Barry Schwartz: Choices (1995)

Western Dogma: "To maximize hapiness, we must maximize freedom, to maximize freedom we must maximizw choice."

1:40 Supermarket Stats

Family: Marry young, have children, your only choice is who.

Work: Technology allows us to work every minute of every day, so their is a constant choice about whether we should or should not be working. Example: Kids soccer game.

Choice: Two Negative Effects (7:50)
1. Produces Paralysis:
a) For every 10 mutual funds the employee offers participation goes down 2%
2. Even after making a choice we are less satisfied
a) If your choice is not perfect, its easy to imagine another choice would be better, induces regret, and subtract satisfaction.
b) Oppurtunity Cost: How much we value things depends on what we compare them to, attractive features of the alternatives you've rejected compared to what you have selected.
(At work dreaming about golfing, golfing dreaming about women, with women dreaming about the computer) (Jeans: with mutliple options expectations go up)

"Everything was better when everything was worse," because people were able to have a pleasent surprise. With perfection the best you can hope for is for things to as good as you expect them.

The secret to hapiness is low expectations.

When there are no choices the world is to blame, when there are many choices you are to blame. Believing you are at fault leads to depression.