The Paradox of Choice

I completed reading

“The Paradox of Choice” by Barry Schwartz

. It was interesting to read this book. The book was all about the choices that we had yesterday, today and in future. How the choices impact us and our decision-making process? Our behaviour toward the choices available and decision.

This would be a good reading for professional who are creating products and services. It would be good for people who take decision to buy a product or service as well. Today anything that we create is likely to be a “ME-TOO” only. This only means that we would add-up to the choices already available.

Some of the points and lines from the book made significant sense to me. I thought I would reproduce them. (I have inserted them in quotes below my comments).

Honestly I never knew that there are so many types of casual wears.

“A New Yorker piece about this phenomenon identified at least six different kinds of casual:

active casual, rugged casual, sporty casual, dressy casual, smart casual, and business casual

.”

Most individuals have surrendered to the technology and made us slave of technology. I have seen in offices where physical interaction to a member in next table or next room has been replaced with email/ sms/ whatsapp.

“We are paying for increased affluence and increased freedom with a substantial decrease in the quality and quantity of social relations. We earn more and spend more, but we spend less time with others.”

I remember some of my friends telling me, in any purchase where a bargain has taken place neither the buyer nor the purchaser is happy. Each thinks that there could have been something more.

“Both types of regret—anticipated and post-decision—will raise the emotional stakes of decisions. Anticipated regret will make decisions harder to make, and post-decision regret will make them harder to enjoy.”

I liked the way author has identified the people who are likely to be regret after a decision.

“It is MAXIMIZERS who suffer most in a culture that provides too many choices. It is maximizers who have expectations that can’t be met. It is maximizers who worry most about regret, about missed opportunities, and about social comparisons, and it is maximizers who are most disappointed when the results of decisions are not as good as they expected. Becoming a conscious and intentional

SATISFIER

makes comparison with how other people are doing less important. It makes regret less likely. In the complex, choice-saturated world we live in, it makes peace of mind possible.”

The concept that made me think most was the “Opportunity Cost” of “Opportunity Cost”. The understanding of the cost related to searching to save opportunity cost can sometime be more than the opportunity itself.

On the whole it was a good read.