I've been reading 'The Paradox of Choice', and it has me thinking about choices and happiness. I've often said that I just want someone to dress me. Even though it's true, I've felt that it was a shortcoming of mine--that I wanted to give up some of my autonomy. The more I think about it, though, the more I feel that the number of choices we have now can be overwhelming, and taking the time to make an informed decision on all of them is impractical. It is especially taxing for people who feel they need to make the best choice all the time. I don't think it's any kind of perfectionism that gets to me, though — it has something more to do with the fact that I have a hard time making 'routine' choices. I think it has something to do with the 'perception filters' I've often talked about. While my personal filters block out many items I really should take note of (usually anything involving people), they don't seem to filter out mundane choices. I still feel the need to make basic choices over and over again from scratch instead of just going with what I know.

This idea of choice overload fits in with Gilbert's ideas on happiness in 'Stumbling on Happiness'. We need some level of autonomy to be happy, but we think that more choices will always make us happier, even though this is clearly not the case. It has to be better to make informed choices about the few things we really care about, and just let the rest slide. I think these ideas can be pieced together more coherently, but at the moment I'm tired and I'm going to go to sleep.