When too much choice is no good for anyone

I just heard a radio ad for Emirates Air proudly exclaiming that on their flights to Dubai there are 1,200 HD channels to choose from. Wow 1,200 channels.

I suppose their intentions are good. And I suppose that the core of their advertising message is that they have something for everyone. But think about it for a moment … 1,200 channels, does anyone on an airplane ride really need that many channels to choose from?

As I see figure it, deciding what to watch is actually more time consuming that watching your average program. Here’s the basic math:

Let’s say it takes on average just 10 seconds to figure out whether or not a particular program or channel is good for you. (A simple average to allow for channel surfing, stopping and program previewing.) At that rate it would take 12,000 seconds or just under three and half hours to review those 1,200 channels. Jeez. I’m exhausted just thinking about it. I can’t imagine I would have the ability to relax and actually watch something by that point.

So what’s this all got to do with IT Leadership? Well … Sometimes I see IT pros work very hard to give their user communities and stakeholders lots of choices and lots of functionality. Much of it either totally unappreciated or unused.

This commercial is an excellent reminder about the power of a few good choices.