{"id":306,"date":"2008-05-29T10:57:55","date_gmt":"2008-05-29T17:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/?p=306"},"modified":"2008-05-29T11:59:17","modified_gmt":"2008-05-29T18:59:17","slug":"blink-and-the-paradox-of-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/2008\/05\/blink-and-the-paradox-of-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"Blink and The Paradox of Choice"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know I\u2019m really slow at review\u00ading Mal\u00adcolm Glad\u00adwell<\/a>\u2019s Blink: The Power of Think\u00ading Without Think\u00ading<\/a>, since it\u2019s been out for a couple of years now. I finally read it just in the last few weeks, after a col\u00adleagure recom\u00admen\u00added that I read it and Barry Schwarz<\/a>\u2019s The Para\u00addox of Choice: Why More Is Less<\/a> for a pro\u00adject I\u2019m work\u00ading on.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d read a few sum\u00admar\u00adies of Blink<\/em>, and some\u00adhow what stuck in my memory was the sound-bite that snap decisions are often the best ones. Wrong! The book shows that imme\u00addi\u00adate reac\u00adtions are worth listen\u00ading to, if you\u2019re an expert in that par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar field. If you aren\u2019t, your snap decision may be right, or it may be wrong. Mal\u00adcolm Glad\u00adwell talks about times when your first, snap decisions are right (speed dat\u00ading, but only if you don\u2019t try to ana\u00adlyze what people like), and times when they\u2019re wrong (the Pep\u00adsi taste test shows what you like when you get only a few sips, not what you like when you\u2019re drink\u00ading an entire glass). He also goes into depth about people\u2019s inbuilt or sub\u00adcon\u00adscious assump\u00adtions, and how they can influ\u00adence a per\u00adson into mak\u00ading mis\u00adtakes, some\u00adtimes with tra\u00adgic con\u00adsequences. A good example, one that\u2019s been repor\u00adted widely, is that orches\u00adtras only star\u00adted hir\u00ading women in large num\u00adbers after intro\u00addu\u00adcing blind audi\u00adtions, where the oth\u00ader orches\u00adtra mem\u00adbers could\u00adn\u2019t be influ\u00adenced by wheth\u00ader the play\u00ader was male or female, white or black, tall or short (all poten\u00adtial bases for bias). All they heard was the music, and since they were experts in music, a short audi\u00adtion con\u00adcen\u00adtrat\u00ading only on that was all they needed. More tra\u00adgic con\u00adsequences come when police or sur\u00adgeons make snap decisions that may not be the right ones.<\/p>\n

In sum\u00admary, Blink<\/em> is well worth read\u00ading, and most pub\u00adlic lib\u00adrar\u00adies should have it on hand if you don\u2019t want to buy it.<\/p>\n

I read Para\u00addox of Choice<\/em> shortly after\u00adwards and found it amus\u00ading how the same research is used in both books (and Stum\u00adbling on Hap\u00adpi\u00adness<\/a>) to illus\u00adtrate dif\u00adfer\u00adent points. Barry Schwar\u00adz\u2019s main mes\u00adsage is that if you are con\u00adfron\u00adted with too many choices, you either spend a lot of time mak\u00ading the abso\u00adlute best choice, and then will often still be unhappy since you\u2019re not sure that you really made the best choice, or you settle for some\u00adthing that\u2019s \u201cgood enough\u201d. Which is often the bet\u00adter strategy, as most times it is <\/em>good enough, and it frees up your time and men\u00adtal band\u00adwidth to con\u00adcen\u00adtrate on things that mat\u00adter more to you. It\u2019s abso\u00adlutely true that in many places there is too much choice; I went into the loc\u00adal pet store the oth\u00ader day to pick up some more cat food. Every time I go in there seem to be more choices for dry cat food, all said to be good and healthy, with the con\u00adsequence that I end up pick\u00ading some\u00adthing off the shelf that looks reas\u00adon\u00adable because I have no way of decid\u00ading which is the best. And if the cats eat it, I buy that brand again next time as it\u2019s as good a meth\u00adod as any for mak\u00ading a choice.<\/p>\n

There is also a deep\u00ader point to the book \u2014 if your choices are unlim\u00adited, then if you fail, it\u2019s your fault. So the bur\u00adden of hav\u00ading to prove at all times that you are doing the abso\u00adlute best, that you are as thin as you should be, or as rich, or as well-read, puts a lot of pres\u00adsure on people. The author points out that the Amer\u00adic\u00adan \u201chap\u00adpi\u00adness quo\u00adtient\u201d has been going down over the last couple of dec\u00adades; as people have had more choices they have become more unhappy, per\u00adhaps as a res\u00adult of feel\u00ading like they made bad choices, or per\u00adhaps because of not meet\u00ading their own stead\u00adily increas\u00ading expect\u00ada\u00adtions. The counter-intu\u00adit\u00adive idea that if you have less, you might be hap\u00adpi\u00ader, is not one that would make the con\u00adsumer\u00adist bene\u00adfi\u00adciar\u00adies happy, but is worth think\u00ading about. In sum\u00admary, The Para\u00addox of Choice<\/em> is worth read\u00ading, and it might even help make you hap\u00adpi\u00ader with your life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know I\u2019m really slow at review\u00ading Mal\u00adcolm Glad\u00adwell\u2019s Blink: The Power of Think\u00ading Without Think\u00ading, since it\u2019s been out for a couple of years now. I finally read it just in the last few weeks, after a col\u00adleagure recom\u00admen\u00added that I read it and Barry Schwarz\u2019s The Para\u00addox of Choice: Why More Is Less \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cBlink and The Para\u00addox of Choice\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}