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Wednesday, December 28. 2011The Art of ChoosingA former intern at my office is now working with this speaker and directed me to this presentation. It's a fascinating discussion of choice. Recently, there was a post on Maggie's about the Runaway Boxcar. How do we approach choice in a crises? Stress alters how we make choices, as well as how we view them. So, too, does culture. At times, the speaker in this video criticizes American views of, and approaches to, choice. It is unfortunate, because the entire presentation is wonderful. She points out Americans could benefit by incorporating more collaborative approaches to choice, as opposed to the highly individualistic view we tend to have. But she fails to mention other cultures lack the insight the American perspective has, and could benefit from more choice, rather than less. It is also worth noting that the American perspective allows for greater collaborative approaches to choice, whereas other cultures tend to look down on individualistic views. Choice is difficult. Choices can, at times, be paralyzing. But it doesn't mean that more choice is always the answer or that the American narrative on choice is wrong. It just means the American narrative of choice is different, and that American history shows more choice may not be better, but yields better overall results.
And, honestly, I can tell the difference between Coke and Pepsi. They have very distinct and different tastes. Coke is better (to me).
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+10 on the Coke v. Pepsi comment. Sometimes when I'm out and about and need to grab a fast food lunch, I'll opt for, say, Burger King over KFC/Taco Bell since the latter is a Pepsi owned and serving place.
The ownership doesn't matter - it's the serving about which I care. Oh, and I'll often go to Chick-Fil-A since they offer Diet DP (which is virtually indistinguishable from the caloric variety) and Coke Zero which, to my taste, is the best diet cola since the memory of man runneth not to the contrary. 1 - A very smart guy, sort of a mentor to me when I was just getting back on my feet all those years ago, told me that making a choice wasn't a question of right or wrong because no one can know the future. If you chose wrong, you could always go back and try again. If you chose right, you move on. After all, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results." *
2 - Now I know you are totally insane which explains the fascination with Ron Paul. DIET PEPSI RULES!!!! Coke is better - my God man, what is wrong with you? *That was not an Albert Einstein quote which was something that I learned the other day. It comes from a Rita Mae Brown mystery "Sudden Death". Ms. Brown is one of those "interesting" people that nobody ever knows about. Fascinating personality. There is such a thing as too much choice.
Shop at Amazon for a men's shirt and get 1.4 million choices. Drilling down is of little value, since one still has tens of thousands of choices. Thoreau, who advised us to "Simplify, simplify," would have a stroke. Freedom creates choices. I have no puritanical problem with that.
In 1994, I attended a conference on Chaos and Complexity. It was a multidisciplinary conference. Microsoft was there, Oracle, as was Citibank and various research departments from universities.
At any rate, there was a picture they used. The first was a series of dots, unconnected. Next, some were connected, then more, and more over a series of 8 pictures. The final picture was all the dots with each connected to the other. The question that followed was "which picture was the most complex?" The answer was basically any except the first (unconnected) and the last (completely connected). The first and last were static, and of little overall value. The others had levels of connectivity that varied, making them more valuable and useful. The point is that no choice (no connectivity) is as bad as too much choice (total connectivity). Freedom, as BD says, does bring more choice. That's a good thing. But it's up to us to figure out how much is good for our lives. My husband and I just returned from a week in Spain. Every time we go out of the US, one of our first treats is a Coke made with cane sugar. I can tell the difference between Pepsi and Coke (I don't care for Pepsi) and I can tell the difference between US Coke made with corn sweetener and foreign/kosher for passover Coke made with cane sugar. Once you've had the real thing, there is no going back.
My local Costco offers Mexican bottled Coke which uses cane sugar. I don't drink the calorified version so I don't buy it but I'd suppose it's pretty much the same as other cane sugar-made Cokes.
One of my earliest "decisions" was choosing between Coke and Pepsi, and here's why: I was a young girl in the late 50s and early 60s, and it was very common then for public restrooms to have those deodorizers on a wire that hung inside the toilet bowl, so the flushing water would release a scent. A very popular and common "scent" was the same "smell" of a flavoring that Pepsi used in its soda (a mint).
I was all of six when I came to associate the smell of public bathrooms with the smell of Pepsi. Needless to say, it was not a pleasant association. Will I drink a Pepsi if it is put into my hand? Of course. Do I ever willingly choose Pepsi? No No No. Because it smells like restrooms! I can tell the difference between the coke made 50 years ago and the coke made today. It was fizzer and not as sweet. If I have a coke and a pepsi in front of me to compare I can tell the difference but not which is which. If you drink a coke warm you may quit drinking soft drinks for good. I don't care if the soda is sweetened with cane sugar, beet sugar or HFCS, however I will not drink sodas bottled in third world countries unless I'm already on antibiotics. I don't drink anything with an artificial sweetener. I did drink a diet soda some years back and I still have the taste in my mouth. Doesn't anyone else find that chemical taste to be disgusting?
"Sir, what can i get you to drink?"
"Are you Coke or Pepsi?" "Pepsi." "I'll have iced tea." |
We posted on The Art of Choosing a little while ago. It got me to thinking about one of my favorite topics, the choices of life goals. The tends to be a political assumption that everybody is most motivated by material and financial goals, but it just i
Tracked: Jan 08, 13:17