The Paradox of Choice

The title of this posting, "The Paradox of Choice," is actually the title of an interesting book I've read in the past couple of years about the negative psychological impacts of too many choices.

It's a frequent theme in my thoughts, a problem that is particularly acute in modern western society.

The other day I was visiting a book store and I was overwhelmed by my choices. So many books to read, so many appeared to be interesting, I had no idea how I should go about selecting one. On top of that, I feel like I 'should' be reading certain books in order to keep up with current events.

On a whim I went to the religion section. I browsed the sections on Christian spirituality, which included any number of subsections I can't think of now (devotionals, fiction, Catholic theology, inspirational, bibles...). Each section seemed compelling, and I browsed the titles with a pang of guilt. I skipped over Islam, Judiasm, and Sufism (all the time wondering how much am I missing, how much I would like to know more) and settled on the Buddhist section. First I saw the Dalai Lama's works, which appeared to be about two dozen extremely compelling titles ('The Art of Happiness','Cultivating a Compassionate Mind'). I thought to myself briefly that anyone that popular could not possibly be so insightful. It was my version of sour grapes over not having the time to read these books.

I skimmed over numerous other Buddhist authors, and thought about how each one might contain unique and revealing wisdom especially pertinent to living life well. Which of these great men and women should I choose as my teacher? How can I find those worth reading without having to wade through messy intellectual thickets? I settled on Ticht Naht Hahn (whose name I can never spell right) and started to browse through his dozen or so plus titles. Anger and peace both seemed to be major themes, both appropriate to me. After browsing through a couple titles, I decided there was really no where to start, no where to begin, and went over to the business section where I could be more superficially distracted.

One simple bookstore in a corner of the world, and far too much knowledge and wisdom for me even to contemplate absorbing.

It reminds me of an art teacher of mine who would often say "Life is short and art is long." And yet we have to make some kind of work of art out of our lives before they come to a close.

Comments

Anonymous said…
In the book Stumbling Upon Happiness, the author takes a look at some studies that examine what people do when faced with "too many" choices. As it turns out, even having to choose between just two things is enough to make some people feel out of control.
December 31, 2007
Anonymous said…
I should clarify: having to choose between two seemingly equal things (no clear cut right or wrong choice) could make people feel frozen - and not want to choose at all.
December 31, 2007
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