It’s All Too Much

I wrote in Anderson's Tail post earlier this week about the impact of long tail markets, and discuss what the implications of too much access, too much content and too much choice does to us over time. Consider the immigrant who lands in the U.S. for the first time and walks into a grocery store.

I had this experience when I was away from the states for several years and returned to a familiar small town grocery store for the first time. It was exciting but also daunting and complex – so much more than I needed, so much more than I wanted to ‘deal with.’

Since I was sent on an errand, I became suddenly distressed over whether I bought the right cottage cheese and cereal or not and remember that this was over 15 years ago. What should have been a quick errand took twice as long because I was faced with so much choice -- so much more than I needed -- that I had a hard time making a decision.

Meet Terry
I was in Belize recently and ran into a charming middle-aged Belizian woman named Terry. She was entertaining and luscious, as she carried my friend Ray and I from her childhood to her recent divorce from an American Minnesotan. Her enchanting life story came out during a six hour Maya Airlines delay, something I learned was par for the course.

After raising her children with nannies and servants in Belize and later in life, in a middle-to-upper class neighborhood in Michigan, she divorced and her life took a dramatic turn. Terry loaded everything she truly cared about in her car and drove to Miami where she now lives in a two bedroom condo on the water.

Her eyes lit up as she talked about simplifying her life and how her daily choices are now so much less complex. She recounts an experience she had trying to replace a blown light bulb when she lived in Michigan, something she thought would be a ten minute errand.

Enter Choice
Terry enters a hardware store aisle with well over a thousand choices and despite having the bulb and model number, it took her three trips before she found the right one. Why? Because thanks to so much choice America, there is opaque, clear, opaque B, opaque BX78 and so on.

I experience the same thing on a regular basis. It took four months to find anyone technically sophisticated enough to help me set up my surround sound system (and remember I live in Silicon Valley where geeks are supposedly in abundance). After it was ‘nearly’ set up, I spent hours if not weeks getting the right wires, batteries and connectors. Touch one wrong button on one of my four remote controls and you may get volume on one device but not another. I’m still hesitant to use a remote without referring to my handwritten notes.

Says Barry Schwartz, “as the number of choices keeps growing, negative aspects of having multitude of options begin to appear. As the number of choices grows further, the negatives escalate until we become overloaded. At this point, choice no longer liberates, but debilitates. It might even be said to tyrannize.”

Enter Jerry the Cable Guy
If it were not for an accidental stop from Jerry my cable guy, I may still not be able to use my stereo/TV system. It has become so complex with more choices than I need, that ultimately this high-powered system becomes unusable to me.

On one rare occasion I decided to watch TV, sound came out but no picture. Fatigued and on the brink of tears after hours of tampering, I longed for my $50 TV set I gave to a friend before I left Boston....the one with two simple remotes – one for TV and one for my DVD player. Simple - why make it harder?

Nightmare Shopping
Purchasing decisions are no less daunting, from my iPod to chargers (one camera still doesn’t have one because there are so many online choices that look similar, its not clear which one is the right one), to speakers, laptops and cell phones.

I now pay more for cable than ever before and while I appear to have more choices and channels, there’s less I want to watch than I did two decades ago.

As I also quoted in my Long Tail post, Christine Rosen says, “In our haste to find the quickest, most convenient and most easily individualized way of getting what we want, are we creating eclectic personal theaters or sophisticated echo chambers? Are we promoting individualism or a narrow individualism? An expansion of choices or a deadening of taste?”

Joe Jackson, one of my favorite singer songwriters, captures the essence of too much in lyrics from his Laughter & Lust album. Does any of it resonate with you? This was also written a decade and a half ago when shopping and consuming was half as complex as it is today. When will we collectively put our hands up and say “no more, it’s all too much.”

Some days I can't get started Wondering which shoe to put on first Or should I brush my teeth Before or after I put on my shirt So many big decisions Boiled or scrambled, fried or even raw I'm so damn open-minded Used to think I'm lucky but I'm cursed I hate this supermarket But I have to say it makes me think A hundred mineral waters It's fun to guess which ones are safe to drink Two hundred brands of cookies 87 kinds of chocolate chip They say that choice is freedom I'm so free it drives me to the brink And you know why - it's all too much It's all too much for me to bear What kind of shampoo suits my hair It's all too much to struggle thru Especially without you Won't you please come home Honey please come home I read the morning paper But it all changes by the evening news The world got so much smaller I don't know which piece of it to choose I'd like to fight apartheid Wish that I could fight the guy upstairs I'd solve a dozen cases If only there weren't so many clues What shall we do this evening Send out for some sushi and champagne Stay in and watch TV 50 channels can't all be the same Maybe go to a movie 50 films on 50 tiny screens They say that choice is freedom I'm so free it's driving me insane And you know why - it's all too much It's all too much for me to stand So much supply and no demand There's just too much for me to do Especially without you Won't you please come home Honey please come home I'd like to get to know All the many people I could be If I just had the time I'm sure I could find out which one is me Maybe I need religion Or meditation 'til I disappear They say that choice is freedom I'm so free I'm stuck in therapy And you know why - it's all too much It's all too much for me to take Try to be real, feel like a fake It's all too much to follow thru Especially without you Honey please come home Won't you please come home