Educating Risa

I recently discovered Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project blog, and in addition to all kinds of fascinating material and inspirational quotes, she has oodles and oodles of book suggestions—enough to keep even a bibliophile like myself happy for months! One of the most provocative and insightful books I read off her list is Barry Schwartz’s The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less.

Schwartz uses plain language to explain how having so much choice, as we do in North America and other “Western” nations, is actually detracting from our happiness—a result that at first glance seems simply mistaken. “Choice is good—and the more choices the better!” we almost reflexively reply.  Schwartz discusses many studies showing how too much choice actually paralyzes our ability to act, and makes us less satisfied when we do finally choose (did I pick the best one?). His opening few paragraphs detailing the choice available at his local supermarket is one I will never forget: 85 varieties and brands of crackers; 285 of cookies. Across in the juice aisle 13 sport drinks, 65 box drinks for kids, 85 other juices, and 75 iced teas and adult drinks. 95 options in the snacks aisle (chips, pretzels and the like). 230 soups—29 different “chicken noodle” ones alone—175 salad dressings, 275 cereals, 175 tea bags, 64 types of barbeque sauce…on and on. And you start to realize how absurd it would be to carefully weigh your choices before selecting: you’d never leave the store!

Another very interesting discussion Schwartz has later—my favourite part of the book, in fact—is in the different approaches to choice by “maximizers” and ‘satisficers”.  When choosing a hotel to stay at on vacation, for example, maximizers and satisficers employ different strategies: a maximizer will compare every possible hotel on every possible dimension (price, pool, location, restaurant on site, room amenities, etc.), trying to come up with the very best option. A satisficer will think first of what she requires—say, a pool, fridge and microwave, and reasonable price—and stop her search once she finds a hotel that meets, or satisfies, her criteria. Schwatrz points out that in our western world with an abundance of choices, being a maximizer leads to less happiness and life satisfaction than being a satisficer. (He acknowledges that we all are a mix of both; folks maximize on some things and satisfice on others, but most people do have a preference for one strategy over the other). I’ve been consciously reminding myself to “satisfice! satisfice!” ever since. He gives many other suggested strategies for coping with our overwhelming choice in the final chapter.

I’ll leave you with one of my favourite passages:

Time is the ultimate scarce resource, and for some reason, even as one “time-saving” bit of technology after another comes our way, the burdens on our time seem to increase. Again, it is my contention that a major contributor to this time burden is the vastly greater number of choices we find ourselves preparing for, making, re-evaluating, and perhaps regretting. Should you book a table at your favorite Italian place or that new bistro? Should you rent the cottage on the lake or take the plunge and go to Tuscany? Time to refinance again? Stick with your Internet provider or go with a new direct service line? Move some stocks? Change your health insurance? Get a better rate on your credit card? Try that new herbal remedy? Time spent dealing with choice is time taken away from being a good friend, a good spouse, a good parent, and a good  congregant.   (emphasis mine)

Happy reading!