Do you like choice?

[RIP]

Round the corner in Stu's excellent thread, I idly suggested a thread about 'choice'. I've nothing better to do, because I'm waiting several days for Mrs Perrin to vacate the bathroom, so with a flash and a puff of orange smoke, here it is .

We're always told (mainly it seems by those who want us to spend money) that more choice is good (and probably its corollary, more stuff is good, but that's a different question).

Is it?

I've not formulated a complete answer for myself, but I think we can guess...

In 61 years of biking I've only had: one trike, one kids bike, one teen bike, two road bikes (only because one got stolen), and two and a half ATB's (first one got 'stolen' by my lad when he Discovered Girls and needed to get around (or away!!) quickly). And a Bickerton and a Brompton obviously, but they're not bikes they are part of my body.

One reason for this restraint(?), and for not buying one since 2013, is I can't be arsed wading through all the choices.

The choices for my first ATB in 1985 resulted in the following hesitant and slightly-scared - even furtive - question from my LBS man: "Erm, oh, well we've just got these new things in, I'm not sure what they're all about to be perfectly honest with you. Erm, would you like the blue one, the red one, or the yellow one?". Well that was hard enough, but I went for blue. The most expensive one in fact, on the dubious premise that it would give me the most sensory pleasure and last a lifetime (which it has! Still in the family to this day...)

Choice is good? Pah. Life's too short.

[thenorthwind]

No. I'm terrible at decision-making so spend far more of my life than I would like trying to choose between things are essentially the same and only exist because capitalism.

[PaulE]

Is this now getting into the "Set Menu" way of thinking? Saves thinking, and you're pretty sure it will do what you want?

I know what you mean though, and often spend ages looking around only to go back and get the first think I thought of, or decide that I didn't need whatever it was anyway!

[Lazarus]

interesting question

i think the main issue with choice is twofold
1. no one wants to be in China where we have no freedom of choice- imagine if we were all forced to be roadies and ride in team[or tory party ] colours
2. you can have too much choice, I really dont need to pick from 25 different varieties of tomato sauce i just need tomato sauce [ thank you aldi]

With the tons of choice be it tv channels or phones you think the perfect one is out there and you have to weigh up things you dont really care about [ processing speed, what android version it is or how many MP your camera has]or know much about.

TV is the ultimate one for choice, we used to have 3 channels and now we have hundreds and its diluted the quality to the point you cannot find anything worth watching; I dont have a tv perhaps its changed but I doubt it [ and the good stuff is spread across 15 pay services so you are always missing good stuff]

Bike choice is of course perfectly fine as honestly the perfect tyre or bike for the route , or style, you choose is out there if you keep looking
STANDRDS no one needs 8 different type of cranks spindle dimensions and however many bottom Bracket types there are these days [ we just one that works and swaps between our bikes ]

yours old curmudgeon

[RIP]

1. no one wants to be in China where we have no freedom of choice- imagine if we were all forced to be roadies and ride in team[or tory party ] colours

You're right of course. I'm fed up with 'choices' - until they are suddenly denied to me . It's no fun if you haven't got the choice about whether to have choices .

[Boab]

I was talking to my wife about the tyranny of choice the other day. Totally paralysing... Take paint, give me the choice of A or B and I can make a decision, give me 16.2 million colours and I have no idea where to start. Also feeds into the fear of failure: if I have too much to choose from, as there's a higher risk of picking the wrong thing, then I'm a failure*.






* I'm not a failure, I just failed at that task, but try telling my brain that...

[faustus]

Consumer choice - have a very small limit for me mostly (not bikes of course!). I can't choose anything on Netflix without becoming mentally paralysed. Menus with too much choice, no thanks.

Social, lifestyle, health and freedom choices - very grateful for choices.

[whitestone]

I can't remember who it was (Paul someone or other who was an American economist) who came up with the core principle behind modern capitalism - "You need to persuade people that their wants are really needs". I.e. "I want a 50" widescreen TV", "Do you need one?", "Not really, I just want one". There's a lot of psychology behind where things are laid out in supermarkets for example to trick you into spending more than you want.

In a similar discussion on STW a few years ago I noted that there are "soft changes" and "hard changes" to bikes. A soft change being one that doesn't require you to change anything else, or at least anything major. An example would be going from the old square taper BB to Hollowtech BB, take the old one out, fit the new one (yes you'd need new cranks). A hard change would be going from a straight to a tapered steerer on the forks - you can't use those new forks without buying a new frame!

Having worked in TV (on the technical side) for a good many years most people tend to stick to a handful of channels for the majority of their viewing and then just pick and mix from whatever else is available for a small number of programmes. A made up example might be: BBC1, ITV, Channel 5 and Sky Sports 1 making up 80% of someone's viewing time. So even though they have the option of a hundred or so channels they ignore most. (Going back to a previous life! Even though there are channels numbered 100 to 999 doesn't mean that there's 900 channels available. 1xx are the old terrestrial channels plus broadcaster's primary channels, 2xx tends to be mostly news channels, 7xx tend to be radio stations; 9xx tend to be local variations - one of these gets "mapped" to its 1xx master channel when you set up the TV or box, i.e. if you say you live in Devon you'll get BBC South West as your BBC1 channel. There's lots of holes in the list. Then there's the +1 timeshifted channels. As a result you'll probably have between 100 and 200 channels in total depending on what system you are using.)

[RIP]

Can I quickly point out that my question assumed that Maslow's first two (*) levels have been provided for, or I'll look completely insensitive.

(*) but not the third: relationships and friends. Too much choice there too. Hence Mrs Perrin's "I'm sure I could manage something much better but you'll just have to do I suppose. Do you put your dirty washing away in the basket straightaway? That's about the only deal breaker".

[macinblack]

TV is a good example, especially with Netflix type channels included. As a result, I've chosen not to watch TV at all, though I will very occasionally watch something with Mrs Mac. I don't even watch the news anymore but that's another topic and probably a more depressing one.

[psling]

Liking to get to places early I am sometimes the first vehicle in an otherwise empty car park.
The pleasure I gain from watching people arriving in their vehicles and having to choose a parking bay is something I should probably see a psychiatrist about! A full car park with just one or two spaces left is easy but give a driver a choice from a mostly empty car park and they are generally (from my observation) f#¢*€d !!

[RIP]

Liking to get to places early I am sometimes the first vehicle in an otherwise empty car park.
The pleasure I gain from watching people arriving in their vehicles and having to choose a parking bay is something I should probably see a psychiatrist about! A full car park with just one or two spaces left is easy but give a driver a choice from a mostly empty car park and they are generally (from my observation) f#¢*€d !!

Ah this is a good one Peter! Yes I think everything there is to know about a person's character is encapsulated in this one situation. In my father's case he would park right next to the only other vehicle present. In Reg's case, assuming Mrs Perrin allowed him to drive at all, he'd park as far away from it as possible and in the remotest corner too (one additional bonus with doing that is it would irritate Mrs P immensely). Like father unlike son .
.
Obviously I'd be arriving by bike though and would probably just ride it right into the associated attraction rather than park it .

There's only one other situation that sorts people out in the same way - The Great Urinal Quandary . I'm sure there's a female equivalent of that too.

We're having some fun today, is it Friday?

[faustus]

Being in the car with my dad when he's faced with parking choices, makes me twitch. The indecision is incredible!

There is no great urinal debate, furthest away as possible (assuming no blockages/flooding!), no chit chat. That's it.

[jameso]

the core principle behind modern capitalism - "You need to persuade people that their wants are really needs".

And the core principle of advertising - make people feel inadequate then offer them a solution

Choice is great if you know what you want, +/- a bit. And there's 'opportunity cost' - the difference between the option you take and the unknown optimum. If it's a low cost, a minor difference, the choice doesn't matter. To me the opportunity cost of a bad bike choice is potentially high because I love riding bikes... I like plenty of choice. But I'm not too fussed about the colour.

[Dave Barter]

Just an alt view. I do like competition