help book. It’s made me see my faults more clearly, and at the moment anyway, it hasn’t given me any new skills. Still, the points rang true, so if awareness is the first step, hopefully, I’m on the right path. May Hashem send solutions to us all.

This is one of those books that, once you've read it, permanently shifts your perspective. It made me think altogether differently about the value of having MORE choices. As the author argues, your sense of well-being increases when you go from having no choices to having a few choices. But as you go from having a few choices to having many choices, your happiness typically goes down. Why? Because it's time-consuming and stressful to choose between all those alternatives! You become fearful of making a mistake, of not making the absolute best choice. And often the more time you spend making that perfect choice, the more unhappy you are second-guessing yourself after the fact. Did I make a mistake? How to get out of this dilemma? Limit your choices to a handful that satisfy your criteria. Then stop adding more alternatives. Make your selection as quickly as you can given the available information and the importance of the decision. Buying a house warrants careful consideration and lots of time. Buying a coffee-maker does not. This may sound kind of self-evident, but can be extraordinarily difficult to put into practice, whether it has to do with choosing mates or picking a university to attend. The book is well-supported by lots of experimental evidence. Well worth reading. Highly recommended.

In The Paradox of Choice, Schwartz focuses on two basic ways of making decisions: maximizing (trying to make the very best possible choice) and satisficing (making a choice that will do well enough, all things considered). In the past, I've thought of these two approaches in terms of the decisions that need to be made, not in terms of the person making them. For example, when picking a spouse or a house, one may want to take a lot of time and make the best possible decision. When selecting a restaurant or an article of clothing, satisficing is usually the best approach. Schwartz divides the world into "maximizers" and "satisficers," a notion that I found very interesting. One of his themes is that "maximizers" can drive themselves crazy by trying to make the "best" possible decision in every situation; it follows that "satisficers" tend to be healthier. As a congenital satisficer and friend to a couple of "maximizers," I found the argument compelling. I think the book has some good insights into the stresses of modern living, and I highly recommend it for people who like to think about how they think.