more/better

10Mar09

That paradox, more is not necessarily better, has been with us for a long time. One of the earliest Greek writers, Hesiod said, “They do not know the half is better than the whole.” Prophets and philosophers the world over have spoken about it in all sorts of ways. Myths, from Midas to the Chaucer’s Pardoner’s Tale, have made it memorable for us. And of course moralists and preachers of various kinds have ground it down to a truism.

But why, when our brains otherwise work so brilliantly, do we make these mistakes so easily?

Dan Gilbert gave an excellent TED talk on the paradox of more choice which refreshes the theme with some experimental evidence:

Meanwhile storytellers find new ways of encapsulating the paradox. Like this short, The Black Hole:

Filed under: mind, paradox, psychology   |  1 Comment
Tags: brain, choice, Gilbert, happiness, illusion, mind, paradox, psychology, TED, video, zemblanity