The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less (P.S.) 
asked by markymark on November 16, 2006 6:51 AM
In the spirit of Alvin Toffler's Future Shock, a social critique of our obsession with choice, and how it contributes to anxiety, dissatisfaction and regret. This paperback includes a new P.S. section with author interviews, insights, features, suggested readings, and more.
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 401(k), everyday decisions--both big and small--have become increasingly complex due to the overwhelming abundance of choice with which we are presented.
We assume that more choice means better options and greater satisfaction. But beware of excessive choice: choice overload can make you question the decisions you make before you even make them, it can set you up for unrealistically high expectations, and it can make you blame yourself for any and all failures. In the long run, this can lead to decision-making paralysis, anxiety, and perpetual stress. And, in a culture that tells us that there is no excuse for falling short of perfection when your options are limitless, too much choice can lead to clinical depression.
In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz explains at what point choice--the hallmark of individual freedom and self-determination that we so cherish--becomes detrimental to our psychological and emotional well-being. In accessible, engaging, and anecdotal prose, Schwartz shows how the dramatic explosion in choice--from the mundane to the profound challenges of balancing career, family, and individual needs--has paradoxically become a problem instead of a solution. Schwartz also shows how our obsession with choice encourages us to seek that which makes us feel worse.
By synthesizing current research in the social sciences, Schwartz makes the counterintuitive case that eliminating choices can greatly reduce the stress, anxiety, and busyness of our lives. He offers eleven practical steps on how to limit choices to a manageable number, have the discipline to focus on the important ones and ignore the rest, and ultimately derive greater satisfaction from the choices you have to make.
Reviews
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If your like me and want to understand why making choices are so difficult and what you really gain from deliberating for so long you should definitely read this book. It is very enlightening, easy to read, informative, and fairly concise with plenty to back it up. Highly recommended.
reviewed by cannoli on November 29, 2006 1:41 PM
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We are living during a time of copious choice. Prosperity washes us with abundant possibilities. Yet, when we receive what we thought we wanted, we often find ourselves wanting.
Barry Schwartz, a Swarthmore College professor, citing research results from psychologists, economists, market researchers and decision scientists makes five counter-intuitive arguments in this book, The Paradox of Choice: Why Less is More. We would be better off if we:
1. Voluntarily constrained our freedom of choice.
2. Sought "good enough" instead of "the best."
3. Lowered our expectations about decision's results.
4. Made nonreversible decisions.
5. Paid less attention to what others around us do.
Schwartz notes we are constantly being asked to make choices, even about the simplest things. This forces us to "invest time, energy, and no small amount of self-doubt, and dread." There comes a point, he contends, at which choice becomes debilitating rather than liberating. Too much of a good thing becomes detrimental to our psychological and emotional well-being, he states.
In the final, Schwartz offers an 11-step program for reducing choice's "tyranny."
1. Choose when to choose.
2. Be a Chooser, not a picker.
3. Satisfice more; maximize less.
4. Consider the opportunity costs of opportunity costs.
5. Make your decisions nonreversible.
6. Adopt an "attitude of gratitude."
7. Regret less.
8. Anticipate adaptation.
9. Control expectations.
10. Curtail social comparisons.
11. Learn to love constraints.
I have always had trouble accepting the virtues of what Isaiah Berlin, the political philosopher, terms "negative liberty" or "freedom from." In my mind "positive liberty" or "freedom to" is always the preferred option.
Schwartz's book makes a compelling case, however, that less can be more.
Barry Schwartz, a Swarthmore College professor, citing research results from psychologists, economists, market researchers and decision scientists makes five counter-intuitive arguments in this book, The Paradox of Choice: Why Less is More. We would be better off if we:
1. Voluntarily constrained our freedom of choice.
2. Sought "good enough" instead of "the best."
3. Lowered our expectations about decision's results.
4. Made nonreversible decisions.
5. Paid less attention to what others around us do.
Schwartz notes we are constantly being asked to make choices, even about the simplest things. This forces us to "invest time, energy, and no small amount of self-doubt, and dread." There comes a point, he contends, at which choice becomes debilitating rather than liberating. Too much of a good thing becomes detrimental to our psychological and emotional well-being, he states.
In the final, Schwartz offers an 11-step program for reducing choice's "tyranny."
1. Choose when to choose.
2. Be a Chooser, not a picker.
3. Satisfice more; maximize less.
4. Consider the opportunity costs of opportunity costs.
5. Make your decisions nonreversible.
6. Adopt an "attitude of gratitude."
7. Regret less.
8. Anticipate adaptation.
9. Control expectations.
10. Curtail social comparisons.
11. Learn to love constraints.
I have always had trouble accepting the virtues of what Isaiah Berlin, the political philosopher, terms "negative liberty" or "freedom from." In my mind "positive liberty" or "freedom to" is always the preferred option.
Schwartz's book makes a compelling case, however, that less can be more.
reviewed by vladi on November 29, 2006 4:40 PM
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This book completely fleshes out an idea I'd never really put words to; an idea I'd been slowly forming over my entire adult life. After reading this, I'm now thoroughly convinced that drastic simplification across the board must occur for any of our modern human civilizations to continue to evolve and flourish. Either we choose to simplify (unlikely) or it will be forced upon us by circumstances (VERY likely. Alas.)
reviewed by perfect10 on November 29, 2006 5:24 PM
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Having a choice in life is a good thing; a person without choices is often miserable. As the number of choices grows, our happiness grows with them, but then it begins to decline. Having too many choices creates stress. Schwartz describes his visit to a local supermarket: "...next to the crackers were 285 varieties of cookies. Among chocolate chip cookies there were 21 options. ... Across the isle were juices - 13 `sports drinks,' 65 `box drinks' for kids, 85 other flavors and brands of juices, and 75 iced teas and adult drinks. I could get these tea drinks sweetened (sugar or artificial sweetener), lemoned, and flavored. ... I found 61 varieties of suntan oil and sunblock, and 80 different pain relievers - aspirin, acetaminophen, ibuprofen; 350 milligrams or 500 milligrams; caplets, capsules, and tablets; coated or uncoated. There were 40 options for toothpaste, 150 lipsticks, 75 eyeliners, and 90 colors of nail polish from one brand alone."
Those wide choices may seem appealing, but Schwartz brings our attention to what he calls `the darker side of freedom' - the stress of choice. This paradox is the most pronounced in the financial markets. Even though his book is about the paradox of choice in general, I read it with an eye towards the financial markets, my own trading, and what I see in other traders.
Shall we trade stocks, futures, or options? If stocks, shall we trade the more seasoned issues on the NYSE or look for riskier high-growth candidates on the NASDAQ? Should we track agricultural, tropical, or financial futures? And what about the forex? Should we buy or write options, or look into more complex strategies, such as spreads? And worst of all - what if another market makes a spectacular move while our attention is focused elsewhere? No wonder the majority of traders feel so stressed. Schwartz says "Choosing almost always involves giving up something else of value. ... The overload of choice contributes to dissatisfaction."
"Losses hurt more than gains satisfy. ... The cost of any option involves passing up the opportunities that a different option would have afforded. ... Conflict induces people to avoid decisions. ...Emotional unpleasantness makes for bad decisions. ... The desire to avoid regret leads to inaction inertia. ... An overload of choice contributes to dissatisfaction."
Every trader who kicked himself after a profitable trade for having `left more money on the table' will chuckle at a cartoon of a kid in a t-shirt that says "Brown ... but my first choice was Yale." Schwartz shows how people are divided into `maximizers' who always strive for the best and `satisficers' those who settle for some reasonable level of success. "Almost everyone who scores high on maximization scale also scores high on regret." You can decide to be a maximizer in a very small number of situations that truly matter to you and be a more mellow satisficer in the rest of your life. "We would be better off seeking what was good enough instead of seeking the best."
Connections with trading kept running through my mind while reading this book. How many successful people kick themselves, feeling that their performance was not good enough. How many stay way too long in a bad trade because of `sunk costs.' Schwartz exposes the endless flow of coulda-shoulda-woulda as `counterfactual thinking.' He shows how keeping records of decisions impacts people's attitudes towards those decisions. I have been saying over and again that keeping good records is the single most important step towards becoming a successful trader.
The tone of Professor Schwartz's book is that of a friendly, intelligent neighbor, dealing with the same human dilemmas as you and I. He shares his thinking about our problems by talking with us, not at us. His compact and smoothly written book sheds light on many aspects of decision-making, the stress of `roads not taken,' the curse of high expectations, etc.
The mere fact of outlining a problem is a big step towards clarity, but after 10 chapters, I felt ready to hear about his proposed solutions. They were delivered in Chapter 11 (which I hope had nothing to do with the eponymous chapter of the bankruptcy code :-)). Professor Schwartz's advice was lucid, logical, and sensible - but you will have to read it yourself (I do not describe it here because reciting solutions without having worked through the problems is likely not to be useful.)
I highly recommend this book to all traders. My only quibble is the paper quality of the paperback - it is grayish, and should have been much whiter! But the publisher offers you no choice!
www elder com
Those wide choices may seem appealing, but Schwartz brings our attention to what he calls `the darker side of freedom' - the stress of choice. This paradox is the most pronounced in the financial markets. Even though his book is about the paradox of choice in general, I read it with an eye towards the financial markets, my own trading, and what I see in other traders.
Shall we trade stocks, futures, or options? If stocks, shall we trade the more seasoned issues on the NYSE or look for riskier high-growth candidates on the NASDAQ? Should we track agricultural, tropical, or financial futures? And what about the forex? Should we buy or write options, or look into more complex strategies, such as spreads? And worst of all - what if another market makes a spectacular move while our attention is focused elsewhere? No wonder the majority of traders feel so stressed. Schwartz says "Choosing almost always involves giving up something else of value. ... The overload of choice contributes to dissatisfaction."
"Losses hurt more than gains satisfy. ... The cost of any option involves passing up the opportunities that a different option would have afforded. ... Conflict induces people to avoid decisions. ...Emotional unpleasantness makes for bad decisions. ... The desire to avoid regret leads to inaction inertia. ... An overload of choice contributes to dissatisfaction."
Every trader who kicked himself after a profitable trade for having `left more money on the table' will chuckle at a cartoon of a kid in a t-shirt that says "Brown ... but my first choice was Yale." Schwartz shows how people are divided into `maximizers' who always strive for the best and `satisficers' those who settle for some reasonable level of success. "Almost everyone who scores high on maximization scale also scores high on regret." You can decide to be a maximizer in a very small number of situations that truly matter to you and be a more mellow satisficer in the rest of your life. "We would be better off seeking what was good enough instead of seeking the best."
Connections with trading kept running through my mind while reading this book. How many successful people kick themselves, feeling that their performance was not good enough. How many stay way too long in a bad trade because of `sunk costs.' Schwartz exposes the endless flow of coulda-shoulda-woulda as `counterfactual thinking.' He shows how keeping records of decisions impacts people's attitudes towards those decisions. I have been saying over and again that keeping good records is the single most important step towards becoming a successful trader.
The tone of Professor Schwartz's book is that of a friendly, intelligent neighbor, dealing with the same human dilemmas as you and I. He shares his thinking about our problems by talking with us, not at us. His compact and smoothly written book sheds light on many aspects of decision-making, the stress of `roads not taken,' the curse of high expectations, etc.
The mere fact of outlining a problem is a big step towards clarity, but after 10 chapters, I felt ready to hear about his proposed solutions. They were delivered in Chapter 11 (which I hope had nothing to do with the eponymous chapter of the bankruptcy code :-)). Professor Schwartz's advice was lucid, logical, and sensible - but you will have to read it yourself (I do not describe it here because reciting solutions without having worked through the problems is likely not to be useful.)
I highly recommend this book to all traders. My only quibble is the paper quality of the paperback - it is grayish, and should have been much whiter! But the publisher offers you no choice!
www elder com
reviewed by imtheboss on November 29, 2006 6:16 PM
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I read about 4 books per month and this is hands down one of the best ones I've read in the past year. Packed with information, yet enjoyable to read, I had a hard time putting this one down.
I use the ideas I learned in this book almost every day, in my own life and in my work with helping clients.
Schwartz skillfully illustrates how the sheer abundances of choices we have in life these days leads to stress and paralysis of action. He describes looking at 40 types of jeans and going home with none, overwhelmed by the choices and time it would take to go through all of them. We can all relate to this, right?
As a business psychologist and organizational consultant I use Schwartz's concepts all the time. Whenever a client tells me that their goal is to improve sales, one of my first questions is, "How many choices do customers have in this particular category?"
Psychological research tells us that the perception of choice and control is important, and Schwartz highlights the need to limit the number of choices for maximum effectiveness.
I'm happy to think of how many individuals and businesses have and will benefit from Schwartz's book.
I use the ideas I learned in this book almost every day, in my own life and in my work with helping clients.
Schwartz skillfully illustrates how the sheer abundances of choices we have in life these days leads to stress and paralysis of action. He describes looking at 40 types of jeans and going home with none, overwhelmed by the choices and time it would take to go through all of them. We can all relate to this, right?
As a business psychologist and organizational consultant I use Schwartz's concepts all the time. Whenever a client tells me that their goal is to improve sales, one of my first questions is, "How many choices do customers have in this particular category?"
Psychological research tells us that the perception of choice and control is important, and Schwartz highlights the need to limit the number of choices for maximum effectiveness.
I'm happy to think of how many individuals and businesses have and will benefit from Schwartz's book.
reviewed by ozone on November 29, 2006 6:36 PM