This is an encore episode with Professor Barry Schwartz, author of several books, including Why We Work and The Paradox of Choice. I spoke to Barry in August, 2020 about his findings in these two important books.

Prevailing social wisdom is that more is better, and that more choices should yield much greater satisfaction. So why is it that the harder we work and the more affluent we become, the more depressed we get? More choice, Barry argues, not only overwhelms us, but raises our expectations and makes us doubt our decision-making. Too much choice increases our anxiety and makes us less happy. Could it be, even in our freedom loving country, that we have gotten too much of a good thing and that we would benefit from some guardrails in our lives? I’m sure there are those who would argue against it, but Barry’s research and conclusions here are quite persuasive. Barry Schwartz taught psychology at Swarthmore College for 45 years and is now Visiting Professor of Management at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. He holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. from University of Pennsylvania, and a B.S. from New York University. His TED Talks on the topics of work, choice, and wisdom have been viewed over 20 million times.

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