When Too Much Choice is Too Much

We are all like Goldilocks when it comes to choices.

For most of the things in our lives, we have too many choices and the differences are miniscule.  Walk down any aisle in your favorite supermarket, warehouse club, or electronics store if you need an example.

We hate making choices in situations like these.  There is more information than we can manage in working memory.  We become overwhelmed.  So rather than make a choice, we pick.

Making a choice means we have considered reasons for doing something.  We can discern the distinctions, they are relevant, and they are meaningful.

Picking something means the opposite.  We are not able to discern meaningful, relevant, or interesting distinctions (even if they exist).  So we give up and go with the (red, cheap, tall, short, closest, easiest, etc.) one.  Any reason will do as long as it makes the confusion stop.

For decisions that really matter, we seem to have the opposite problem.  We give ourselves too few choices.  Generating alternatives is hard work, it may mean we must break existing mental models, and it often requires that we admit something we are doing currently no longer works.  So we jump at the first option that looks good and hope for the best.

The single best thing you can do in this case is to give yourself interesting, attractive, and doable alternatives when you have an important decision to make.

I found an interesting example of the concept of too many choices in action in the New York Times the other day.

Everything Apple produces these days is a hit.  An obvious example is the ubiquitous iphone, a gadget many pundits tagged for failure when it first came out.  One of the reasons given by the naysayers, and this is true of nearly everything that Apple does, is that the system isn’t open, meaning that the company exercises a significant amount of control over the use of the product.  It turns out that consumers appreciate the lack of choice, or the presence of a strong editor.

“Apple represents the “auteur model of innovation,” observes John Kao, a consultant to corporations and governments on innovation. In the auteur model, he said, there is a tight connection between the personality of the project leader and what is created. Movies created by powerful directors, he says, are clear examples, from Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” to James Cameron’s “Avatar.”

At Apple, there is a similar link between the ultimate design-team leader, Mr. Jobs, and the products. From computers to smartphones, Apple products are known for being stylish, powerful and pleasing to use. They are edited products that cut through complexity, by consciously leaving things out — not cramming every feature that came into an engineer’s head, an affliction known as “featuritis” that burdens so many technology products.

“A defining quality of Apple has been design restraint,” says Paul Saffo, a technology forecaster and consultant in Silicon Valley.”

Fast forward to the present day.  Apple has opened their iPhone platform to third party apps.  Happy day, choice returns.  Except it turns out nobody is that interested.

The average iPhone or iPod Touch owner uses 5 to 10 apps regularly, according to Flurry, a research firm that studies mobile trends. This despite the surfeit of available apps: some 140,000 and counting.

Last week’s announcement of the Apple iPad, a tablet device that runs iPhone applications and will not be available until March, has already spurred the development of more, including a version of a drawing app called Brushes; Nova, a shooter game; and Apple’s own app called iBooks, which will connect to its new online e-bookstore.

But that doesn’t mean that people will change their habits. Actually, it may just make them feel a tad more overwhelmed. The next generation of gadget users might prove different, but for now it is clear that people prefer fewer choices, and that they gravitate consistently toward the same small number of things that they like. Owners of iPhones are no different from cable TV subscribers with hundreds of channels to choose from who end up watching the same half-dozen.

When you have a difficult decision to make, and at this point picking a mobile phone shouldn’t be one, give yourself choices.  For low consequence choices, you are better off with fewer.  You will choose more easily and be happier with your decision.