
The tyranny of choice: making decisions becomes hard work  - 001sky
http://www.economist.com/node/17723028
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anigbrowl
There's a piece on Obama in _Vanity Fair_ this month where he mentions that he
alternates between a blue and a grey suit each day, because he doesn't want to
spend mental energy on unnecessary decision-making.

On a more trivial note, I have abandoned my computer for making electronic
music. I was spending more mental effort on optimizing my production
environment than I was on actually using it.

~~~
zalew
> There's a piece on Obama in Vanity Fair this month where he mentions that he
> alternates between a blue and a grey suit each day, because he doesn't want
> to spend mental energy on unnecessary decision-making.

like he doesn't have people who work on his image and decide it for him.

~~~
001sky
Don't forget: relevant context

 _Columnist Bonnie Erbe has argued that [Mrs] Obama's own publicists seem to
be feeding the emphasis on style over substance.[110] Erbe has stated on
several occasions that she is miscasting herself by overemphasizing
style.[46][111] In July 2007, Vanity Fair listed her among "10 of the World's
Best Dressed People." In July 2008, she made a repeat appearance on the Vanity
Fair international best dressed list.[86] She also appeared on the 2008 People
list of best-dressed women and was praised by the magazine for her "classic
and confident" look.[87][88] Her fashion choices were part of the 2009 Fashion
week,[91] but Obama's influence in the field did not have the impact on the
paucity of African-American models who participate, that some thought it
might.[92][93] She often wears clothes by designers Calvin Klein, Isabel
Toledo, Narciso Rodriguez, Donna Ricco and Maria Pinto,[98] and has become a
fashion trendsetter,[99][100][101] She appeared on the cover and in a photo
spread in the March 2009 issue of Vogue.[103][104] Every First Lady since Lou
Hoover (except Bess Truman) has been in Vogue,[103] but only Hillary Clinton
had previously appeared on the cover.[105 In August 2011 she became the first
woman to appear on the cover of Better Homes and Gardens magazine, as well as
the first person to appear on the cover in 48 years. [106]_

~~~
anigbrowl
This is about Mr Obama, not Mrs Obama.

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femto
One could argue that tyranny of choice is caused by inconsistency, rather than
the choice itself.

For example, if you have five things to choose from, it's probably not too
hard. Let's say you instead have the choice of 5 binary attributes, with any
choice of attributes being available. Your five choices have now selected one
of 32 products.

Now imagine you have to choose 5 binary attributes, but certain combinations
of those attributes are not available. On paper, your choice could be said to
be easier, since the product range is smaller, but the inconsistency forces
you to have to consider every one of the 25 combinations (for example), and
your brain explodes.

~~~
johnchristopher
That's basically what happens every time I have to replace a laptop or a piece
of hardware.

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cjc1083
This is why I shop for groceries at Aldi instead of more popular brand name
supermarkets. They have only the store brand of all products. I find that in
addition to saving 50-60% on my food bill, the trip to store is super fast,
stress free, and I have all of the same food I would have otherwise gotten.
The only thing I go to a regular supermarket for is deli/seafood/meats which
are not branded.

~~~
mathgladiator
You could equally just go to Whole Foods every day and spend 200% on Organic-
Local-Non-GMO-Grassfed-Free-Range products.

~~~
Evbn
Not equally, I could only go half as much.

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Xcelerate
This reminds me so much of this Calvin and Hobbes comic:

[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2NHLFdK16uU/T3mU5fc6x0I/AAAAAAAAA8...](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2NHLFdK16uU/T3mU5fc6x0I/AAAAAAAAA8U/8MdUXKXlEHo/s1600/e407e36c250d102d94d7001438c0f03b.gif)

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SIULHT
Also similar contents to this book I think:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice:_Why_More...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice:_Why_More_Is_Less)

~~~
sweetdreamerit
<shameless self promotion> I gave a talk about "Designing Interactions that
Help Customers in Decision Making" last year at EuroIA:
<http://www.hyperlabs.net/ergonomia/presentazioni/euroia11/>

~~~
Evbn
Document fails on Android :(

I assume all commercial applications of this work would "help" consumers spend
more, and this add another layer of cruft to decode when shopping.

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lucian1900
I don't think it's nearly as bad as this article makes it out to be. There
still are defaults and you can still pick those.

What if you buy something and you don't like it? You can just never buy it
again and choose something else instead.

~~~
acuozzo
> You can just never buy it again and choose something else instead.

... assuming you have the money to do so. How would your advice apply to an
individual interested in purchasing an automobile?

