There is an interesting presentation by psychologist Barry Schwartz at TED called "The paradox of choice". He explains why people are not better off when there is too much choice.

He claims:

Some choice is better than none. But it doesn't follow from that, that more choice is better than some.

His explanation makes sense:

The more options there are, the easier it is to regret anything at all that is disappointing about the option that you chose.

I think he has a valid point. A point which is also true in software:

• How does a customer know which of the 6 (different?) versions of Windows Vista he should choose?
• I'm using Ubuntu but maybe another distribution would be better for me. There are so many distributions to choose from.
• There are a dozen WYSIWYG editor modules for Drupal. How do I pick the right one?
• After you install 6 Eclipse projects the update manager contains more than 40 update sites showing hundreds of available plug-ins. When I want to install something extra, how do I know which plug-in I should select?
• Which of the 417 Docbook elements do I really need to write my text?

I'm not saying that there should be no choice at all but very often there is simply too much choice and investigating all possible options takes too much time. Luckily Barry Schwartz reveals how to be happy with the choices you make:

The secret to happiness is "low expectations".

You can watch the presentation below or over at TED: