It was late when Sam and I finished talking, and I flipped on the front flood lights to help him get to his car. As I walked him out, I was surprised that it seemed darker than I was expecting. I glanced up to the corner of the house to see that one of the two bulbs was burnt out. No matter. I made a mental note to grab a spare from the basement and swap it out the next day.
Checking our stash in the morning, I saw that there was no appropriate replacement. Once again I had done what I do so often: used the last one in our supply, and forgot to write it on a list to get a backup. It's a sin I am guilty of regularly in the kitchen. I use up the last of the mustard or chicken breasts or peanuts, don't make a note of it, then grouse when I go to reach for the same and find none in the pantry. To paraphrase "Pogo" creator Walt Kelly, I have met the enemy and he is me.
Thankfully this time no recipe was hanging in the balance. As we all do many times when we need something, I went to my computer and punched up Amazon. As the page loaded, I though what best to put into the search bar to find what I wanted. "Flood light exterior bulb" seemed to capture it. And it must have to them as well, for almost before my fingers left the keys up popped my choices. But not just one or two: as the legend said at the top "Showing 1-48 of thousands of results."
So it is with much today. Given any choice we are confronted not with a few but with an overload of possibilities. There is almost nothing that you need or want that doesn't have an entire universe of options, any of which will work. It's the same feeling as when you walk into a diner and they hand you a 27-page laminated menu showing every food ever made and several you‘re didn't even know existed. I can never decide between a Western omelet, spanakopita or a garden salad with buffalo chicken, even if all I came in for was a cup of coffee.
You see it everywhere. At last count 28 people were vying for the Democratic nomination for president. Our cable package has over 425 channels of programming for us to watch. There are 15 different types of milk at our local grocery store: factor in the various sizes from pint to quart to half gallon, and the number of possibilities quickly reaches nearly a hundred. A recent Rasmussen survey found that while 56% of American adults use an online streaming service to watch TV and movies, 34% complain of too many choices. Even within a given service it can be overwhelming: Netflix has over 6000 titles from which you can pick.
Having more choices may sound like a fine idea, but it actually makes it harder to choose. Alvin Toffler coined the term "choice overload" in his 1970 classic "Future Shock" as when "the advantages of diversity and individualization are canceled by the complexity of buyer's decision-making process." The bottom line is that when confronted with a myriad of choices we are tempted not do chose anything versus choosing the "wrong" thing. Take retirement plans. Studies show that when employees have just 5 options, about 70% choose a plan. But when the options expand to 35, participation actually drops to 63%. I do the same thing when confronted with multiple food stalls. I look and look and look. Do I want Korean barbeque? How about Vietnamese Banh Mi? That Cuban sandwich looks great, as does the Italian sausage and peppers. I want them all, and eventually get so hungry I settle for the one with the shortest line, and almost instantly regret my decision. I'm sure the jambalaya would have been better.
As to light bulbs, do I want LED or Halogen, two pack or 6, motions sensing or regular? After 15 minutes of looking, I gave up in frustration. Tomorow I'll take out the old bulb, and stop by the hardware store. I'll show it to the guy, he'll show my three options and I'll buy the cheapest. Sometimes less is more.
-END-
Marc Wollin of Bedford often second guesses his first choice. His column appears regularly in The Record-Review, The Scarsdale Inquirer and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Checking our stash in the morning, I saw that there was no appropriate replacement. Once again I had done what I do so often: used the last one in our supply, and forgot to write it on a list to get a backup. It's a sin I am guilty of regularly in the kitchen. I use up the last of the mustard or chicken breasts or peanuts, don't make a note of it, then grouse when I go to reach for the same and find none in the pantry. To paraphrase "Pogo" creator Walt Kelly, I have met the enemy and he is me.
Thankfully this time no recipe was hanging in the balance. As we all do many times when we need something, I went to my computer and punched up Amazon. As the page loaded, I though what best to put into the search bar to find what I wanted. "Flood light exterior bulb" seemed to capture it. And it must have to them as well, for almost before my fingers left the keys up popped my choices. But not just one or two: as the legend said at the top "Showing 1-48 of thousands of results."
So it is with much today. Given any choice we are confronted not with a few but with an overload of possibilities. There is almost nothing that you need or want that doesn't have an entire universe of options, any of which will work. It's the same feeling as when you walk into a diner and they hand you a 27-page laminated menu showing every food ever made and several you‘re didn't even know existed. I can never decide between a Western omelet, spanakopita or a garden salad with buffalo chicken, even if all I came in for was a cup of coffee.
You see it everywhere. At last count 28 people were vying for the Democratic nomination for president. Our cable package has over 425 channels of programming for us to watch. There are 15 different types of milk at our local grocery store: factor in the various sizes from pint to quart to half gallon, and the number of possibilities quickly reaches nearly a hundred. A recent Rasmussen survey found that while 56% of American adults use an online streaming service to watch TV and movies, 34% complain of too many choices. Even within a given service it can be overwhelming: Netflix has over 6000 titles from which you can pick.
Having more choices may sound like a fine idea, but it actually makes it harder to choose. Alvin Toffler coined the term "choice overload" in his 1970 classic "Future Shock" as when "the advantages of diversity and individualization are canceled by the complexity of buyer's decision-making process." The bottom line is that when confronted with a myriad of choices we are tempted not do chose anything versus choosing the "wrong" thing. Take retirement plans. Studies show that when employees have just 5 options, about 70% choose a plan. But when the options expand to 35, participation actually drops to 63%. I do the same thing when confronted with multiple food stalls. I look and look and look. Do I want Korean barbeque? How about Vietnamese Banh Mi? That Cuban sandwich looks great, as does the Italian sausage and peppers. I want them all, and eventually get so hungry I settle for the one with the shortest line, and almost instantly regret my decision. I'm sure the jambalaya would have been better.
As to light bulbs, do I want LED or Halogen, two pack or 6, motions sensing or regular? After 15 minutes of looking, I gave up in frustration. Tomorow I'll take out the old bulb, and stop by the hardware store. I'll show it to the guy, he'll show my three options and I'll buy the cheapest. Sometimes less is more.
-END-
Marc Wollin of Bedford often second guesses his first choice. His column appears regularly in The Record-Review, The Scarsdale Inquirer and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
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