When Russian émigrés who had managed to escape the Soviet Union arrived in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s, they confronted a kind of culture shock that is hard for us to imagine in today’s wired world. Having been locked in a society where all communication was strictly controlled, they encountered what must have initially seemed like a consumer paradise beyond their wildest dreams.
I’ve always remembered reading stories as a kid about those Russians standing paralyzed in grocery store aisles, confronted by so many choices – hundreds of choices – of cereal that they were unable to make a choice. Many simply walked out without buying anything at all.
Those newspaper stories celebrated the amazing abundance of choices our American consumer economy provides us, in contrast to the failing Soviet system. But those Russians were also showing us a dark side that we couldn’t see 35 years ago.
The psychologist Barry Schwartz wrote a fascinating book about that dark side some 12 years ago, The Paradox of Choice.
Schwartz’s assertion, in a nutshell: having some choice is much better than no choice, but having too many choices is actually much worse.
The Russians’ reactions to the cereal aisle were a preview to what we all now live with in American society: a never-ending series of choices that often leave us feeling paralyzed.
What Schwartz is talking about is the effect of a boundary-less world. When there are no boundaries, we humans become confused, paralyzed.
When there are no boundaries, no limits – when “more” is always better – our systems are overwhelmed. We’re not grounded. It’s like we can’t figure out where we are in space.
Similarly, when “more” is always the goal, we can never be satisfied.
If nothing is ever enough, how can we know we’re “there”? How can we know if we’re good enough parents? If the house is big enough? If the car is new enough? If my career is successful enough? If my work performance is good enough? If my salary is high enough? If my marriage is happy enough?
The inability to define “what’s enough” drives a lot of our anxiety and lack of life satisfaction, it has seemed to me for a long time now.
It’s a bit of a slog, but the British father-son academic duo Robert and Edward Skidelsky wrote a philosophical exploration of this issue in 2013, “How Much Is Enough?” (How come somebody always copyrights this stuff before I get around to it?)
I’ve got a few personal mottos, and I added this one about 6 years ago: “That’s good enough.” Not perfect. Not ideal. Maybe not even great. But good enough. Ship it!
I find I sleep better since then.
And I only buy two kinds of cereal: McCann’s Irish Oatmeal and Bare Naked Granola. (Bare Naked, McCann’s, please contact me for promotional opportunities.)
