The Paradox of Choice
by Barry Schwartz, Ken Kliban · first published 2004
47% recommend51% neutral2% critical
Why HN recommends it
Psychology of why more options leave people less happy: maximizers vs satisficers, regret, and decision fatigue. Useful for product and UX designers and anyone overwhelmed by shopping or tool choices.
Common criticism: Some say the underlying choice-overload research is weak and fails to replicate
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
In the spirit of Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock, a social critique of our obsession with choice, and how it contributes to anxiety, dissatisfaction and regret. This paperback includes a new P.S. section with author interviews, insights, features, suggested readings, and more.Whether we’re buying a pair of jeans, ordering a cup of coffee, selecting a long-distance carrier, applying to college, choosing a doctor, or setting up a 401(k), everyday decisions--both big and small--have become increasingly complex due to the overwhelming abundance of choice w
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There is an awesome TED talk by Barry Schwartz: The paradox of choice. https://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_c... Psychologist Barry Schwartz takes aim at a central tenet of western societies: freedom of choice. In Schwartz's estimation, choice has…
on “Why too much choice is stressing us out” ↗…found the software to be buggy and unreliable -- and that's why people go buy iPads. They don't want to jump through so many hoops to get so little. The journey is no reward. Edited to add: See "The Paradox of Choice" by Barry Schwartz too.
on “A Generation Lost in the Bazaar ” ↗…from the truth. I'm not even going to ask you because you've got no evidence for this whatsoever. No it isn't, and a very famous and popular book was even written about it by Barry Schwartz called The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less which spiked a lot of research on the topic. You should read it. > It equates exactly to "Choices are bad". Perhaps that is true for marketing purposes but not for solving actual real-life…
on “Safari Should Display Favicons in Its Tabs” ↗- Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson - Copywriting (Teach Yourself series), by J. Jonathan Gabay - The Paradox of Choice, by Barry Schwartz
on “Ask YC: What would you put on a hacker's bookshelf?” ↗The linked blog post discusses it, but I want to highly recommend "The Paradox of Choice" by Barry Schwartz [1]. He discusses psychological research showing why maximizing--attempting to have the best of everything--actually leads us to be less happy with our choices, not more. Seek quality,…
on “The Best” ↗…customizing products is that you have to think about and describe what you actually want. Personally, I would prefer somewhat less freedom of choice, and more free time :) An interesting read might be "The Paradox of Choice" by Barry Schwartz (2004).
on “There’s no money in 3D printing” ↗…arguments. All the books that have actually affected the way I do things tend much more towards theory and frameworks of thought. Our little startup has three holy texts: "Nonzero" by Robert Wright, "The Paradox of Choice" by Barry Schwartz, and "Fooled By Randomness" by Nassim Taleb (which is even more sanctimonious than "The Seven Habits...", but a lot better, too).
on “10 Overrated Business Books (and What to Read Instead)” ↗…to compute the odds that a particular hour of your life was spent in the "best" possible way is a recipe for misery, even when it's not an actual symptom of mental illness. Somebody needs to read The Paradox of Choice.
on “No Matter Where You Went, Your Education Wasn’t the Best” ↗I found The Wisdom of Crowds hard to get through. Interesting subject matter, but the text just didn't flow for me. "The Paradox of Choice" by Barry Schwartz was a great read.
on “Ask YC: Road trip. Which audio books would you recommend?” ↗I was thinking of posting another link to that book, but I had just done so recently in another thread. Another interesting idea: Barry Schwartz's _The Paradox of Choice_ http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/lang/eng/barry_schwartz_o... Sometimes trying to maximize is more trouble than it's worth. "Satisficing" is a good way to economize. Save your maximizing behavior…
on “Luxury vs. premium” ↗I agree with you about several of those books, but The Paradox of Choice - Why More is Less - by Barry Schwartz, was excellent. His work at Swarthmore was far from "junk". Here's a link to his TED talk on the subject: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_par...
on “Reading list for those who love to learn” ↗…engagement is to flatten out the structure of the information, and ask everyone to read everything in order to discover the influential, popular, or insightful bits... ... you desperately need to read The Paradox of Choice: http://www.amazon.com/Paradox-Choice-Why-More-Less/dp/006000... There is nothing engaging about thirty screenfuls of undifferentiated choices. When presented with that, I'll just leave. If I wanted…
on “Experiment: No Comment Scores” ↗…gadgets, and he does mention tablets at the end of the article , but it's really true for almost all consumer goods today. If you really want to understand this argument better, I highly recommend The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz. He argues that the abundance of choice in today's world is making us less satisfied with our decisions.
on “Android (and Windows 7 phones) leads to too much hardware choice” ↗If you are an over optimiser (i.e. the word BEST appears in your head when you try and do something rather than Good enough) you should read The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz (http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_ch...).
on “Ask HN: No intrinisic motivation to build stuff” ↗…Thinking by James Womack -------------- Some thought provoking personal effectiveness titles : The Four Agreements by Miguel Ruiz (http://www.amazon.com/Four-Agreements-Practical-Personal-Fre...) The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less by Barry Schwartz (http://www.amazon.com/Paradox-Choice-Why-More-Less/dp/006000...) The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
on “Ask HN: What books to read on developing mental models and increasing cognition?” ↗