Choice

Thewirecutter.com is an electronics buying site that presents what they consider the best option for various categories. You want a laptop? Buy a Macbook Air 13″. Want a cheap digital camera? Buy the Panasonic Lumix DMC-SZ7. And so on.

The site runs counter to the notion that more choices leads to more happiness. Whether we’re choosing a TV, car, job, home, husband or wife, there’s an assumption that more options means we can get the thing that’s just right for us. When we have that right thing, all of problems will disappear.

But what happens? There are 30 different 30″ flat-screen TV’s at the same price; 10 mid-sized sedans, all about the same price and performance; several attractive partners. Because there’s such a bounty of options, many of us get what is called analysis paralysis (also called option or choice paralysis). We either make no choice at all or take ages to choose. When we do choose, we are often beset with doubt, wondering whether we chose the right thing. In this way, more choices can lead to wasted time and misery, not a trouble-free, tailor-fit, happy life.

This phenomenon was made popular with Barry Schwartz’s book and subsequent TED talk called the “Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less.” In a nutshell, Schwartz asserts that the myriad choices modern life presents us more often lead to anxiety than liberation.

This phenomenon holds true even when the increased choices do deliver a better, more personalized product. In his TED talk, Schwartz uses fitted jeans to demonstrate the paradox of choice. Sure, the newer, tailored jeans fit better than the stiff, ill-fitting, one-size-fits-all variety of his youth, but the amount of time spent finding the new variety, the amount of mental energy used choosing them and the amount of money spent paying for them undermines, if not negates, their benefits. In other words, psychological expenses often outweigh material gains.

In the ever-changing, option-laden world of electronics, The Wirecutter is a great tool for sparing yourself from analysis paralysis. The items are curated by expert reviewers who do a ton of analysis and know this stuff way better than most of us. They do present alternatives in case their main suggestion is way off base for a particular user.

The fact is that with any choice, there will be multiple “right” choices. An iPhone or a Galaxy S III will both ably fulfill your smartphone needs. There is no one right choice. At a certain point we must accept opportunity costs and make the best decision based on the information we have at our disposal.

Are you confronted with a choice? Here are a few suggestions to avoid getting trapped in vicious choice circles:

If what you currently have works, consider staying with that. Sometimes the best choices are the ones we already made. Like a particular type of shoes? Get another of the same type. Like your laptop, get the newer version. Sure, there might be better ones out there, but finding them might be more trouble than it’s worth.
Consult the experts. If you don’t know what to choose, find a reliable, robust source of data like The Wirecutter or Consumer Reports. Amazon reviews can be helpful, though not always; be sure to check out the one and two star reviews to see why people don’t like something. Remember, nothing will ever be perfect.
Decide a set amount of time you have to decide. This is important. Sure, bigger decisions might require more time. You might wait more than a week to propose to that girl. But eventually decisions must be made.
Make a choice and live with it. As with any choice, there will be better options we can’t make for whatever reason (insufficient information, finances, etc.). All we can do is make the best choice we can in the moment and get on with our life. Often the best choice is the one that is made.

Via PSFK

This post originally posted October 24, 2012

If you’re even remotely a techie, you’re aware that the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was held in Las Vegas this week. The TVs, game consoles, phones, tablets, and phablets (no, we’re not making that up) of tomorrow are there on display today.

We love the things technology makes possible. We love that our mobile apps do the duty of tons of useful tools. We love that Spotify and Netflix allow us to ditch our CDs and DVDs while giving us access to far more media than we could ever acquire in a lifetime. We love how our eReaders allow us to take our libraries anywhere. All of these things depend on the kind of hardware seen at CES.

The consumer tech industry has a lot to do with Moore’s Law, which says that the number of transistors that can fit on an integrated circuit doubles every two years; it’s a law that has held true for the last 50 years and shows no sign of abating. It has made technological advances occur at breakneck speeds–tech that was state of the art five years ago is considered garbage today. No other industry can say that–not cars, furniture, energy…nothing.

But what about us, the users? Can we keep up with the number of choices and options available? Are we better off with these choices at all?

An insightful article by Treehugger’s Jaymi Heimbuch entitled “CES 2013: The World’s Largest Electronics Tradeshow, Buddhism, and the Illusion of Choice,” waxes about the existential implications of CES. She writes:

We produce too much stuff to the point of redundancy and even ridiculousness. The consumer electronics industry is bound up in this truth: the myriad choices we are given as consumers of gadgets is pure illusion. Instead of freedom through modern gadgetry, we are unwittingly made increasingly unhappy by it.

We’ve explored this philosophical terrain before, asking how less choice might be the route to greater happiness, and conversely how greater options can often make us miserable. While we aren’t at CES ourselves, we imagine the available choices could paralyze someone who just wants a new phone.

While sitting out the tech arms race seems like the way to go, many of us depend on technology and appreciate its applications. As such, we’d just assume our tech be faster, lighter, more efficient, have better sound and display and so forth. We prefer our Samsung Galaxy III to a Palm III. These newer, better devices and all the things we can do on them would not be possible if companies–the same ones on display at the CES–had stood still technologically.

But how do we stop ourselves from stepping on a technological hedonic treadmill, where we get the fastest, thinnest, sexiest device, only to start lusting after the next model released a couple months later?

In our previous post on choice, we looked at the website The Wirecutter, which gets experts to declare a best device in any given category–e.g. best laptop, SLR, external harddrive, etc. If you take their advice, you have the opportunity to eliminate a lot of choice as well as benefitting from their expertise.

One of its contributors, Brian Lam, wrote an opinion piece in the NY Times called “Knowing When It Pays to Upgrade Your Gadgets.” It’s a clearheaded look at how to evaluate if you actually need a new piece of tech hardware.

Lam’s conclusion is basically different people have different tech needs. A graphic designer will need to replace her computer more often than a plumber. He does say that some things, like tablets, seldom need replacement for anyone. He also gives this overarching statement, which, from a tech writer, sounds pretty sage:

No one has ever regretted waiting as long as they can to upgrade their technology. We’re a nation of shoppers, tempted to buy the best at every turn. But I’ve found that the best way to avoid a premature upgrade is to remember what you might be giving up: a trip to a tropical getaway, a new suit or perhaps a down payment on a new bed that will help you sleep better. That kind of context makes it easier to pause and realize the grandest truth with upgrades: If it isn’t broken, stolen or lost, maybe you don’t need a new one just yet.

How about you? How do you balance your technological needs with the endless array of upgrades, faster models, etc.? We’d love to hear your opinions.

image credit: Andrew Harrer for Bloomberg

Tag: Choice

Save Time, Be Happier, Eliminate Choices

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