The illusion that choice equates happiness.

Its one of the more interesting concepts that I have come across when watching videos of really smart people talking. It actually makes a lot of sense.

Naturally, a complete absence of choice is never a good thing. The flavour text on one of the Magic the Gathering cards reads "Options will cost you, but the lack of them will cost you even more." I am in complete agreement. But there really does come a point where we have too much choice.

Choice is viewed like money. The more, the better. It almost seems like we can never have enough choice to work with. The more options we have, the more likely we would be able to get it perfect, right? Maybe. Very smart people have observed that with too much choice, comes paralysis. We don't make a decision because we are afraid of making a wrong one. With so much to choose from, its easier to screw up. I could go on to explain just why this is so, but I won't.

The thing that I really want to talk about is the fact that a lot of Malaysian parents tend to tell their children that they are really lucky. Why? Because they can choose whatever career they want nowadays. Lucky? Its not really that simple.

The fundamental assumption that these parents have is that their children will be free to choose a path that will leave them happy. When you get to do what you like for a living, then you are happy right? As a general rule, I suppose you could say yes. But children are to make that choice at a very specific point in their lives, whether they are ready to do so or not. Some people screw that up. This is where kids nowadays are worse off than their parents.

When their parents ended up doing whatever it is they do, they were forced into that line of work by circumstance. Life screwed them over. Blame your lousy luck and move on. When a kid now ends up in a field that he hates, the only one to blame is himself. And when you start feeling like your life sucks, and its all your fault, its a lot harder to get on with life. A really long line of 'what ifs' will start to appear. What if I had done this instead of that? What if I hadn't been so hasty? These are things that the parents never had to deal with. And most of these parents ended up being fairly well off themselves.

So its true that the millions of courses that are available now are a good thing. But only if you can deal with it. If you can make a choice and never look back, then its fine. But if you are going to live life mired in regret, then you are better off getting someone to tell you what to do for a living.