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.