The paradox of choice!

The title of this post is the title of one of the most insighful books i have read and still reading. I love it.

I share some of the insights here.

Some people are maximisers and some are satisficers. I am talking from the population of people who have some standards for their lives. Now, satisficers are happy with "good enough" choices and maximisers seek to maximise everything. This is where the problem is. Every time they make a decision, they think of all the better alternatives they have had to give up.

For example, a maximiser buys a motorbike after much search. Now that he has the motorbike, there is a possibility of "postpurchase regret" Maximers cannot escape this because they will keep thinking about all the alternatives that he has given up and which could have been better.

It's not that satisficers do not have standards. They have standards but once they make a decision, they are happy with their decision which enables them to enjoy their decisions. They do not have to keep thinking about options they have left out.

There is nothing called a perfect world. A perfect world is a hypothetical reality where we do not have to make trade offs and get everything we want. This is an imaginary situation.

We all want to have choices. But what do these choices do to us? Does it help out lives? Does it help the way we make decisions?

unfortunately, the more choices we have, the more frustrated we are. We cannot decide what is good for us. I mean, think of buying a car. Which car should you purchase? Which category? Which design? Which company? Lets sa you boil down to a company. Maruti.

Now Maruti zen, versa, 800, Baleno, SX4, Lx, Px or Gx???? Ofcourse, I have not covered the entire range here. The opportunity costs of making one decision over all the others!!! Think about the opportunity costs of marriage!!!!

Counterfactual thinking has been the reason for the growth of the human society. If only we did not think about something that does not exist and could be a possibility, how would we eveolve?? However, it is also the reason for regrets, both anticipative regrets and buyer's remorse.

More and more choices do not quite serve us all the time. We would ideally want to be left alone and not look at opportunity costs at all. e can help ourselves by being satisficers. The problem in keeping options open is that we are never quite done with the decision.

People do things which they do not have reasons for. "Why" does not always precede reality. Choice is supposed to benefit us, isn't it? But does it?

The opportunity costs of one choice over another present the paradox of choice!!

cheers