This is a book review of The Paradox of Choice: How The Culture of Abundance Robs Us Of Satisfaction by Barry Schwartz.
How I got the book:
It was a Christmas present, on my list. I’m serious.
Background:
Barry Schwartz is an American psychology professor who has written extensively on the impact of choice on individuals. He has focused on the impact of having a great deal (perhaps too much) of choices for many of our daily decisions. The Paradox of Choice contains various arguments as to why having too many choices can result in misery and problems rather than happiness and satisfaction. The book is divided into four sections:
I. When We Choose
II. How We Choose
III. Why We Suffer
IV. What We Can Do
The first three sections deal with the nature of making choices and possible negative results from having too many options. The final section presents eleven recommendations on how we can better handle the wide ranges of choices available to us.
The strengths:
There is no question in my mind that this is an important book that everyone should read. Schwartz clearly and comprehensively makes a case that having too many choices, or options, available to us in our lives can lead to unhappiness.
The areas for improvement:
After spending a great deal of time building a case for choice overload, Schwartz spends very little time on possible solutions to these problems. Several of them were foreshadowed throughout the book and the entire list, when put together, isn’t very inspiring.
Other points of interest:
Although they aren’t addressed in this book, I think this book can shed some insight into the longer term impact of Twitter and of “free” products.
Verdict (out of 10): 8 (recommended; a good way to get a handle on an important, but seldom discussed, topic)
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I was really grabbed by the things that you say were hinted at. The long-term impact of Twitter and free products. I have read Gladwell demolishing the 'notion of free' in the New Yorker, I think, but do you know anyone else who is discussing this and the long term impact of Twitter ?
You say he spends a lot of time on building his case, a little on providing solutions.
Is the buildup *too* long? As in; at one point you feel “yeah, yeah, I know it, you convinced me … so now what?!”
Off the top of my head, no, but I'm sure someone else is. I'm going to write a post in the next few days further explaining what I meant.
Yeah, it felt a little too long to me. However, I think he was being thorough and it's important to consider his points.
I also read this and liked it overall. Ironically, my only issue with it was that since Schwartz's research is so fascinating, I had read about several of the experiments in other books. Plenty of good insight in “Paradox” and anytime I see an endless menu or stand paralyzed by a store shelf, I recall his “Jam” research (where people would purchase if there were only a few choice, but when faced with too many, they became overwhelmed and were less likely to purchase anything).
Too many choices can lead to no choices, I think.