Plenty and choice

There's always a way to choose
Photo by Orin Optiglot

Barry Schwartz talks about the inherent paradox of too much choice. Like the old metaphor about the dog starving because he couldn't choose between two identical bowls of food. Fear of a zero vector situation, going everywhere and so going nowhere, seems to be on the increase.
But I'm going to have to side with Eve on this one. Schwartz's example of the cola's might be true to someone with no vested interest in or experience with colas. But experience serves as a huge limiting factor for choice. I may have 50 channels on my TV, but experience has taught me that I'm not going to like what's on 40 of them and when making a choice, I will choose amongst the 10 channels I know to be good. The paralysis described by Schwartz might be true for the first time you go to the store, but it probably won't for the second.
But lets say for argument's sake that it is the first exposure to a given choice. Schartz claims that no method has been established to vet internet content. I say he's wrong. The reputation economy, one of the foundations of internet culture, is the greatest limiting factor there is. It's no coincidence that most of the most popular sites serve the function of vetting or limiting choice (top 10 sites, Digg, TVlinks, etc..). People are not a victim of choice, and in the event of a choice-glut, the internet is adapting.