Few are the people of today who have never uttered that sentence. Our closets stuffed with clothes (walk-in closet is actually the feature that has increased most in demand in the last five years, according to a Swedish real-estate agent), “I have nothing to wear” has become part of our everyday language. To our grandparents, that sentence is like Martian language. Having had less than a fifth the wardrobe of clothes that we have when they were at our age, they did have something to wear. So, are we better off now?
My colleague Barry Schwartz has made a career lately on that dilemma. I think he has some interesting takes, though he misses some aspects. Which we will, of course, revisit later…
What does Nextopia mean?
Nextopia på svenska
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Illustrations for the Nextopia book blog appendix
Could this be analogous to the jam experiment mentioned in Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink? More options means less choices, because in some contexts we don’t want to know there is something better.
I have a friend who always argues for us to go back to one phone company, one power company etc, because he doesn’t want to choose, and he feels that the one company would provide him with the best deal.
You are well-read, Anton!
The jam experiment is a classic, where people are found to become less inclined to buy a jam of any sort after sampling a greater number of tastes before purchase. Tasting yet another sort, people bear witness to the fact that no individual sort has all the benefits a jam (other jams) could provide. “Why can’t I have them all?”
More on this later…
emvehå,
MD