THE PARADOX OF CHOICE
Steve Jobs was a great fan of Sony Co-founder Akio Morito. In 1985, he visited the Sony Headquarters in Tokyo to understand the Japanese way of doing business. This was nine years after he and his friends founded Apple Computers. During the company tour, he was particularly fascinated by the uniforms of Sony employees at that time.
He wanted to meet the designer, the uniform designer. Steve Jobs met the famous fashion designer, Issey Miyake, who is known for his minimalist designs. So he asked Miyake if he could design a dress for Apple employees. Miyake agreed and the result was the famous black turtle T-shirt which became Steve Jobs's Signature style. He wore a black turtle T-shirt and blue jeans for many years (1998-2010), as you might have seen during all the product launches. It became synonymous with his image. For Steve Jobs, it wasn't just a fashion statement. It was a deliberate choice to eliminate the daily decision of what to wear. His preference for wearing the same kind of shirt every day can be connected to a psychological principle called the "Paradox of Choice".
The Paradox of choice is a phenomenon where having too many choices can lead to decision fatigue and dissatisfaction. Steve Jobs believed that by limiting his choices, he could simplify his life and focus on things that were most important to him. See, when faced with too many choices, it's easy to get overwhelmed and make a decision that we are not happy with. We all experience this, right? Everyday. Much of our energy is wasted every day thinking of what to wear, eat, and watch. We didn't have this problem a few years back, right? Remember during our childhood, we had only one TV Channel, Doordarshan, and used to play one movie every week and we were happy with it. Today, the variety on OTT platforms often leaves us exhausted, just trying to pick something to watch.
Thirty years back, if someone told their neighbor that I was planning to buy a car, the immediate follow-up would be like, which color?. Because there were only two brands, Ambassador and Maruthi; But today if I'm planning to buy a car, you can expect so many questions,-Electric, hybrid, petrol or diesel, manual transmission or automatic, a Sudan or SUV. Because every month there is a new version coming out, our choices have expanded, big times!
Youngsters are finding it difficult to get married because people are overwhelmed with options; matrimonial sites, dating sites, and social media. You end up with confusion, and you end up in delay and indecision.
Before, you used to go to a restaurant and pick up something from the menu. Now you have the menu of all the hotels in your city on your mobile phone. Of course, having variety is good, but too many varieties ?. There is one more side to this, the other extreme. We can actually simplify our lives. Let's explore the power of minimalism.
Power of Minimalism: Steve Jobs followed Japanese Zen Buddhism. You will see this in the design philosophy of all Apple products. Minimalism is a lifestyle. It's also about living with less. It's about focussing on what matters most and letting go of the extra stuff. The idea is to focus on the things that are most important to you and eliminate the things that are not; instead of filling your space with stuff, fill your days with meaningful activities.
The Power of NO: Have you ever felt drained because you said YES, to everything? You took a lot of stuff on your plate? By saying NO to the things that don't make you happy or add value to you, you are actually making room for the things that matter about or juggle, there is more space for calm and creativity. And we need to create that space internally and externally. By trimming down our people circle and spending time with selected people, our relationship become richer. By living a simple, minimalistic life, you will save tons of mental energy and you'll experience less stress and anxiety. It's about finding joy in the simpler things and letting go of the clutter, whether that is stuff, people, or even our thoughts.
LESS IS MORE!
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True facts, simply practiced by our easter generations, as a a way of life.
ReplyDeleteLife become very tough these days with problem of many. We lived a simple life when things available to us were also very limited, yet we were very happy. P K Ramachandran
ReplyDeleteNice one . - Anbu Tirunavukkarasu, Chennai
ReplyDeleteVery true Sir. When choices are limited, decision is easy to take. Our childhood was simple...hardly any choices of clothes, food, school and almost everything.. were there... so we were less stressed . --Gulshan Narang , New Delhi.
ReplyDeleteWhile the availability of choices should not be curtailed, the power to choose must rest with the individual depending on his views on the purpose of life. To the spiritually inclined seekers of knowledge with their bare minimum needs, choices are irrelevant. To the jolly good people who wish to savour life to the brim in myriad ways and who have the wherewithal, the surfeit of choice in every aspect is welcome.
ReplyDeleteTechnology is so fast and highly developed, that products of even recent entries to the market get replaced with newer and more versatile versions as in cars, phones, software etc. While Minimalism is for saints, maximalism is for bons-vivants.
You have correctly sited examples of availability of different OTT platforms, various options for cars etc to explain “Paradox of choice”. While our forefathers compulsorily lived simple lives our next generations will find it very difficult to choose from many many! The choice of Minimalism, therefore will rest on the individual. We can’t thrust anything like that on anyone anymore. …… Amitava Kundu
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