Comments on: Review: The Paradox of Choice

By: Ed Thomas

Ed Thomas — Tue, 12 May 2009 13:38:32 +0000

I mostly agree, but an observation on less important decisions [butter] in the past yes a less important decision it seemed. Recently my wife got seriously ill [congestive heart failure] and now the butter or substitute [realy all foods] with lowest sodium is not less important. \

Just to show how low import decisions can change in perspective.

By: Caeli

Caeli — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:23:08 +0000

I really agree with the philosophy of this book. It’s pretty clear to me that I’m a maximizer, and I regularly have panic attacks at the grocery store if I don’t have someone else (my dear, patient husband) along to make the final product decision based on my criteria. I make the list and tell him the budget and he does all the rest!

By: Sandy

Sandy — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:39:55 +0000

I read a book last month that changed me into becoming a veg. and that was totally unexpected before I read it. My point though is this: the first time I went to the grocery store after that, and realized I could walk by the meat department, without having to make a choice, was such a feeling of relief, and still is. What a time savings! What a money savings! I’m in and out of the grocery store so quickly now. It’s like a big burden has been lifted off my shoulders and I’m a lot happier now. Who knew?

By: guinness416

guinness416 — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:04:22 +0000

Great link, HSDell.

By: lisa

lisa — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 13:22:00 +0000

I absolutely love this book. I read it in college as assigned reading and it was one of the best books a professor could ever assign. It really opened my eyes to how I make choices and how to consiously change the way you make choices. I always considered myself a maximizer, but I’ve worked to become more of a satisficer. Neither one is bad, but making a decision was paralyzing because I would always wonder if I was missing out on a better deal.

Now, I’m constantly recognizing these traits in my friends. I actually made my boyfriend read this book so he could get better control of his maximizing ways.

I’ve come to the conclusion, saving money is great and I love doing it. But, I no longer fear choices because I’ve realized that I can never get the best deal possible. I just get the best deal at the time and move on.

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 13:19:28 +0000

As HSDell mentioned the Google lecture is a good summary of the topic. The part that really intrigued me was that even if you make the best choice you end up feeling stressed that you “might” not have made the best choice!

By: Jam

Jam — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 07:11:06 +0000

His talk at TED on the same topic is available
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/93

By: HSDell

HSDell — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 06:06:49 +0000

Here is a link to a 2006 Google lecture by the author (Barry Shwartz) on this topic–Fascinating!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6127548813950043200

Thanks.

By: cv

cv — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 00:46:32 +0000

I read this book a few years ago, as the author is a professor at the college I went to, and his theories are pretty well-known there.

One place this comes in to personal finance in a big way is choosing stocks or mutual funds. There are thousands of options, and since money is important many people really want to make sure the investment they’re putting their money into is the best one out there. They end up either spending far too much time worrying about it, regretting their choices, etc., or (like me for a long time) they’re paralyzed by all the choices out there and leave their money in a savings account.

The better option for a non-expert is to just pick a couple of low-cost, broad based funds (like index funds) and go for it. Their choice might not get the best return in any given period, but over the long haul it beats doing nothing and probably won’t be any worse than the choice of the person who worries about it constantly.