I found this video which, although a bit out of the subject of this blog, is nevertheless interesting as it discusses the society of masses we live in, and how the sheer amount of choice we have at our disposal can lead to paralysis. Hope you enjoy it!
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/93
A couple of months ago I had the problem of the mobile phone. The battery of my old and trusty nokia 3310 was letting me down, so I decided to get a new phone, only to spiral in the thoughts of looking for the cheapest and more basic phone and then realizing that I could get a little bit more phone for a little bit more money, and not wanting to feel like I had made the wrong choice. It took me 3 weeks to decide...
In the end I got a spare battery from a friend for my own phone, and I couldn't be happier!
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3 comments:
the guy is totally right, half the world has too little choice and is unhappy and the other half has too much and... is unhappy. Balance is not our strong. A lot of people have come to the same conclusion, including the Buddhists and their middle way, but practicing it is something else all together... there´s a business opportunity here... open a supermarket with little choice, only 2 types of each product, a la DDR! :)
It would be one more choice for people to make...go to the one with lots of choice or to the one with 2 choices...
We do need less choice, but the main issue, is that a specialist should be choosing for us. The designers and engineers have specialized in the area and know more than the most informed consumer. They should examine what do we indeed need in a certain product and decide for us.
An example is buying a car. Why does the consumer have to decide manual/automatic, lots or no airbags, ESP? ABS? and any other initials? Lots of airbags is better than few, so make all cars with plenty, and with all the security features possible...manual/automatic? let the experts decide what is best, and in the worst case put in those that allow both...
experts not always have the best incentive to give you an optimal solution, if that requires time, they'll give you again a good enough, but at least you don't spend your time and brains figuring it out... in the good old days, when my mother took me buying shoes, the guy attending knew everything about shoes and would bring three pairs fitting my destruction capability and my mother would pick one. In the womens clothe shops all these ladies were tailors themselves and would make the necessary amendments such that clothes would fit nicer... now they know nothing, and don't want to... the other day i went into an old coffee and tea shop, the old guy asked me how i liked my coffee, i told him in a mocca, with strong flavor, and then he just went off in front of me and blended a special mix out of several different beans and it was wonderful.
PS i loved the quote: "Things were much better back in the times when things were much worse!!" :)
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