How to manage your choices?

Yes or no? - This is the hardest question that people confront with. It becomes even harder with the increasing number of alternatives. We make many choices every day, every week and over our life thus altering the direction of the latter. We eat, study, shop for new dresses, we work, take a nap, we return a phone call, we meet people and on and on. Some people enjoy decision-making/choice-making process and think that they are good at choosing; hence they do not take the situation seriously. Usually do-and-see attitude towards important decisions result in irrevocable consequences. On the contrary some people get confused when they are faced with decisive situations. As many alternatives you have as harder it is to make comparisons, cost and benefit analysis, to do tests, judgments, etc. Nowadays market is filled with different types of innovative products with different options, the majority of which are not uniquely differentiated though. It becomes harder and harder to choose even a simple product or service.

I usually become nervous when there are dozens of non-differentiated alternatives, because it is harder to manage those choices. I liked Sheena Iyengar’s podcast “How to make choosing better”; she speaks about choice overload, the negative consequences of that and proposes techniques to businessman for attracting customers and making it easier for them to choose and more importantly buy the products.  Sheena Iyengar is S.T. Lee Professor of Business in the Management Division of the Columbia Business School; she is the author of “The art of Choosing” book, which is one of the Amazon.com’s Top 10 Books in Business & Investing.

I liked her clear English and her way of communicating with the audience. Interestingly all the facts she mentioned were based on studies conducted by her. In the result of one of her experiments she has found out that people are more inclined to stop near the shelf with more types of the same product to sample one, but on the contrary they are more likely to buy when they encounter less choices. She has made studies since her graduate years and compiled them in her book. According to Iyengar (2012), people are more likely to delay choosing or make worse choices due to choice overload: it is impossible to compare all the hundreds of alternatives. Iyengar brings the example of Walmart andAldi: Walmart today offers 100,000 products, but the nineth largest retailer in the world today is Aldi, and it offers only 1,400 products – only one kind od canned tomato sauce.

In the end Iyengar suggests businessmen the following simple techniques to mitigate the choices overload problem and thus attract more buyers:

·         cut - get rid of the inessential choices

·         concretize the choices so the customer understands the difference between them

·         categorize - have more categories but less choices

·         condition for complexity – gradually increase
the complexity  

For more details about Sheena Iyengar you can visit www.sheenaiyengar.com

What is wrong with what we eat?

I have a simple recipe for designing my day ration and advise everybody to use that: a protein and fiber rich breakfast, meat/fish/poultry for dinner and only plants/ vegetables/ fruits for supper. I never have problems with my stomach and don’t gain excess weight. Last year I had a paper-based project which was related to the importance of eating a balanced diet. I found out that indeed a diet based on plenty of fruits and vegetables, some protein-rich foods such as meat, fish and lentils, some milk and dairy foods, and not too much fat, salt or sugar, will give your organism all the nutrients it needs. But is that way of eating well for our environment, don’t I harm my surrounding in any way? Unfortunately when deciding what to eat we usually do not think about the consequences that our decisions may have on the nature; we are self-centered and think of only our preferences and delight.  That is the nature of the humankind.

In his podcast Bittman (2008) talks about what is wrong with what we eat and the interconnections among eating too much meat, obesity, global warming and other negative consequences of our behavior. I find him trustworthy because he is an author of several books in the area of food and cooking, a professional journalist, a writer of The New York Times, and the senior writer of Cook’s Illustrated (presenting the best methods of preparing food).

The point of Bittman is quite accurate and clear: We should take care of what we eat and advocate others to eat a better diet: less meat, less junk and more plants. Overconsumption of meat causes heart cancer and has a direct relation to the altered atmosphere. There are many studies on the effect of rising livestock production on the global warming. Global warming is vital and we know that the biggest share of CO₂ emitted into the atmosphere is due to energy production and transportation. Bittman notes that the third contributor of altered atmosphere is the increasing livestock production as a result of increased demand for meat and dairy products. More of the planet's capacity is devoted to growing grain for meat and dairy animals, more land and water is devoted to supporting livestock and more water and atmosphere is polluted from the excess nitrogen and greenhouse gases we create to grow crops fed to animals for meat.What he suggests is not to give up consuming meat; he even mentions that he will never stop eating it, the goal is to hinder the steady increase of meat consumption and even reduce it say from half a pound per day to half a pound per week.

Bittman also describes the development of population from the era of self production to the era of industrialization. At first people were producing locally and were consuming their own food, because no supermarkets existed and minimum food was transported. Then fresh and frozen food began to be shipped for the first time; fast food, semi prepared food was produced and home cooking was cut back. The market became more industrialized, people became more civilized, preferences were changed and demands were increased. These progressions had also their side effects on the environment and need considerable attention to be given both by all countries united for a general purpose and by individual households in their daily decisions.

The podcast is quite interesting: Bittman thoroughly explains the reasons for reducing the consumption of meat, brings interesting examples and photos that make his speech more convincing. Nevertheless this is just an informative and awareness rising speech; there is no need to pursue anything; everything is more than clear and evident.

Do video games make kids smarter ?

    Recently I and my classmates were discussing an article related to video games in our Analytical Writing class, where the author, Kris Sage, speaks about the educational benefits of video games. He tells that while enjoying the excitement of playing he has acquired different skills: reading, writing, analytical and communicative. As Sage (2009) interprets, playing video games is a process of thinking, judgments and analysis, when one should be cautious, flexible, and able to quickly orientate and respond to challenges. Nevertheless he is not pursuing; he only offers to have a thought before prohibiting the child to go near to the joystick. 

There are many contradicting opinions about the subject; therefore I searched for other points of view trying to strengthen my opinion that negative impacts of video games offset the positive impacts. I found a podcast on TEDTalk.com about how video games make kids smarter. Gabe Zicherman is an author, leader, well-known public speaker and eventually an entrepreneur; he is a board member of StartOut organization dedicated to facilitate and develop entrepreneurship. He is the author of two books on the subject of gamification - “the process of using game-thinking and game-mechanics to engage audiences and solve problems”, is the chair of gamification summit and the creator of gamification blog. Zicherman (2011) shows how video games develop the multi-tasking and problem-solving skills among the players (children). He presents himself as a vital example of turning the lifestyle of playing video games into a career that pays money. It is predictive that 10 000 hours of his life he spent playing Civilization. I remember how my elder brother for 5 years was playing a similar type of game – Age of Mythology. I played it as well and can assure that it is really a very interesting and sometimes difficult strategic game, which is based on speed and logic. He introduces articles that he read in newspapers about the effects of video games on kids and with persuasive examples assures you that video games are what children need. His experience is really substantive, which is revealed in the cogency of his speech.  However taking video games as the best way to develop those skills is not right; there are many other ways to do that without all the negative effects: finding the real world uninteresting, cutting back from simple face-to-face communication, distraction of attention from other important knowledge that can be acquired only in schools, health effects of sitting long hours in front of computers, etc.

Small (2009), Director of the ULCA Center on Aging, made a similar finding that multi-tasking and problem solving skills are developed and brain is activated when doing internet searching, in this way our brains adapt to new technology.

Another example presented by the Zicherman is how a successful business-person, educator Ananth Pai, placed a standard curriculum in one of the schools of Minnesota, where children were given computer games that taught them math and language.  Within eighteen weeks of game-based learning Ananth’s class went from 3^rd grade level in reading a math to a 4^th grade level. When interviewed children said that learning was fun.

The truth of Zicherman’s statements is that video games may help kids to interpret text and voice, operate characters, manage objectives and more importantly manage interruptions by parents while playing. By no doubt today kids are smarter than before; they are independent and self confident, they have different interests and expectations. The technology, innovative products, surroundings, people, communication, all of these has their effect on today’s ever smarter children. The era of reading old books is over and it is time of digital world. Nevertheless the findings are not conclusive and there is a need for further examination.

My conclusion is that the only prescription is as follows: get into the game with your kids, try to understand the context of the game, what they feel, why they play, do not just fight against them, listen to your kids, play with them and give directions. By communicating with children you will be able to give them advice, set them in the right direction, rather than just prohibit.