Choices are for Chumps

It's fascinating how many assumptions we carry around with us, use to judge situations- assumptions that often drive major life choices- that we leave completely uninterrogated.  One of the most ubiquitous, complicated and problematic is the notion that if we have more choices in life, we will be happier/better off.

Let's start with the argument for choices.  It goes something like this: people walk into situations with pre-existing preferences.  If they have more choices, they are more likely to find an option that is more closely matched with their preferences.  They get what they want, they are happy!  End of story.

But is it, really?

First off, we all know that we encounter decisions every day into which we carry no real preferences.  In that case, having more choices can be an inconvenience.  Ever been with a group of friends trying to pick a restaurant, and no one is particularly motivated to go any place in particular?  And yet, no one wants to rush into a decision when there are thousands of tasty options available in any major city.  Sometimes I wind up so hangry that I'd rather just be by myself eating a sandwich, rather than standing around with a group of intelligent people dithering between five equally good choices.

Which brings me to point #2: happiness is not about the satisfaction of objective needs and wants that you've already identified for yourself.  Human beings constantly measure their happiness relative to expectations, not relative to objective measures.   Remember that old adage about the grass always being greener?  Read any of the happiness studies that have been published in the last five years demonstrating that after an initial surge of pleasure, lottery winners end up about as happy as they were before they won the lottery?  Choice factors into this picture of expectations as well.  You walk into a store, looking for a pair of jeans.  On the racks in front of you are literally hundreds of options to choose from.  There are hundreds more in other stores just down the street.  With thousands of jeans to choose from, your brain (perhaps subconsciously) is telling you, you are guaranteed to find the perfect pair of jeans.

But we all know that isn't going to happen.  Even if you have hundreds of options, you don't have the time or energy to explore all of them.  Many of the options are redundant.  Many combinations of characteristics that we fantasize about (amazing fit and quality, low price) are virtually non-existent.  But our emotional brains don't weigh these logical considerations - we only feel in that moment that we live in a land of plenty and we still find ourselves unsatisfied.  We judges ourselves, judge our personal character, when what we are really experiencing is a natural response to choice overload.

One final plug for the value of fewer choices - go to a nice restaurant, some place with three or four stars.  Count up how many menu items they offer.  My bet - less than ten.  And they'll all be delicious.  The next night, go to the Cheescake Factory, and explored the encyclopedic menu of offerings.  You'll have all the choices and options you can handle.  And no matter what you order, it's going to taste like lumpy garbage.