The Off Topic Topic

[Liep]

An other English question: the scotch Chivas Regal. Do you pronounce the "ch" as in lunch, or as in chemistry?

I've always pronounced it "sheeves reegal".

[Josephus]

A single room apartment is a studio apartment.

Sometimes also a bachelor apartment.

[Razgovory]

Or a cell.

[Admiral Yi]

An other English question: the scotch Chivas Regal. Do you pronounce the "ch" as in lunch, or as in chemistry?

I've always pronounced it "sheeves reegal".

Same.

[DGuller]

http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html

Everything is amazing and no one is happy.

the "first world problems" meme had to be made based on that piece of whiny BS "too much choice OMG TEH HORROR"

Live in a country where you have any choice and then come back to us.

[Tamas]

http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html

Everything is amazing and no one is happy.

the "first world problems" meme had to be made based on that piece of whiny BS "too much choice OMG TEH HORROR"

Live in a country where you have any choice and then come back to us.

you might not remember Mr. Ukraine, but I was a kid during the glorious communist economy, where each product had one, maybe two types. The present abundance of choice is much preferred, and superiority-complexed smartasses like that guy should visit North Korea, or rural parts of almost any third world countries to realize what a load of bullcrap his theory is.

[Ed Anger]

Beet vs radioactive potato. FIGHT!

[DGuller]

you might not remember Mr. Ukraine, but I was a kid during the glorious communist economy, where each product had one, maybe two types. The present abundance of choice is much preferred, and superiority-complexed smartasses like that guy should visit North Korea, or rural parts of almost any third world countries to realize what a load of bullcrap his theory is.

Abundance of choice may be preferred over one or two choices, but a moderate number of choices may be better still.  One of the things people learn when they get out of Eastern Europe is that you don't have to bounce between extremes.

[Admiral Yi]

Just got my federal refund.

Damn that was quick.

[mongers]

Just got my federal refund.

Damn that was quick.

Big Government - having enough well trained administrators in place to do the job efficiently and in a timely manner ? 

[Tamas]

you might not remember Mr. Ukraine, but I was a kid during the glorious communist economy, where each product had one, maybe two types. The present abundance of choice is much preferred, and superiority-complexed smartasses like that guy should visit North Korea, or rural parts of almost any third world countries to realize what a load of bullcrap his theory is.

Abundance of choice may be preferred over one or two choices, but a moderate number of choices may be better still.  One of the things people learn when they get out of Eastern Europe is that you don't have to bounce between extremes.

Be a sheep if you want. "limit choices so I don't have to choose between that much". BS. That means somebody is making those choices instead of you, so people ARE capable of making those choices.

[Ed Anger]

There is only one blueberry choice.

[Admiral Yi]

Big Government - having enough well trained administrators in place to do the job efficiently and in a timely manner ?

No.  That's efficient government.

I think it's all mostly computerized these days anyway.

[Tamas]

besides, that second video explains very well why lotsa choices are good

[DGuller]

Be a sheep if you want. "limit choices so I don't have to choose between that much". BS. That means somebody is making those choices instead of you, so people ARE capable of making those choices.

That's idiotic, and shows that you completely miss the point of the paradox.  The inefficiency comes not from the human inability to make a choice, but rather from the fact that every single individual has to make a choice from a large list. 

If an individual employee has a choice from 200 401k investment options rather than 10, it's unlikely that he'll significantly improve his returns.  However, he may be paralyzed by the fear of making the wrong choice, and just not participate at all, which would be a huge mistake.  Or, he may just waste too much time doing research to likewise avoid making a mistake, which multiplied by a 1,000 employees in a company amounts of a huge waste of time.

That doesn't mean that somebody like a professionally trained plan administrator is incapable of pruning the list.  If he does prune the list, then you go from a situation where 1,000 people have to choose among 200 options, to 1 person choosing from 200 options, and 999 people choosing from 10 options.  That would be a huge improvement:  less research costs, and less opportunity costs from decision paralysis.