Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Choose? You choose!

I've been reading "The Paradox of Choice" by Barry Schwartz. (The link will let you read the first few pages of the book.) Right from the first page, I was hooked. Barry develops his thesis that, although we are conditioned to think more choice is better, in fact, it turns out that too much choice is a real impediment.

In particular, his concept of "satisficers" and "maximizers" makes so much sense. Our overwhelming number of choices can actually paralyze us! Fascinating reading.