Malcolm Gladwell is a funny person as well as a great writer!! He is much more famous than Dr. Howard Moskowitz, the scientist he talks about the whole presentation. Dr. Moskowitz did all the work, and reached the conclusions. But because of Gladwell's journalistic and presentational skills, more people have now heard of Dr. Moskowitz than ever would have. By the way, Malcolm also grew up in small city Ontario (makes me proud just to know that), just like Gordon Lightfoot and me
Malcolm talks about Moskowitz' discovery that there is no 'one best Pepsi sweetness', that our preferences are clustered, rather than universal, and that often our mind can't express our taste preferences (e.g., chunky tomato sauce) until we actually do the tasting. As a result, there are now many kinds of tomato sauce and mustards* on supermarket shelves, too the happiness of Americans everywhere.
But hold on a minute. What about the equally stimulating presentation by Barry Schwartz?
Barry makes the opposite argument, i.e. that having 175 salad dressing options in the supermarket (and too many other choices in picking jeans, stereo systems, a mate, a career, a pension plan) causes us to become paralyzed and unable to make key decisions. He further thinks that having all these choices, options, tastes and fits, actually makes us unhappy, because our expectations have risen to the extent that they cannot be fulfilled. Something like waiting for a Mr. Right who either doesn't exist, or is unlikely to pass by in one's lifetime.
It is titillating that these two talks, presented a year and a continent apart, should contain two such conflicting views. Do I have to choose one over the other? That might lead to paralysis of thought. They are both lovely. Perhaps too much choice is daunting, perhaps too little is limiting. I've decided not to decide. Now is that a decision? You decide.
*By the way, if you do like mustard, you might enjoy the Commandments' rendition of 'mustard sally' .
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