Rating: 
Summary: If choices are making you crazy read this book
Review: Dr. Schwartz has exposed the difference between the best and good enough. He tells us that "maximizers" are people who want the absolute best, so they have to examine every choice or they fear they are not getting the best. However, looking at all the choices is usually frustrating and takes too much time. A "satisficer" is a person who looks at the options and chooses an option that is good enough.
Maximizers may look at satisficers and say, "they're lazy or they're compromisers", but Dr. Schwartz points out that satisficers can have high standards. Dr. Schwart points out that the satisficer with high standards is internally motivated. The maximizer is more externally motivated because they are not looking at themselves, they're looking at others to see if what they have is better. Dr. Schwartz points out that social comparison brings unhappiness.
Rating:
Summary: If choices are making you crazy read this book
Review: Dr. Schwartz has exposed the difference between the best and good enough. He tells us that "maximizers" are people who want the absolute best, so they have to examine every choice or they fear they are not getting the best. However, looking at all the choices is usually frustrating and takes too much time. A "satisficer" is a person who looks at the options and chooses an option that is good enough.
Maximizers may look at satisficers and say, "they're lazy or they're compromisers", but Dr. Schwartz points out that satisficers can have high standards. Dr. Schwart points out that the satisficer with high standards is internally motivated. The maximizer is more externally motivated because they are not looking at themselves, they're looking at others to see if what they have is better. Dr. Schwartz points out that social comparison brings unhappiness.
Rating: 
Summary: Who decides what you buy? or think?
Review: Faced with too many choices, Schwartz has stumbled in his erudite and well-reasoned attempts to illustrate the dilemmas of too many choices too often for too many people in a too affluent society. "As the number of choices we face increases, freedom of choice eventually becomes a tyranny of choice," Schwartz intones one page from the end of his book. Maybe that's why America, the land of choice, has always limited itself to two major political parties rather than a profusion of ideologies and opinions. If choice is good in the marketplace, surely it is good for politics. Schwartz says he "found 85 different varieties and brands of crackers." Didn't it occurred to him that if America has cracker democracy, it should also have 85 different varieties and brands of political parties? If it's good for the marketplace, why not for politics? The key, which he passes over briefly, is found in his third chapter when he says cigarette manufacturers in the 1930s "discovered that smokers who taste-tested various cigarette brands without knowing which was which couldn't tell them apart." The result, he says, was "the practice of selling a product by associating it with a glamorous lifestyle." It's the foundation of modern marketplace. People who are satisfied with their lives don't spend their time worrying about whether they have the most elegant, tasty, healthy or socially responsible cracker; instead, they buy and use the cracker that meets their needs. Is this possible? Well, years ago I worked with a former executive from Kraft foods who once explained that Kraft factories produced 90 percent of the macaroni and cheese sold in America. Some was sold under the Kraft name; much was sold as private brands. Yet advertising tells people there are differences. Gasoline? It's all the same, according to people who run refineries; however, look at the advertising for gasoline. If you look at the hands producing vehicles, electronics, clothing and dozens of other consumer products, you realize much of the content comes from people who are paid pennies per hour to produce products according to ISO 9000 standards. The glamorous lifestyle choices that are so confusing comes from advertising. Want an IBM notebook? Cisco router? Sun workstation? Hewlett-Packard printer? All are manufactured by Solectron, the largest contract manufacturer in the world. You can still buy a new GE and RCA television, though GE hasn't made a TV since 1987 and RCA doesn't exist as a company; both are brand names for Thomson, the French electronics company. In other words, you're buying the product of one manufacturer. The key element is not the advertising glitter, nor the brand name of the product, it is whether a product meets your needs. I've driven a Jaguar, a truly magnificent car; but, my needs are best satisfied by a 1984 Volvo station wagon. In other words, my Volvo meets my needs -- my personal needs are not what advertisers say will make me happy or a car advertisers claim will raise the envy level of my neighbors. Schwartz offers a valuable introduction to the paradoxes of choice as muddled by advertising, his observations are relevant and telling but his conclusions are hollow. He's as much a prisoner of the "glamorous lifestyle" image as anyone. It's a great book to read if you keep this in mind; think of him in terms of providing an ISO 9001:2000 product and decide whether it meets your needs. Perhaps, though, I'm wrong in my assessment; maybe Schwartz is right. If you value intellectual integrity, read it and decide whether his ideas satisfy your experience. Bottom line? Read, then think for yourself and be satisfied with having added to your own knowledge and intelligence. Don't worry about what anyone else tells you to think.
Rating:
Summary: It's no wonder I don't shop anymore
Review: Finally someone has analyzed with insight and humor how negatively the endless choices in our society have become...and I was thinking of seeing a therapist. Thank you, Dr. Schwartz, for putting the abundance of choice in perspective and creating an awareness for the average consumer.
Rating:
Summary: Choice is good if you choose well.
Review: From the title of Barry Schwartz's "The Paradox of Choice," we know the argument will be that choice perhaps might not always be a good thing. He likens the current situation in America to the small town resident who visits Manhattan for the first time and is overwhelmed by all the activity (choices). Although most of his research involves everything but investing, I was struck by how much his concepts fit perfectly into what would be a good way to approach a successful investing program.
If we put less emphasis on his discussion of whether or not we are better off with more choices (obviously we are), and more on his advice on how to deal with this product of freedom, we get a book that is logically laid out and argues its point well. He first describes the environment in which our choices come at us, then investigates how our inability of deal with them leads to numerous problems - personal, professional, psychological. The most important part of the book is his summation of how we can adapt and learn to live with this new phenomenon.
His solutions, which he says require practice, discipline, and perhaps a new way of thinking, very closely follow the ingredients of good investing:
(1) Choose when to choose - focus on what's important. Be jealous of how you spend your time. Prioritize. Some things just aren't worth the time and effort.
(2) Be a chooser, not a picker - A chooser actively creates directions; pickers take whatever is available. Choosers choose when; pickers select whatever's available. Choosers are people who think actively about the possibilities before making a decision. Choosers reflect on what's important and the consequences of the action. They makes decisions in a way that reflects awareness of what a given choice means about themselves as people. Choosers are thoughtful enough to conclude that perhaps none of the available alternatives are satisfactory. The pickers grab this or that and hope for the best.
(3) Satisfice more and maximize less - (His definition of the two types of people in the world - satisficers and maximizers). "It is maximizers who have expectations which can't be met. It is maximizers who worry most about regret, about missed opportunities...and it is mazimizers who are most disappointed when decisions are not as good as they expected." - (225). The satisficers settle for something that is good enough and don't worry about the possibility that there might be something better. They have criteria and standards. They search until they find an item that fits those standards, then stop. Maximizers are constantly nagged that they haven't chosen the best. Therefore they get less satisfaction out of their choices than do satisficers.
(4) The opportunity costs of opportunity costs - Don't belabor the alternative - beware of getting bogged down in comparisons. If it works, go with it.
(5) Make your decisions nonreversible - Being able to reverse the decision makes you always wanting to do just that. A "the grass is always greener" mentality that leads to failure and unhappiness.
(6) Practice an "Attitude of Gratitude" - Appreciate what is, not what might have been.
(7) Regret less - Realize that one decision isn't going to make or break you. Live with it and move on.
(8) Anticipate adaptation - Don't become dissatisfied with something that was satisfying.
(9) Control expectations - Don't expect too much.
(10) Curtail social comparisons - Don't compare yourself to others.
(11) Learn to love constraints - Set up your own rules and live by them. They help protect you from yourself.
All in all, an excellent course on dealing with an increasingly complex world. Schwartz's next work should be decision making in the investment world. He's already done all the ground work.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting and helpful
Review: I am deeply thankful to live at a time, in a country, where I enjoy unprecedented freedoms; I would never want someone else to restrict my choices. And I'm not sure that the author and I agree on this point. However, "The Paradox of Choice" has certainly helped convince me that I could benefit from somewhat limiting my own options in certain areas, as I see fit. What I liked best about this book is the fact that its last chapter is devoted to giving readers practical, customizeable ways to control the ways in which choice can sometimes be paralyzing. Worth skimming, at least.
Rating:
Summary: My review of The Paradox of Choice
Review: I enjoyed reading this book very much. Having rules and constraints in society is a good thing and should be embraced. This is an important idea of this book. The Paradox of Choice explains how people arrive at the decisions they do. This book also talks about the negative aspects of making decisions in a world with so many choices. Finally, this book offers suggestions on how to make better choices and reduce stress.
Barry Schwartz makes many good points about decision making. One of them is that because of the growing number of choices we are presented with, we don't always have the time to look at all the information out there to make the best choice. Another interesting point is that people expect certain decisions to be made for them. In the health care field for example, we expect the doctor to tell what kind of treatment we need. I learned from reading this book that we should all strive to be satisficers rather maximizers. A satisficer is a person who chooses a product or service that is good enough. A maximizer is a person who is always trying to get the best product. A satisficer is usually happy with their choice. In contrast, a maximizer isn't happy and often regrets what they bought. We should also try to stick our choices and not change our minds. This is another way to reduce anixety I learned in the book. This is very hard to do consistently, but I thought this was a good piece of advice. I also enjoyed the idea of being a chooser and not a picker. Choosers have time to change their goals whereas pickers do not. Choosers take their time making a decision considering all their options unlike pickers who do not. The Paradox of Choice is an excellent book with a lot of interesting information about the habits people have in making decisions. It also has very useful tips on how to reduce anixety in your life.
Rating:
Summary: There's No Choice - You Should Read this Book!
Review: I happened across this book in a bookstore and went to the library to read it for free. After doing so, I found myself reflecting on it so frequently that I bought my own copy and also some additional copies to give to others.
In our culture of personal autonomy and responsibility the burden of making informed decisions requires that we indeed BECOME informed about each thing in order to make decisions intelligently. Unfortunately, we are awash in information, marketing, and choices so that we must first either filter our choices, closing off other options, pick randomly, being influenced by factors outside our awareness, or never make the choice at all.
This book looks at the area of shopping and commercial products but it occurs to me that it is relevant to many more areas as well: politics - who can keep track of all the issues/legislation/candidates? Writing - not writing until you've thought of the "perfect phrase" is the very definition of writer's block. Religion - in the face of so many creeds we wonder what to believe, and wait too until too late at the deathbed. Careers - would I be more successful/happier elsewhere? Education - what if I majored in something else, went to another school? Relationships - perpetually "keeping options open" instead of committing to someone. Investing - will you have a golden or bleak retirement based on your choices in the stock market? Entertainment - you could spend an hour cycling through all the cable channels rather than watching a program. Virtually every area of life has applicability. Instead of being able to take the time to evaluate every option, we often default and go by instinct, past habit, or fail to decide, not realizing that time is running out of our mortal hourglass. We are like tourists at the Smithsonian running from exhibit to exhibit, trying to see it all before closing time, and experiencing nothing.
The author presents useful strategies to filter the plethora of choices we face, such as selecting the "good enough" that meets our criteria instead of waiting for the "best," consciously narrowing our options, practicing an attitude of gratitude, etc. But the greatest value will come to the reader who, after reading this book, puts it down and reflects on its applicability to the specific choices of one's own life. We each have only 24 hours per day, and the clock is running.
Rating:
Summary: Why do we do what we do?
Review: I love this book--it provides a popularized introduction to the newest research into how we deal with the astonishingly rapid rise of available choices. The opening dialogue is sobering--we live in a world of near infinite variety, where something as simple as purchasing a pair of jeans becomes a complex task worthy of examination.
Mr. Schwartz takes the premise that the availability of choices comes with a psychic price--an intriguing notion that we are literally incapable of confronting our own world without instituting various defensive strategies that are only now yielding their secrets to research of the most creative and interesting sort. (The book is worth reading just for its description of some of the more elegant social research strategies.)
The happy and contented among us (who are also the more effective) have, according to Mr. Schwartz, managed to craft a strategy whereby choices are limited in advance by setting boundaries on what is chosen, by what process, and, especially, how much time and effort will go into any decision. Imagine that! A book that advocates self-restraint as a means to a more rewarding life and has science to back it up.
Rating:
Summary: Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo
Review: I remember reading about ten or twelve years ago of Russian immigrants to America who were overwhelmed by the choices in the average supermarket. Accustomed to a choice of cereal or no cereal, they became paralyzed when confronted with flakes, puffs, pops, sugared or not, oat, wheat, corn, rice, hot or cold, and on and on. Now, according to Barry Schwartz, we are all overwhelmed by too many choices. No one is immune, he says. Even if someone doesn't care about clothes or restaurants, he might care very much about TV channels or books. And these are just the relatively unimportant kinds of choices. Which cookie or pair of jeans we choose doesn't really matter very much. Which health care plan or which university we choose matters quite a lot. How do different people deal with making decisions? Schwartz analyzes from every angle how people make choices. He divides people into two groups, Maximizers and Satisficers, to describe how some people try to make the best possible choice out of an increasing number of options, and others just settle for the first choice that meets their standards. (I think he should have held out for a better choice of word than "satisficer.") I was a bit disappointed that Schwartz dismissed the voluntary simplicity movement so quickly. They have covered this ground and found practical ways of dealing with an overabundance of choice. Instead of exploring their findings, Schwartz picked up a copy of Real Simple magazine, and found it was all about advertising. If he had picked up a copy of The Overspent American by Juliet Schor or Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin instead, he might have found some genuine discussion of simple living rather than Madison Avenue's exploitation of it. I enjoyed the first part of The Paradox of Choice, about how we choose, but the second half, about regret and depression, seemed to drag. Fortunately, I was able to choose to skim the slow bits and move right to the more interesting conclusion, about how to become more satisfied (or "satisficed") through better decision-making.
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