The Burden Of Choice
Today I worked, for a brief time, from a Starbucks. As I was waiting for my doppio espresso to be carefully crafted, an advertising on the familiar Starbucks counter stroke me in an unusual way. Here's the thing:
If you don't know Spanish, the advert says Starbucks has more than 86,000 distinct combinations of coffee.
After I took my beverage and found a place to sit, I started to make some calculations.
If I would have one distinct combination each day, it will take me more than 235 years to go through all the combinations, without repeating any of them.
86000 combinations / 365 days = 235.6 years
Just to give you an idea about the enormity of that number, 235 years ago happened to be 1784. We didn't have public street lightning back then (first public lightning happened in 1807 in London). We didn't have airplanes, the first recorded flight happened in 1903, by Orville Wright (one of the two famous Wright brothers). We didn't have shopping malls, television, internet or air conditioning. It was another era.
So, imagining how 235 years from now will be like it's simply an exercise in futility. Or, in plain English, I can't wrap my mind around anything like that. Let aside the simpler fact that I might as well not be alive for 235 more years.
The sheer size of these choices is almost frightening. And it's not happening only in Starbuckses, it happens all around us. We have dozens of flavors of Coke, hundreds of types of bread, thousands types of crackers and so on and so forth.
In my opinion, this unprecedented expansion in choices backfires big time on those who are presenting it as a huge reason for consumption. Instead of making me wanting to buy more of their stuff, to try more combinations, it makes me sit back and avoid them.
Truth is, we can't have everything in this life. And, deep down, unconsciously, we know it. And we don't really want to have it all. We're not eager to try 86,000 coffee combinations.
What we want is to find what we like, and then stick to it. Having such a large choice surface will not make me happier, on the contrary. Having to go through 86,000 combinations to find the ones I like is repelling. It will take me an eternity (well, not exactly, just 235 years, but still).
More choices aren't a reason to consume more.
Because, at the end of the day, all our choices are binary: either drink coffee, or don't.
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
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We don't even want to have 86000 type of coffee, we just want the illusion that we will be happier if we have options. Also could be because society is teaching us that having more is the key to happiness. Sadly is the opposite, having less stuff and less choices makes you value more the ones you have. Anyone who lived in communist era could tell how great a simple watermelon was, in a country that you couldn't find any in the store :)
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Word!
Sound like great coffee
I absolutely agree with you more choices aren't the reason to consume more, but there is probably some psychology behind that ad. As we probably see a place where we will find the choice we are looking for from all the options if offers.
That’s true! It could be applied to crypto market as well...how many tokens and altcoins we have and what are the really important ones?
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Great point. Extra choices seem to say 'you are missing out on everything you don't try'. We need to be happy with the ones we are able to try, instead!
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This reminds me of the cold war story of a Russian immigrant in the breakfast cereal aisle of an American supermarket - standing and staring, paralyzed by the choices.
This was told as propaganda obviously. Rather than in awe, the Russian was probably simply in shock thinking "Why?"
You should have asked the guy making your coffee to carefully explain each and every coffee combination available, or just asked him to make you number 33,333rd combo.
I might try this some day...
I will try to make a dent into those 86000 coffee combinations 😂
Good luck with that :)
Very funny, actually thought you're going to write about something else not knowing it's a calculation if year I can spend to taste the difference aroma of a coffee. Next time you do this, am gonna borrow 10 mil SP from haejin and flag you.
PS: We don't drink coffee here, we take tea. Please don't tell anyone. OK?,