Paradox of Choice

After listening to the Barry Schwartz's podcast I began to realize that we battle with making choices regularly in our every day life. Whether it's going to class, going out with friends, shopping or eating, we battle with choices all the time.

There were arguments where I agree with Barry Schwarz, but there were also moments where I felt maybe that's not true. I agree that more choices make us confused. There are so many options we have and we don’t know what to choose. But I feel the choices are given for people's comfort. I am a kind of a person who would spend the time to pick out a product that I feel will be best for me. I don't feel that if I pick something which doesn’t suits me later on will make me blame myself. It[s something I thought would work for me; I will not blame myself for it but rather take it as a bad experience. After that experience I know what is not right for me. With choices given I can always go back and choose something different, compared to if I have limited options I have to live with what is being offered. For example, I use a different face cleanser than my sister or my friends do. Why? Because all of us have different skin. My sister uses the same brand, Oil of Olay, but buys it for dry skin. I buy it for oily skin. If I use her cleanser it makes my skin even oilier and makes me look horrible. Now with choices given, we both are happy with the way our skin looks and we are satisfied with the product. If there was only one face cleanser, it would have only made those people happy whose skin type it worked best for. Another example can be Tylenol for pain relief. If you have any kind of muscle pain you take the Tylenol. But if you get allergies, flu, or cough, you buy the Tylenol that is specifically designed to cure your specific symptoms. That is why I think choices are great.

There was another interesting point made in the podcast was that the more choices we have the easier it is to regret. With so many choices given we are less satisfied if what we buy turns out to be something we maybe don’t like. I do feel it is true to an extent but it depends on how you look at it. For example, if you want to go buy a digital camera, they come in many brands with many different features. Now how do you decide what you want? I think a lot more people these days read reviews or talk to the people who already have used the product before making a purchase. I think reading reviews online or talking to people who can give you a good advice will make it easier for you to decide if it’s really something you want. My friend recently bought a digital camera. Even though she knows a lot about technology she read the reviews, spoke to other people for advice and then decided what she wanted. She is happy with the choice she made and she loves taking pictures with that camera.

As we are moving ahead in this world, each day brings a new choice because the market has something new and better to offer the next day. Barry Schwarz used a great example of jeans in the podcast. I am going to use the same example to describe my experience shopping for jeans. I used to have a tough time picking a pair of jeans that fit me good, or the style I wanted. There was always something I did not like. I was too picky. With all the choice I have now, I can find almost a perfect jeans for me. There is a wide variety of style, new sizing options; if you preferred a specific kind of brand they are offering more choices as well. My biggest issue was with sizing. If, for example, a pair of jeans is designed a certain way, it will not fit me perfect. But now with all the choices I have, I can pick something that just not fits me well but also gives me a chance to try new things. By trying new things that look good on me gives me an opportunity to be someone who I want to be. I choose the way I want to look rather then looking similar with everyone else.

This was a really interesting podcast. I really enjoyed listening to what all he had to say. His points mentioned were great about how choices make people miserable. But there is not really a right answer. I fell its how you look at it, and I think choices are great!