Questions:
- Do you agree with the speaker that too many choices complicate our life? Can you think of an example?
- How long does it usually take you to make a choice while buying a pair of jeans/a phone/a salad dressing?
- What does the story about many funds prove? Have you ever been in a similar situation? (paralysis is a consequence of having too many choices)
- How difficult is it for us to live in the moment?
- How often do you blame yourself for making the wrong choice?
Vocabulary:
to resonate – to remind somebody of something; to be similar to what somebody thinks or believes
… some stuff that’s in this book of mine that I hope will resonate with other things you’ve already heard.
to embed = to make something a fixed and important part of something else
It’s also deeply embedded in our lives.
on the off-chance = because of a slight possibility that something may happen or might be the case; just in case.
… if you don’t count the 10 extra-virgin olive oils and 12 balsamic vinegars you could buy to make a very large number of your own salad dressings, in the off-chance that none of the 175 the store has on offer suit you.
a shift = a change in position or direction
shifting of the burden
… it really is a shifting of the burden and the responsibility for decision-making from somebody who knows something — namely, the doctor — to somebody who knows nothing and is almost certainly sick and thus not in the best shape to be making decisions — namely, the patient.
to be up for grabs = available to everyone
Nowadays, everything is very much up for grabs.
liberation = the act or process of freeing somebody from something that restricts their control over or enjoyment of their own life
One effect, paradoxically, is that it produces paralysis, rather than liberation.
to induce = to persuade or influence somebody to do something
And what happens is this imagined alternative induces you to regret the decision you made, and this regret subtracts from the satisfaction you get out of the decision you made, even if it was a good decision.
escalation = the act of becoming or making something greater, worse, more serious, etc.
escalation of expectations