On 03/14 10:35 , Mike Miller wrote: > Check this out: > > http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html > > The cyborgs of the future might not mind a large number of options, but > for the rest of us it creates some problems (along with the obvious > benefits). It's an interesting talk, like just about everything else at TED. I do have some issues with the things he says tho (many of them with his conclusions): * Humans are Individuals. We need to keep in mind that there are some people who actually do know which of the 175 salad dressings is probably best for them. So just because many people don't know which to choose doesn't mean we should hinder those who do. Those who do understand these things will tend to influence the rest of us. (Possibly they don't understand things as well as they think they do; but see my last point). Don't think of people as aggregates, or in terms of the 'average person' (which is really hard, since it's such a useful construct). * Don't conflate wealth with choice - if we mean to redistribute 'choice' from people who have much to people who have little right now; how do we do it? Redistributing wealth will be a proxy way of doing it; but it's not a very good way because coercive fiat tends to arbitrarily limit choice rather than create it (there's only as much creativity as the bureaucrat has imagination). We may choose to redistribute wealth for moral reasons, but that's a separate problem. * Who decides? - Who gets to choose what choices everyone should have, and how do we prevent the natural tendency for those decision-makers to redistribute the good choices to themselves? * We make imperfect choices all the time, but we rarely make *disastrous* choices. We may not find the 'perfect' salad dressing; but we usually have an acceptable one. Accept that your choices are imperfect, and it will liberate you from much worry. In short, I think much of the problem of choice is that we worry too much about it. We individuals will need to learn to accept that there's too much out there to know and do; and to be happy that we're making acceptable choices. -- Carl Soderstrom Systems Administrator Real-Time Enterprises www.real-time.com