First off, if you're reading this and you haven't voted yet: CLOSE THE INTERNET AND GO VOTE. (actually, the internet was a fairly useful tool to me for my voting research this year. I learned what I couldn't learn from the widely distributed voter's pamphlets.) But I don't know how many people you need to tell you to go vote. They're important choices, and we all help make them. You can see the rest of the post by clicking the "Read more" below, AFTER you've turned in your ballot. >.>
Thank you for voting. =)
I'll be less of a fire-breathing dragon now.
Last week I made you all watch this video here:
It's Barry Schwartz's 2006 speech on the paradox of choice in this country. The paradox is that we have all these choices (potential presidents, potential new additions to our already full wardrobes, potential companies to apply to), and instead of giving us more freedom to choose how we want to pursue our happiness, Schwartz here says that these choices paralyze us with high expectations, making us less satisfied, and less happy.
I'm not saying that I don't want all these choices. I love my country (most of the time), and I love being blessed with all the comforts and choices that being a citizen affords. I know that having choices has its benefits--we all do, even Schwartz does--but he chooses not to focus his talk on those benefits in the spirit of challenging our brains a little. And I like to think he's on to something. Here are a few of the "choice" scenarios I've run into recently:
Voting
Did you see how many choices were on the ballot this year? I had 28 important decisions to make for my district, state, and country. How in the world could I be expected to be an expert on all 28 of them? How could I expect to make an educated decision on any of those choices without following each of them, or devoting a great deal of my own personal time and focus to learning more about them? Jeez, I'm surprised voting season doesn't make some people just lose it. Oh wait, this little girl did.
Frankly, I'm surprised that voters can actually make it out to the polls in the numbers that they do. They aren't taken by the paralysis that seems to grip us in other decision-filled circumstances. What is it that helps us overcome the overwhelming debilitation we feel when faced with a blank ballot and 28 bubbles to fill in?
Insurance
My dad and I had a conversation about insurance policies the other day. He was complaining that his work only offered two plans to their employees, and I wondered why that number was so, so small. He answered my question by explaining that each policy was pages and pages long with different jargon for each. It was like the policy writers wanted to make it impossible to compare the two plans next to one another on a chart. (I'm sure that's another thing employees wished they had when they were making those kinds of decisions...a layman's comparison chart.)
In his talk, Schwartz outlines how people choosing retirement plans keep putting off the task until tomorrow because it's so monumental. And tomorrow never comes. I wonder if Dad's company limited the amount of insurance plans available because they knew that asking employees to choose between more than two could drag on forever, and that more options would cause employees to be less satisfied with their choice.
Shopping
My sister has been getting in trouble with my mom lately because she can't seem to make her own choices. We're talking any kind of choice: whether it's deciding if she wants to tryout for the basketball team, or something as simple as figuring out which shirt she likes the most when we go out shopping. It has become a chronic problem for her and she throws mini temper tantrums in the fitting rooms because she gets so frustrated at her indecision. Sometimes she'll make a choice and decide later that she wanted the other one and we'll have to do a return run. But I shouldn't be critical, I've found I have that problem as well. (yes, I return quite a lot of things and I think I've whined and stamped my foot a few times to help me make a decision.)
I like to think that I'm a little more efficient at shopping for clothes than my sister is. Truthfully, I almost think the choice gets easier for her once she's given an ultimatum. But according to the TEDtalk above, I'm not more efficient than her. I just have less choices and a slightly larger budget.
Kaela is at that a wonderful stage in her life where she pretty much looks great in everything, and often looks better than I do in my clothes. She's got a tallish, slender, athletic build, legs that have no trouble squeezing into skinny jeans, and a perfectly average foot size. I, on the other hand, have grown into a woman's body with strange proportions. They aren't bad proportions, but I know for a fact that there are now certain shirts that simply won't look good on me unless I get a double mastectomy. My legs are so muscular that they only manage to squeeze into loose-fitting skinny jeans, and my feet are so long that I can't find cheap shoes in my size. And lately it feels like damn near everything I buy has to be ordered online and shipped to me (like the red leather jacket and pair of boots I just bought...when I was at the physical stores). What I'm trying to demonstrate here is that my little sister's body simply has more choices in terms of today's fashion, so I can see why she gets frustrated.
Job Search
I face my own choice paralysis when I'm submitting my resume to different jobs. It's in this sector where my "lack of productivity" breeds and multiplies. When I finished college, I had a few options in which to utilize my English major, namely, in the fields of publishing and technical writing. Once I graduated, those fields exploded into about a thousand different positions. Even when I managed to narrow my options to just tech writing (I'm not sure publishing is where my passions lie right now), there were still about a billion tech companies in the Seattle area that I could apply to. At this point in time, I feel like I have so many choices that I literally can't choose where to start for fear of stepping in a direction away from the "perfect job".
Stephen, I think you hit the nail on the head in your comment on my last post. That kind of thinking--that there is "a perfect job"--is really where my paralysis and apathy is rooted, and it's where I have to fix things before I can move on. Schwartz talks about how so many choices lead us to form imaginary alternatives to the choices set in front of us. I mean, if I have a billion jobs to look at, at least one of them is bound to be perfect for me, right? So why should I waste my time applying to jobs that don't quite work for me if there's one really, really appealing alternative out there somewhere? Well, the answer and motivator to solve that particular conundrum is money. Someday, probably sooner rather than later, I'm going to run out of money and at that point, my choice spectrum gets limited automatically because at that point in time, I'll probably take any job that will have me, and blame my unhappiness with the position on the time crunch.
Back at the beginning of summer, just two weeks after graduation, I received a call from a company that finds and suggests people to fill head honcho positions in successful tech businesses (we're talking amazon, ebay, google, eventbrite, sony, soundcloud...these people know people.)
I had used them as a warm-up table at a career fair, but they ended up liking me so much they wanted to give me first dibs at a position with them when one opened up. I went in for an interview with an open mind and I was pleasantly surprised. I loved the office, the atmosphere, the companies that they worked with, and all the staff were really great. I think it was one of the best interview experiences I've ever had.
When I declined to continue an interview process after an agonizing choice-filled weekend, I told them that I didn't want to waste their time because I felt like "I have the world at my fingertips". They wanted me in a more or less permanent position--a year, let's say. At that point in time, a year to me was a loooong time. I didn't want to limit my options by signing into a long-term position without trying out something else first. I didn't want to lose the recruiter contacts I had made at amazon and microsoft. So now that I have the world at my fingertips, I'm not quite sure where to start, and I've waited so long that I might very well have lost those contacts anyway. Quite disheartening. =/
I used to blame all that on procrastination, and that's part of it. Procrastination eliminates some choices, and forces you to choose from the ones that can be done in a short amount of time. Budget is another way to limit your choices. If you can't afford that one shirt, obviously it's going back on the rack. But there is something to be said about applying to every job that comes my way--if I try a bunch, I'm bound to get a response back from a position I like. And, in that process, I'll slowly be forming opinions on what positions I don't like, and that's another way to narrow the field. Another benefit of this process is that it allows me to be pleasantly surprised (14:33) by a job that I didn't expect to like.
How Can I Avoid the Paralysis of this Paradox
To get to this motivated application stage, though, I need to get rid of my "perfect job" ideal, and set myself on a schedule. That means the sleeping in until (and past) 10am, is going to stop. That means I'm going to start writing again. And designing again (my constantly "in-progess" 2 page resume is going to get done). And building my knowledge base WHILE looking for jobs. I always felt like I was most productive when I'm really busy. Here's my "list" for the next month. I'll be putting them into schedule form soon...as in, right after this because I won't be procrastinating. =)
I think those last three are going to get me motivated the most, though indirectly. Exercise is said to help with focus, a rec team will have a schedule to follow, and being more social will make me less depressed. Also. Networking. When you meet new people in college, the first question you answer is "What is your major?". When you meet people in the real world, the first question is "What do you do?" Do you know how embarrassing it feels to me to say that I'm unemployed? yikes. That's a motivating factor all on it's own.
This all hopefully means that I'll be posting blogs during the daytime, instead of dead at night, where my schedule now says I should be sleeping. That way, I can get up and be functioning when recruiters and other normal human beings are carrying on with their day.
And I start today.
So, here's to getting myself out of a rut. =)
Happy TEDtalk Tuesday, everyone.
I apologize for the long post. It was sort of a pep talk for me in a way, so I just let myself keep going.
And special thanks to Cirque and Stephen for commenting on the last post.
Thank you for voting. =)
I'll be less of a fire-breathing dragon now.
Last week I made you all watch this video here:
It's Barry Schwartz's 2006 speech on the paradox of choice in this country. The paradox is that we have all these choices (potential presidents, potential new additions to our already full wardrobes, potential companies to apply to), and instead of giving us more freedom to choose how we want to pursue our happiness, Schwartz here says that these choices paralyze us with high expectations, making us less satisfied, and less happy.
"And the question is, is this good news, or bad news?
And the answer is yes." (7:43)
I'm not saying that I don't want all these choices. I love my country (most of the time), and I love being blessed with all the comforts and choices that being a citizen affords. I know that having choices has its benefits--we all do, even Schwartz does--but he chooses not to focus his talk on those benefits in the spirit of challenging our brains a little. And I like to think he's on to something. Here are a few of the "choice" scenarios I've run into recently:
Voting
Did you see how many choices were on the ballot this year? I had 28 important decisions to make for my district, state, and country. How in the world could I be expected to be an expert on all 28 of them? How could I expect to make an educated decision on any of those choices without following each of them, or devoting a great deal of my own personal time and focus to learning more about them? Jeez, I'm surprised voting season doesn't make some people just lose it. Oh wait, this little girl did.
Frankly, I'm surprised that voters can actually make it out to the polls in the numbers that they do. They aren't taken by the paralysis that seems to grip us in other decision-filled circumstances. What is it that helps us overcome the overwhelming debilitation we feel when faced with a blank ballot and 28 bubbles to fill in?
 |
| This was my dad at dinner last night. =) |
Insurance
My dad and I had a conversation about insurance policies the other day. He was complaining that his work only offered two plans to their employees, and I wondered why that number was so, so small. He answered my question by explaining that each policy was pages and pages long with different jargon for each. It was like the policy writers wanted to make it impossible to compare the two plans next to one another on a chart. (I'm sure that's another thing employees wished they had when they were making those kinds of decisions...a layman's comparison chart.)
In his talk, Schwartz outlines how people choosing retirement plans keep putting off the task until tomorrow because it's so monumental. And tomorrow never comes. I wonder if Dad's company limited the amount of insurance plans available because they knew that asking employees to choose between more than two could drag on forever, and that more options would cause employees to be less satisfied with their choice.
Shopping
My sister has been getting in trouble with my mom lately because she can't seem to make her own choices. We're talking any kind of choice: whether it's deciding if she wants to tryout for the basketball team, or something as simple as figuring out which shirt she likes the most when we go out shopping. It has become a chronic problem for her and she throws mini temper tantrums in the fitting rooms because she gets so frustrated at her indecision. Sometimes she'll make a choice and decide later that she wanted the other one and we'll have to do a return run. But I shouldn't be critical, I've found I have that problem as well. (yes, I return quite a lot of things and I think I've whined and stamped my foot a few times to help me make a decision.)
 |
| My beautiful, indecisive sister in my dress, my shrug, and my earrings. She wears them all better than I do. |
Kaela is at that a wonderful stage in her life where she pretty much looks great in everything, and often looks better than I do in my clothes. She's got a tallish, slender, athletic build, legs that have no trouble squeezing into skinny jeans, and a perfectly average foot size. I, on the other hand, have grown into a woman's body with strange proportions. They aren't bad proportions, but I know for a fact that there are now certain shirts that simply won't look good on me unless I get a double mastectomy. My legs are so muscular that they only manage to squeeze into loose-fitting skinny jeans, and my feet are so long that I can't find cheap shoes in my size. And lately it feels like damn near everything I buy has to be ordered online and shipped to me (like the red leather jacket and pair of boots I just bought...when I was at the physical stores). What I'm trying to demonstrate here is that my little sister's body simply has more choices in terms of today's fashion, so I can see why she gets frustrated.
Job Search
I face my own choice paralysis when I'm submitting my resume to different jobs. It's in this sector where my "lack of productivity" breeds and multiplies. When I finished college, I had a few options in which to utilize my English major, namely, in the fields of publishing and technical writing. Once I graduated, those fields exploded into about a thousand different positions. Even when I managed to narrow my options to just tech writing (I'm not sure publishing is where my passions lie right now), there were still about a billion tech companies in the Seattle area that I could apply to. At this point in time, I feel like I have so many choices that I literally can't choose where to start for fear of stepping in a direction away from the "perfect job".
 |
| Stephen's comment on Part 1. Click to enlarge. |
Stephen, I think you hit the nail on the head in your comment on my last post. That kind of thinking--that there is "a perfect job"--is really where my paralysis and apathy is rooted, and it's where I have to fix things before I can move on. Schwartz talks about how so many choices lead us to form imaginary alternatives to the choices set in front of us. I mean, if I have a billion jobs to look at, at least one of them is bound to be perfect for me, right? So why should I waste my time applying to jobs that don't quite work for me if there's one really, really appealing alternative out there somewhere? Well, the answer and motivator to solve that particular conundrum is money. Someday, probably sooner rather than later, I'm going to run out of money and at that point, my choice spectrum gets limited automatically because at that point in time, I'll probably take any job that will have me, and blame my unhappiness with the position on the time crunch.
Back at the beginning of summer, just two weeks after graduation, I received a call from a company that finds and suggests people to fill head honcho positions in successful tech businesses (we're talking amazon, ebay, google, eventbrite, sony, soundcloud...these people know people.)
I had used them as a warm-up table at a career fair, but they ended up liking me so much they wanted to give me first dibs at a position with them when one opened up. I went in for an interview with an open mind and I was pleasantly surprised. I loved the office, the atmosphere, the companies that they worked with, and all the staff were really great. I think it was one of the best interview experiences I've ever had.
I used to blame all that on procrastination, and that's part of it. Procrastination eliminates some choices, and forces you to choose from the ones that can be done in a short amount of time. Budget is another way to limit your choices. If you can't afford that one shirt, obviously it's going back on the rack. But there is something to be said about applying to every job that comes my way--if I try a bunch, I'm bound to get a response back from a position I like. And, in that process, I'll slowly be forming opinions on what positions I don't like, and that's another way to narrow the field. Another benefit of this process is that it allows me to be pleasantly surprised (14:33) by a job that I didn't expect to like.
"The secret to happiness is low expectations." (15:00)
How Can I Avoid the Paralysis of this Paradox
To get to this motivated application stage, though, I need to get rid of my "perfect job" ideal, and set myself on a schedule. That means the sleeping in until (and past) 10am, is going to stop. That means I'm going to start writing again. And designing again (my constantly "in-progess" 2 page resume is going to get done). And building my knowledge base WHILE looking for jobs. I always felt like I was most productive when I'm really busy. Here's my "list" for the next month. I'll be putting them into schedule form soon...as in, right after this because I won't be procrastinating. =)
- Finish draft of 2 page resume
- Tweak draft of 2 page resume
- Finish uploading work online portfolio
- SUBMIT resume to staffing agencies
- Accept jobs offered if I can do them
- Research companies to work for
- Learn HTML basics
- Read Succeed again to get me in the right mindset
- NETWORK
- Join a rec volleyball team
- Do yoga more regularly
- Become less of a hermit and see my friends more
I think those last three are going to get me motivated the most, though indirectly. Exercise is said to help with focus, a rec team will have a schedule to follow, and being more social will make me less depressed. Also. Networking. When you meet new people in college, the first question you answer is "What is your major?". When you meet people in the real world, the first question is "What do you do?" Do you know how embarrassing it feels to me to say that I'm unemployed? yikes. That's a motivating factor all on it's own.
And I start today.
So, here's to getting myself out of a rut. =)
Happy TEDtalk Tuesday, everyone.
I apologize for the long post. It was sort of a pep talk for me in a way, so I just let myself keep going.
And special thanks to Cirque and Stephen for commenting on the last post.
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