Why more (options) is less (satisfying). This fellow did a great job at researching the effects of choice and the supposed freedoms associated with it. He outlines how the excess of alternatives, such as 250 types of cookies in a grocery isle, actually inhibits your decision making process and will probably leave you less satisfied than if you only had to pick between 4 kinds of cookies. He offers many scenarios to illustrate how people choose their partners (and thus how they are satisfied with them) as well as many other anecdotes from personal or research experience. Now while all that’s well and good, after the great research Mr. Schwartz performed, he didn’t really delve in to any one topic. In fact, he skipped over a lot of ideas and didn’t examine the psychology or history very much at all. He repeats himself throughout the book. He repeats himself throughout the book a lot. But, he also uses conjunctions at the beginning of sentences a lot too. Still, it’s a good read and very informative – you might just learn something about yourself.

Barry Schwartz’s Paradox of Choice is a series of studies and arguments with a single point. No Choice is horrible. As Choices are added the peasants are happier. But only to a point! Then the Choices become overwhelming, people are awash in decisions with too many possibilities and the stress of choosing and regret that will follow what could be an imperfect Choice may follow.

He spends a lot of time focusing on the difference between a maximizer and a satisfier. Exactly as you would expect, the satisfier makes a decision once he has found a product that he believe will work, it is good enough. A maximizer must look at every possibility and consider every pro and con before he has made a decision. Now you may have beaten me to the punchline, but the satisfier with his logically flawed decision is a much much MUCH happier person. He does not think back on the other options he could have had. He does not feel regret. He does not fill himself with stress before the decision.

For those of you who know me, you know why this makes me sad. Schwartz says some people may be borderline satisfier/maximizers, and also certain situations cause people to act differently (the difference between shopping for clothes and “shopping” for a graduate university). However, I am a maximizer. In every situation. But there are certain solutions to this, and the book does present some of them. Such as learning to more objectively analyze opportunity costs and also tricks to accepting imperfection.

On any count, this book is a very interesting read, and showcases why it is easier to write about a topic, than to be given a blank slate.