Netflix

Here’s an interesting story about Netflix, complete with an inane quote from “choice paralyzes us” Barry Schwartz.

I love Netflix. What Schwartz and the other choice nannies in the world fail to appreciate is that having this choice, while increasing my options, makes my life so much more relaxed and my entertainment options so much more interesting that it outweighs the challenges of the meta-choice. For example, I’ve kvetched for the past decade that no video store near me ever has Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?. Now it’s in my Netflix queue. It’s been in my Netflix queue since the day I signed up. It’s still in my Netflix queue, because it’s the kind of movie you have to be in the mood to watch.

Right now we’ve got out 28 Days Later and Bend It Like Beckham. I’ll be watching The Hours later today on the plane, because my husband doesn’t care to see it. And when I went to Mexico last week, I watched Apartment Zero (which I really enjoyed, both for the macabre psychology and for a yummy young Colin Firth).

The flexibility this affords me is so worth the meta analysis.

Thanks to Tyler Cowen for the story link.

3 thoughts on “Netflix”

  1. I love Netflix as well. Convient, great selection. Some of what I like best about it were things that I really didn’t think about that much when I first decided to sign up. Previously unless I was going to the video store for something specific, I would wander around looking at what was out, trying to remember if there was anything I had been wanting to see. The majority of the search time all occurred then. If I found something I might like but wasn’t in the mood for I had to hope that I would remember it if I was back later when I was in the mood. With netflix I can browse whenever I want as long as I have a net connection. If I hear someone talking about something I am interested in, I can toss it on the queue. Most of the search time occurs when its convient to me and if I do want to determine what I will get next when I send one back in I can just look through a pre-picked list of things I am interested in.

  2. I love Netflix as well. Convient, great selection. Some of what I like best about it were things that I really didn’t think about that much when I first decided to sign up. Previously unless I was going to the video store for something specific, I would wander around looking at what was out, trying to remember if there was anything I had been wanting to see. The majority of the search time all occurred then. If I found something I might like but wasn’t in the mood for I had to hope that I would remember it if I was back later when I was in the mood. With netflix I can browse whenever I want as long as I have a net connection. If I hear someone talking about something I am interested in, I can toss it on the queue. Most of the search time occurs when its convient to me and if I do want to determine what I will get next when I send one back in I can just look through a pre-picked list of things I am interested in.

  3. I use Netflix for renting anime since the selection at my local video stores are non-existent but Netflix does have its share of problems. Since my membership began in 8/03, I’ve received 16 broken DVDs and 4 wrong titles. There’s other problems like Netflix advertising “rent as many DVDs as you want” when clearly they impose a limit. Netflix is not the only online DVD rental service. I recommend using BlockBuster, GreenCine, Walmart, and (coming soon) Amazon for your online DVD rental needs. I’ve kept a journal of my misfortunes with Netflix on my web site.

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