Do we want choices?
Doc Searls quotes an interesting screed on consumers and choice:
who wants OK? Not me. When there's 500 channels of people telling us how to become perfect cooks, gardeners, dressers and travellers, any compromise feels like, well, compromise. And that's the problem with choice. Whatever I choose probably won¹t live up to my expecations, leaving me to feel that somewhere out there, there was the thing I missed, the one that would make me happy right now.
A few years ago I worked with a big UK supermarket chain. We did some research into why people shopped organic. Was it for health? A commitment to the environment? To sustainability? The real reason was quite shocking: in the organic aisle, there¹s only one kind of carrot, two kinds of potatoes and one kind of lettuce. People were paying a premium to escape being confronted with twenty varieties of spud.
That's interesting - it lines up with things I hear about VisualWorks as well - there are too many ways to organize code (categories, parcels, namespaces, packages, bundles) - people don't want that - they want a recommended path. Sure, some people want more choices so that they can design their very own optimal solution - but most people don't. This is food for thought...
Comments
This applies to Linux as well
[Mike Brazinski] April 10, 2004 11:34:15.341
About a year ago, I was setting up a Linux box for internal development. I've been on the windows platform for several years and was interested in looking at Linux. After downloading Redhat (that choice was already made for me), I needed to set up an ftp daemon on the box. I remember googling on terms like 'ftpd redhat' and found what appeared to be instructions that made no sense. It wasn't too long until I realized there were three different ftp daemons installed on my machine and I had to choose one. Each one had different pluses and minuses. Anyhow after a while, I just randomly picked one and got it running but I was annoyed having to choose. As you mentioned, I did just want a recommend path.
It also reminds me of several years back when Wendy's was really pushing their custom made burgers, where you needed to specify whether or not you wanted each condiment and topping. I just wanted their standard burger with their standard toppings, not a quiz if I wanted no pickles, pickles or extra pickles.coherence
[Isaac Gouy] April 10, 2004 11:52:57.500
"too many ways to organize code" Why is this a surprise? One attraction of core Smalltalk is the uniform programming model - the transitional situation with "categories, parcels, namespaces, packages, bundles" is a bunch of special-cases which reflect product history rather than elegant design.
We want *meaningful* choices
[Isaac Gouy] April 10, 2004 11:57:57.083
There are maybe 3 kinds of potato - waxy potatoes / floury potatoes (do you want to make french-fries or not) and new potatoes. After that it's just price and politics.
the attraction of less syntax
[bryan] April 10, 2004 15:06:05.388
is another aspect of this; by decreasing choice you enable the brain to focus on the more important aspects of any problem.
Like healthcare
[Ian Bicking] April 10, 2004 23:18:47.061
This reminds me of healthcare debates (in the US), and the anti-single-payer people always talk about the importance of choice. Ha! No one wants to make all sorts of choices in their healthcare. They want *good* healthcare, that's all. Like we're lucky to have the opportunity to choose between a bunch of insurance plans, so we can "choose" which holes we want in our coverage, or "choose" how much we want to overpay.