Noah at okdork.com has posted an interview with Barry Schwartz, the author of The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less. Though it could use a little editing, I found the interview to be very interesting.

I’ve often wondered about the effect of having all of the choices we do in life today. Check out how many different varieties of apples there are next time you’re at the grocery store. Or take the hundreds of cable channels available. And how about all of the choices of colleges and majors? (For a great parody of modern consumerism, check out White Noise by Don DeLillo.)

We’re bombarded with choice in today’s world. This can be paralyzing for many people. This paralysis leads to indecision which in turn can lead to dissatisfaction, stagnation, and depression. Have you ever gone shopping for something and been so bewildered by all the choices that you left without purchasing anything? It’s amazing.

I can sympathize, then, with the contention that too many choices can be a bad thing. It can also be a good thing, though, when viewed from a practical standpoint. The vast majority of the choices available aren’t really reasonable options for all of us. There can be a hundred cars on the car dealer’s lot, but perhaps only ten of them are close to what you would like.

Similarly, if you’re 5′2″ when fully grown, you don’t have a whole lot of promise for a career in the NBA. Or, if you wear thick glasses and have poor coordination, there’s not much chance you’re going to become a fighter pilot, is there? Unfortunately, even though we’ve always heard we can be anything we want to be when we grow up, we can’t.

This fact of life has the effect of limiting our choices. Being realistic, we can limit our choices further to only those things we want to do. What I mean by this is that if we remove from consideration all of the things we don’t want to do in life, like being a doctor or lawyer if we hate hospitals or going to school, there are fewer choices.

One thing that Schwartz said troubles me, though: “I am always satisfied with good enough.” He goes on to talk about, in the same context, how his wife is the first girl he ever dated and his job is the only one he’s ever had. Think about that. In a way, this sounds like something akin to the saying, “ignorance is bliss.” It doesn’t sound like he has experienced much variety, does it?

The idea that we should be more satisfied with what we have does resonate with me. What bothers me is the implication that anything that comes our way should be accepted as long as it meets some minimum standard. What if we set our sights too low? If we don’t shoot for something higher in our lives, we’ll never have a chance of climbing above that minimum standard of achievement.

Some people do try too hard to find something they think is better while neglecting the value of what they already have. But, wait a minute. Who’s to define what’s good enough? How do we know? Ultimately, it’s only good enough if you are personally satisfied.

So, if you stop at ‘good enough,’ how will you ever know if you could have done better? If you know exactly what you want out of life and you’re able to find that early on, more power to you. Could you do better? No one really knows, but you can be sure that you will never find out if you don’t even try.