Life is grand

The secret to happiness is “low expectations”

It is difficult to agree with Barry Schwartz in his Paradox of Choice talk but even if you completely disagree you, as an affluent Western citizen, can identify with this part of what he says; Some choice is better than none but it doesn’t follow that more choice is better than some choice.

175 choices of salad dressing probably leads to less happiness than 5 choices of salad dressing. 50 fits and cuts of jeans is less satisfying than 3 fits and cuts of jeans. Too much choice leads to paralysis. It can also lead to irrational expectations based on the number of choices. If there are 6.5 million combinations of Hi-Fi in one store then surely you will be able to find the perfect Hi-Fi at the perfect price and be perfectly happy, right? But most of us wouldn’t be perfectly happy with that one Hi-Fi we walked out with.

I can identify with his story on jeans. When I came to Ireland over two years ago I bought 4 pairs of Levi standard fit jeans. Three in dark blue, one in a lighter blue. I wear them virtually everyday and am completely content with them. My girlfriend on the other hand wants me to get new jeans for no other reason than she sees me in the same jeans day in and day out and wants to see change. Part of her reasoning, and I actually sympathise and agree with this reason, is that by changing I am showing some effort towards her.

So I went out the other day and had a look at some jeans. There was a whole wall of them and they were all different. Price, style, brand, colour, fit, cut, length, width, belted, non-belted, studded, frayed, clean, stone-washed, buck-shot-effect, emblazoned and on and on and on. I spent 20 minutes staring and walked out with nothing.

The jeans I had on were comfortable, clean and I understood them. I know how to wash them so that they come out with the right amount of stiffness. The buttons are easy to use and the two belts I own fit them fine.

When they wear out I will be a much happier person if I can just go back to the Levis store and buy another 4 pairs of standard fit jeans. I won’t have to spend hours trying on new jeans.

If I did spend that much time on new jeans I’d expect them to be 250% better than my current ones. But they wouldn’t be and I’d be let down for all the effort I put into them.

Now those are just jeans. There are much bigger decisions in life, like houses and cars and pension schemes and saving schemes and college funds and travel, that have even more choice and I really do dread having to tackle them. A lot of the time I want “any colour that he wants so long as it is black.” Not because I am lazy or stupid but because there are more important and interesting things to be worrying about in life than the fit and cut of your jeans.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 18th, 2008 at 2:59 pm and is filed under Post. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.