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The article starts off by saying that having too many choices can paralyze us, increasing the fear that we will choose wrong. I completely understand this from

The article starts off by saying that having too many choices can paralyze us, increasing the fear that we will choose wrong. I completely understand this from my own life, and I've found that good categorization, rather than fewer choices, is the key to stopping the paralysis. Good categories, preferably on some sort of spectrum (from cheap to expensive, from funny to tragic, from mild to spicy) allow me to do the equivalent of a quick binary search in my head. I like my buffalo wings hot, so I'll immediately gravitate to two or three choices on that end of the spectrum. Grocery stores and restaurants should setup their shelving and menus, respectively, to accomodate their customers in this.

CaptSpify 11y ago
I've always been skeptical of the "Paradox of Choice". I'm not saying it's bunk, but I don't see it in my own life. My only problem when choosing, is when there is no list of differences easily available for the choice I have to make. I wish I could apply an "online shopping filter" to real-world situations: "give me mac and cheese" "OK, now, only ones with white cheddar" "remove anything made by kraft", etc. I guess you could say it's an interface issue.
- wpietri 11y ago
  I spent a couple of years working on a product that was about purchasing decisions, and it's definitely a real phenomenon. One useful way to break down choices is on the satisfice vs optimize continuum. For some choices people make, they're optimizers. When I'm buying a laptop, I will put hours and hours into picking the best one for me. But when I go to a new bar and am faced with 30 beer taps, 2/3rds of which I've never tried, I don't care about getting the best beer, just a satisfactory beer. The paradox of choice shows up mainly with satisficing choices. Before phone cameras were common, for example, a lot of people just wanted to buy a digital camera. They didn't care much about megapixels or features; they just wanted to take pictures of the kid's birthday party next week. But each camera was working hard to differentiate itself. That meant the buyer was facing a ton of information to evaluate even though most of the cameras would be just fine for them. It made people crazy. If you want to notice paradox of choice in yourself, pay attention when you're on the satisficing end of the spectrum: when you just want a thing, but you have a bunch of options to wade through. Common places for people to experience this: large restaurant menus, picking vacation destinations, choosing wine off a large wine list. You may not be noticing it because you already have a good default strategy. After learning about this, I developed one for myself: pick the first thing that looks like it will do. E.g., with a large restaurant menu at a new place, some people will agonize. But I just scan down until I find something that sounds good, skim a little more just to be sure, and go with my first choice. If I come back to the restaurant in the future, I can invest in optimizing by trying different stuff. But in the general case, I've optimized my overall experience by having a low-load satisficing heuristic. You may already have this yourself.
  - specialist 11y ago
    TIL satisfice, thanks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satisficing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satisficing
- cousin_it 11y ago
  > "remove anything made by kraft" Oh, man. Story of my life: visit the US, go to a supermarket, grab a pack of cheese, bring it to the hotel, put some in my mouth, spit it out, notice the label: "cheese-like product made by kraft". Fly back to Europe, live happily for a few months, forget everything, visit the US again, repeat.
  - jff 11y ago
    How are you finding so much Kraft? Are you shopping at a 7-11? Even here in Albuquerque, not particularly known as a mecca of fancy cheeses, the vast majority of cheese is not Kraft. One trick to remember is that a lot of grocery stores have cheese in two places: near the milk and butter they have basics like Tillamook or the usually-decent store brand for cheddar, pepper jack, etc. Then over closer to the deli, there's a refrigerated table with the better cheeses.
  - fnovd 11y ago
    Most Americans know what to expect from Kraft cheese, and sometimes it's the flavor you're looking for. It's in the same vein as Marmite/Vegemite.
  - mwfunk 11y ago
    This is clearly operator error. If you want good cheese, buy good cheese. If you want to be a dumbass, buy random cheese from a random store and act surprised when you get something unexpected.
    - cousin_it 11y ago
      In many other countries, including the country I live, buying random cheese works as expected (i.e. I get cheese).

CaptSpify 11y ago

I've always been skeptical of the "Paradox of Choice". I'm not saying it's bunk, but I don't see it in my own life. My only problem when choosing, is when there is no list of differences easily available for the choice I have to make. I wish I could apply an "online shopping filter" to real-world situations: "give me mac and cheese" "OK, now, only ones with white cheddar" "remove anything made by kraft", etc. I guess you could say it's an interface issue.

wpietri 11y ago
I spent a couple of years working on a product that was about purchasing decisions, and it's definitely a real phenomenon. One useful way to break down choices is on the satisfice vs optimize continuum. For some choices people make, they're optimizers. When I'm buying a laptop, I will put hours and hours into picking the best one for me. But when I go to a new bar and am faced with 30 beer taps, 2/3rds of which I've never tried, I don't care about getting the best beer, just a satisfactory beer. The paradox of choice shows up mainly with satisficing choices. Before phone cameras were common, for example, a lot of people just wanted to buy a digital camera. They didn't care much about megapixels or features; they just wanted to take pictures of the kid's birthday party next week. But each camera was working hard to differentiate itself. That meant the buyer was facing a ton of information to evaluate even though most of the cameras would be just fine for them. It made people crazy. If you want to notice paradox of choice in yourself, pay attention when you're on the satisficing end of the spectrum: when you just want a thing, but you have a bunch of options to wade through. Common places for people to experience this: large restaurant menus, picking vacation destinations, choosing wine off a large wine list. You may not be noticing it because you already have a good default strategy. After learning about this, I developed one for myself: pick the first thing that looks like it will do. E.g., with a large restaurant menu at a new place, some people will agonize. But I just scan down until I find something that sounds good, skim a little more just to be sure, and go with my first choice. If I come back to the restaurant in the future, I can invest in optimizing by trying different stuff. But in the general case, I've optimized my overall experience by having a low-load satisficing heuristic. You may already have this yourself.
- specialist 11y ago
  TIL satisfice, thanks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satisficing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satisficing
cousin_it 11y ago
> "remove anything made by kraft" Oh, man. Story of my life: visit the US, go to a supermarket, grab a pack of cheese, bring it to the hotel, put some in my mouth, spit it out, notice the label: "cheese-like product made by kraft". Fly back to Europe, live happily for a few months, forget everything, visit the US again, repeat.
- jff 11y ago
  How are you finding so much Kraft? Are you shopping at a 7-11? Even here in Albuquerque, not particularly known as a mecca of fancy cheeses, the vast majority of cheese is not Kraft. One trick to remember is that a lot of grocery stores have cheese in two places: near the milk and butter they have basics like Tillamook or the usually-decent store brand for cheddar, pepper jack, etc. Then over closer to the deli, there's a refrigerated table with the better cheeses.
- fnovd 11y ago
  Most Americans know what to expect from Kraft cheese, and sometimes it's the flavor you're looking for. It's in the same vein as Marmite/Vegemite.
- mwfunk 11y ago
  This is clearly operator error. If you want good cheese, buy good cheese. If you want to be a dumbass, buy random cheese from a random store and act surprised when you get something unexpected.
  - cousin_it 11y ago
    In many other countries, including the country I live, buying random cheese works as expected (i.e. I get cheese).