Segal, Segall, Or Seagall: Too Many Choices

Today I was inspired by a post on Pinterest. On an image from that site was the following quote:

"A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure."

Too Many Choices ...

The quote wasn't attributed to anyone so I spent a few minutes doing a Google search. I have been doing research for articles for several years now. This quote was actually very hard to find from a common source. Wikipedia had a stub and that was all there was to find. However, I lucked out and found an underutilized website that I found incredibly interesting. The phrase has an entry in an online etymological dictionary. In modern English that's a history book for uncommon phrases. So, thanks to Barry Popik for this information http://www.barrypopik.com/

The entry by Mr. Popik calls the quote “Segal's Law”. It is credited as a quote by Lee Segall of Dallas, Texas in 1961. Somewhere along the way from 1961 to the time the term Segal's Law was coined the name had lost it's second “L”. Not to be confused with actor Steven Seagal's law, which is apparently to kick butt and deliver deadpan lines in his movies. That joke didn't offend anyone and it was pretty cheap anyway.

Anyway, back to the quotation. What does it mean? There is a big danger in having too many choices. I'll give you some examples. If you go shopping for a computer and the store has only one model you have one choice. Do you buy it or not? If you go shopping for a computer and the store has twenty different computers then the choices make the decision so much more difficult. Do I get the larger screen? The one with higher memory? Get it in black or red? It takes a lot more time and more concentration.

If you have the time for the choice that's nice but what about the situation where too many choices comes at a high cost? For example, if you practice martial arts and you know seven different ways to defend against a standard punch what happens when you have to defend yourself? From the time the fist is in the air to the time you end up with a broken nose do you have the time for all those choices? No you don't.

Let's talk about it economically. The stock market has been portrayed as a cutthroat environment on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. When your stock prices are changing every second you don't have time for indecision. It's more than just whether or not to buy, hold, or sell. You have to look at the stock's history, its portfolio. All that information that can be used to make the decision takes time to analyze. The second or two that you had to make the choice is long gone if you're not prepared.

Having a little knowledge makes you educated and fights ignorance. Knowing too much can be more dangerous than ignorance at least in terms of making decisions. In the age of the internet there is so much information floating around and freely available that the temptation to learn it all is too great. There is no excuse for ignorance but what is the excuse for being an indecisive know-it-all? Food for thought.

"A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure."