THE GAME OF CHOICE!

What is "choice"?

For a kid, it is a valley of candies and éclairs...

For a teen, its a line of attractive crushes drooling over you,to choose from...

For an academician, its an e-library, stocked with millions of books and journals to quench her thirst for knowledge...

For a student, a host of universities, to pursue further studies with...

For a soldier in war, life or death...

"Choice" could be limited or unlimited. It could be a thrill or a dilemma. It could be overwhelming for some and underplayed for many. Some get excited by it, while some struggle with the confusion it creates. But is "choice" for real?!?!

As a movie buff, a dream crushing scene that comes to my mind is that of "Matrix Reloaded"; when the Architect discusses "choice as an illusion" with Neo. While the possibilities and opportunities that life presents all of us with, seem like choices, they are nothing but culminations of events that originated minutes or even years before.

And isn't "choice" really the options we create for ourselves?

Recently, while reading an article in a prestigious business magazine, I came across an interesting viewpoint about choice for consumers. It really appeals to me, how every consumer becomes a subject of interest to a marketer and how any change in her behavior leads to development of theories! The article claimed that "choice" in a company's offering is nothing but a consciously generated product/service mix that the company wants its customers to buy. An offering more is simply a waste of effort and an offering less in too stifling to the customer. While I subscribe to the idea, there is much that is like a gaping hole in the entire scenario...

Why is it that people behave a certain way, the way they do, in the face of choice?

Why is it if given a choice of 10 colors in the same teeshirt, i may always pick up the brightest and my friend will always go for something in the range of "blue and blue"?!

The questions are not behavioral or psychological, but rational. For "choice" is nothing but what we are. If as a glutton kid, my life revolves around candies, that describes my "choice". If as an ignored and not so attractive teen, my fantasies revolved around multiple beaus, then that is my "choice". And if as an adult, i desire everything that increases my possibilities of a "Happily ever after"; then the whole world is my canvas. I can "Choose" to be whatever and whenever.