capstone

In an in-depth investigation for The Guardian, Chayka documents how the AirSpace style of interior decor has become the dominant design style of coffee shops:

“Go to Shoreditch Grind, near a roundabout in the middle of London’s hipster district. It’s a coffee shop with rough-hewn wooden tables, plentiful sunlight from wide windows, and austere... See more

This article argues that from film to fashion and architecture to advertising, creative fields have become dominated and defined by convention and cliché. Distinctiveness has died. In every field we look at, we find that everything looks the same.

Choice was once a privilege. Now it’s a trap. What psychologists in the 1970s called “overchoice” has become the baseline of modern life: an endless scroll of products, partners, playlists, posts. Children and young adults in particular aren’t lazy or indifferent – they’re paralysed. Faced with too much of everything, the brain short-circuits.... See more

In the 1970 book Future Shock, American futurist Alvin Toffler and his wife Adelaide Farrell argued that the rapid shift into a “super-industrial society” happened so quickly we’ve been unable to adapt. The breakneck pace of technological change leaves people overwhelmed with “shattering stress and disorientation”. Popularising the term... See more

In other cultures, individual choice isn’t necessarily valued so highly, and this different approach can have a major impact on how people cope with difficult decisions.

Autonomy and freedom of choice are critical to our well being, and choice is critical to freedom and autonomy. Nonetheless, though modern Americans have more choice than any group of people ever has had before, and thus, presumably, more freedom and autonomy, we don't seem to be benefiting from it psychologically"

– Barry Schwartz, The Paradox of

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The term “choice overload” was coined by the American writer Alvin Toffler in his 1970 book Future Shock. The book was about how people were, at that point, grappling with “too much change in too short a period of time.” Toffler predicted that, as industrialization intensified, the people of the future (which is to say, us) would suffer from a... See more

Research has shown that this mechanism, known as “expectation-disconfirmation,” is a big driver of choice overload.

There is a widespread assumption that more choice equals more freedom, which many regard as a positive. But the empirical evidence on choice overload contradicts this idea. In many cases, more variety makes our lives harder and less pleasant.