Why is it that things can be so complicated?...
I thought computers, and the Internet in particular, were supposed to make our lives simpler, not more complicated!
Now, while I'm not as young as I used to be... hmm, that's a stupid expression, isn't it.... I mean no one is as young as they used to be... anyway...
I'm not old enough to harken back to the horse and buggy days, but it seems like life is much more complicated that it used to be.
Take home mortgages as an example.
How does anyone actually not go crazy in the process of trying to decide with whom to secure a home mortgage? Even when we bought our first home, which wasn't thatlong ago, the process was fairly simple. You either grabbed the real estate section out of the Sunday paper, or thumbed through the yellow pages to find the names and phone numbers of the modest number of mortgage companies, made a few phone calls to inquire about rates for the small number of different loan types - I believe the choices were 15 or 30 years - kinda like "would you like fries with that (Y/N)" - asked what the fees were, and then made a choice. Now, there are literally hundreds of companies with whom you can do business - location is no longer a limiting factor. There are dozens of loan types - multiple flavors of ARMs, fixed, ballon, all with multiple rate options depending on how many points you want to pay, how much you want to put down, whether you want to pay the fees or roll them in, and on, and on, and on... And as if that wasn't enough complexity, the mortgage companies play games with their rates - you can't just compare one's rates to another's, because some of the companies bury various fees into the loan and compensate for that by charging a higher interest rate.
Moving seems to highlight or compound these new complexities of life. You find the similar complexity of multivariate equations involving the selection of a moving company, and insurance. Even selecting which telephone company and technology/plan is no longer simple. In fact, trying to figure out what method, and associated provider, you want to access this thing that was supposed to make our lives so simple (and solve world hunger, end homelessness, bring peace to the world, etc). - the Internet - is wrought with complexity! Do you go with dial-up, or DSL, or cable modem, which provider, what speed, blah, blah, blah.
Yeah, yeah, I know, but choice is a good thing you say. Choice fosters competition. Choice is a good thing. Just look at "free choice." Oh, don't even get me started about that!
I think that choice is like most everything else - it is good in moderation. Problems arise when just about anything is taken to extremes. Absolutely no choice is probably not a good thing in most situations, but neither I think, is too much choice. Options are nice - up to a point. Flexibility is good, until there is so much that you lose structural integrity. You get the picture...
So, anyway, somehow we are wading through all of these choices / decisions. On the one hand, the probability that we have not made the absolute best choice - out of every possible option and variation - troubles me. On the other hand, without accepting that "good enough" is good enough, I think we would find ourselves in analysis paralysis.
Oh well, onward and upward - um, technically, both in terms of altitude and what is generally considered up and down relative to north and south, I guess it would be more accurate to say onward and downward.
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Posted by David at May 06, 2005 04:58 PM