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Too much choice can cause unhappiness, bad medical outcomes, and misinformation

Barry Schwarz gave a provocative TED talk on the paradox of choice, suggesting that infinite choice is paralyzing and exhausting for the human psyche. Source

Ezekiel Emanuel spoke eloquently about too much choice for medical patients. More should be decided by caregivers, rather than giving insufficiently informed people "all of the information" and deferring to them. I think in the US this is caused by overly litigious culture, and a general fear of lawyers. Source

Giving consumers choice is also problematic in the media:

The problem is that the tech of the media environment right now is decimating the power of editors because the algorithm of attention is driving us towards what the public appears to think it wants, as opposed to what it needs to be exposed to. — Lawrence Lessig

Last edited on Mar 2024