Book Review - The Paradox of Choice - Why More is Less

Another interesting book that I have read in the recent past is The Paradox of Choice - Why More Is Less by Barry Schwartz.  The tagline of the book “How the culture of abundance robs us of satisfaction” sums up the beauty of the contents of the book that is published by Harper Collins.

We live in a world of abundance. There is abundance of choice and overflow of unwanted objects aimed at sense gratification. If one is asked the question: Is the world a better place earlier when there were not many choices or when there are aplenty?, it would be quite a tough task to answer because abundance has created more confusion than choices. The result is more dissatisfaction than satisfaction and short-lived pleasure of any objective possessions.

You go to purchase a car after a lot careful study and market research. Within a few days of purchase, there is a face- lifted version of the car you buy or a much better car gets launched with many better features. In spite of having spent a bomb on the car, the happiness of the purchase gets impregnated with the news of new versions leading to frustrated feelings. It is the same with most people and you are not alone if you experience the above.

The author addressed such social and psychological issues in this wonderfully presented book. Taking examples from latest research in social sciences, he makes a nice case for eliminating choice overload which in turn could help in reducing stress and anxiety that most people face while shopping or making choices in life.

The book highlights two interesting shopping characters, one a maximizer and the other a satisficer. While the maximizer tends to seek and accept only the best, the satisficer settles for something that is good enough and does not worry about the possibility that there could be something better. A maximizer needs to be assured that every purchase or decision was the best that could be made. But it is not possible for anyone to say or know that any given is option is absolutely the best possible. For a healthy life, the author recommends us to be a satisficer than a maximizer.

In chapter Five, the author talks about choices and happiness. He explains how choice has an instrumental value in life because it enables people to get what they need and want in life. The author subtly advises that choices we make should not disturb our happiness levels. In chapter Seven, he strongly advises that there should be no regret attached with a decision and he classifies regret as postdecision regret, a regret that occurs after we have experienced the results of a decision and anticipated regret, which is regret that is felt even before the decision is made. He advises readers not to live with regret as it could lead to feeling of helplessness, disappointment and depression.

For those who are seriously disturbed by the huge plethora of choices that the world seems to offer, there is help at hand that the author offered in Chapter Eleven, the last and final one. The eleven steps suggested are easy to practice and to derive maximum happiness from the choices we make in our daily lives and they are given below:

1.   Choose when to choose

2.   Be a chooser not a picker

3.   Satisfice more and maximize less

4.   Think about the opportunity costs of opportunity costs

5.   Make your decisions nonreversible

6.   Practice an “Attitude of Gratitude”

7.   Regret Less

8.   Anticipate adaptation

9.   Control Expectations

10.Curtail Social Comparisons

11.Learn to Love Constraints

Though the book is written in the context of modern day America, the contents are universal and are worth a read by all those who are faced with the problem of abundance. And that means it is a must read for all of us.