CHOICE

The Paradox of Choice

 Government Dogma – More Choice >> More Freedom >> Welfare

 We have an inordinate amount of choices.
o So many choices create paralysis.
o With many choices, you wind up less satisfied with your choice than if you were given
less choices. Because if you’re slightly displeased with your choice you have regret
thinking you could have made a better choice and you are less satisfied. The regret
subtracts from the decision you made, even if it was a good decision.
o Thinking of opportunity cost subtract from satisfaction. The more options you have the
more opportunity cost you have to contemplate.
o With inordinate amount of choices, you have escalation of expectations.
o You blame yourself because all the choices you should have done better.

 Conclusion: Some choice is good. Too many choices is not.

ARE WE REALLY IN CONTROL OF OUR CHOICES.

 We use and rely on vision to make decisions, yet our vision plays tricks on us. If our vision can
fool us, then what about areas where we don’t use vision and are not good at.
 Default option has a strong influence on what we choose.
 When given three options we compare the middle ‘bad’ option and it influences our choice.

Hard Choices

 Some choices can be quantified as being equal, greater or less than each.
 Hard choices are those where we create the reason for choosing in such they help us mold into
the person we want to be. Those that take the easy, less risky or dictated route out are drifters.

Sometimes it's good to give up the driver's seat

 One group is given a choice between chamomile tea or caffeine. Driver
Seat.
 The other group will have either of the two teas chosen for them
passenger seat.
 Facing the INCA. Immediate, negative, concrete, agency. INCA, an
abbreviation Shiv uses to describe the thought process after making a decision
represents Immediate, Negative, Concrete and Agency, which often serve to produce
doubt in choices, longing for foregone ones and significantly decrease personal
 confidence. This consequently creates a lower level of persistence, resulting in the
individual giving up faster and often prior to the time limit on the given task.

The art of choosing

 Different cultures have different perspective on practicing choice.
 Assumptions if a choice affects you, then you should be the one making
that choice.
 In the West, an individual who chooses his task performs best.
 In the East, those working on a task that was chosen by a ‘community’
performed best.

Why we make bad decisions

 Mathematical odds x Expected Value of Gain = Expected Value
 People project intensity of an event depending on how much exposures
we read in the newspaper, thus miscalculating the mathematical odds.

Choice, happiness and spaghetti sauce

 Most people can’t verbalize the wants.
