Friday night, I was struggling to choose a good movie to watch. I spent 20 minutes looking through hundreds of choices at Amazon Video and still couldn’t decide. In the back of my mind, I was thinking that I have to choose a great movie to watch, because if I didn’t I would be wasting my time. I thought that instead of watching a bad movie, I would be better off using my time in a more meaningful way (I see this as an opportunity cost). After browsing the reviews and asking around for suggestions, I ended up watching LaLa land, a popular movie that most of my friends have seen recently.
The next day, I went to Duane Reade to buy toothpaste and was overwhelmed again by the amount the choices. I started wondering if more choices empower consumers or just make them think they were empowered, when in reality they are just confused.
From finding a good restaurant to searching for your life partner, everything is all about choices; big or small, they are all related. Take dating life in New York for example. There are an endless amounts of choices which can lead to many New Yorkers finding it hard to make a decision. It is so easy to get distracted by the alternatives. It is a big city with a lot of lonely “I could do better” people that are constantly searching the next best one.
When I created sundays, I wanted things to be simple. Easy like a Sunday morning. For instance, we have limited nail polish colors that are all thoughtfully designed by consulting nail artists. After a long day of work, the last thing I want to do when going to the nail studio is to worry about my nail polish color choices among 500 colors and 10 different brands. We want to take out the unnecessary parts of traditional nail polish ingredients, and simplify the nail studio experience to make our clients’ lives easier.
It doesn’t contradict with providing people choices and information to empower them, as there is difference between having a reasonable amount of choices and an overwhelming amount. When we are overwhelmed with the amount of choices we have, we end up less satisfied with the choice we make. You might calculate the opportunity cost and think about “what if”…
I’ve started to realize that less is more and simple is better. Making an impact with simplicity can sometimes be a challenge, but it is certainly worth it.
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