The Paradox of Choice

I picked up a new book today, and it looks like a winner: The Paradox of Choice—Why More is Less. While the web has not been mentioned yet, 37Signals lives and breathes the philosophy of this book: simple is best.

Google Maps may be the most technological mapping system on the web (from a development point of view), but it’s dead simple to the user. When I go to Google Maps, I’m not hit with a million choices.

I think a surplus of choice is is why a lot of people aren’t attracted to "smartphones". Smartphones aren’t really smart, if they were then they wouldn’t have so many choices. On the other end of the spectrum we have the iPod Shuffle which is one of the most simple devices out there, It’s a huge hit because its main feature is not having features. Bizarro world!

I’ll enjoy the rest of this book. You should check it out.