I did research on this years ago
You are generally more successful in giving someone a fixed choice vs an open choice. Ex: “would you like chicken nuggets or a hamburger” has much more likelihood of a successful response than “what would you like for dinner”, which is more likely to elicit something like “I don’t know”
We think we want abundance of choice but in actuality we typically seem to find it overwhelming
Scott Adams (the Dilbert guy) later turned out to be a delusional POS in other ways, but his formalization of the concept of a “confusopoly,” where companies collude to extract extra profits by making their products so complicated to evaluate that people have difficulty choosing between them because of decision fatigue, was spot-on.
how much later do you mean because that dude was pushing his variant of The Secret since about 1997
I mean, when he came out as a MAGAt and not just a woo-woo affirmations kook. Emphasis on the “POS” part, not just the “delusional” part.
This is one thing Apple tends to get right, more or less. They offer two or three tiers for every product class, and that’s it. (Do you want “standard, pro, or max”?)
I have plenty of criticisms for them, but reducing decision fatigue isn’t one of them. They do a decent job in that regard. They make up the “lost” profit in other ways.
Yeah choice overload right? Give people 50 types of jam and they’ll buy nothing, give them 5 and they’ll pick one
Well my research wasn’t about consumer spending stuff; it was about helping parents of kids with autism that had arfid or other sensory issues related to food. I would imagine the same concept applies to consumer advertising bullshit though (that probably got way more funding hah)
Didn’t Huxley address over abundance in Brave New World? Where people are so overcome with access to information they gain none.
Replace all the streaming platforms with Plex for me and I still barely watch anything anymore
My problem is more that I don’t have time. I always have shit queued up that I want to do.
Did you know that the EU threw away more food than they imported in 2021? And that’s the EU. I shudder to find out what the US did.
What the actual fuck, how even…my god.
Tbh i know about supermarkets throwing away food that’s on the date, because that way they get a cut of the money back but they also lower the price significantly when it’s a day before the date (i usually buy cake or other bakery related sweets at nearly 40% off).
I also know some people who will trash perfectly fine meals juat because it was made yesterday.
I’m the type of person who will use the ends from a loaf of bread to “make them into a treat” (i basically use the thicker crust as an excuse to overload it with hazelnut spread(store brand nutella) and enjoy it like it’s my birthday lol) so i don’t end up throwing food away.
I have so many clothes yet they almost all make me feel dysphoric :c
I understand choice paralysis and all that but… for me it’s the loss of joy.
What movies and shows am I excited about seeing anymore? Hardly anything. Another recycled story or regurgitation from franchise obsessed studios. It’s not impossible to find new things to watch, just harder.
Clothes? I work and have to adhere to a dress code of sorts. I have two days a week I get to wear something I like.
Now food can still bring joy at times, but that fridge will not satisfy my anxiety no matter how long I look into it. I used to enjoy waking up to coffee and breakfast. Now I have to work at it to keep it from becoming entirely utilitarian.
I used to read a lot when I was younger. My house has books in almost every room. I buy books still, but can’t bring myself to read them.
These aren’t insurmountable problems, but yeah. It can be hard to find the joy in it sometimes.
