I recently read a book by Barry Schwartz titled “The Paradox of Choice”. Part of the book is about the purchasing philosophies of American consumers. In his book, Schwartz classed purchasers into two distinctive personality types: maximizers and sufficers. Schwartz was careful to note that this distinction represents a spectrum, not two discrete categories and most of us will fall somewhere between the two extremes and in different places depending on what is being purchased. To me it was interesting reading and seemed consistent with my casual observations.

According to Schwartz, maximizers are people who, having decided on making a purchase will spend large amounts of time researching as many options as they can. Maximizers actively invest time and effort into learning as much about the variations, advantages, and weaknesses of an item as possible. When their decision is final and the purchase is made, they then internally compare their purchase to those made by people around them and frequently suffer “buyer’s remorse” feeling that their choice may not be “the best” and that perhaps they could have looked further and harder to find a more perfect item.

Sufficers, on the other hand, are those who are satisfied when an item being considered for purchase meets the criteria they have in mind. With these criteria met, no further looking is needed and is generally viewed as a waste of time. For example, a sufficer purchasing office supplies will not go to several stores to compare paper, or staplers, or paper shredders or desk lamps. A sufficer will be satisfied if the paper is white and strong enough, that the stapler will staple, that the shredder will shred and that the desk lamp will provide illumination. No further looking is needed once these criteria are met.

I see these personalities in play on several of the lightweight backpacking sites that I visit. This site (Backpacking Lightweight) seems to attract folks who seem to be somewhere in the middle of the gradient between maximizing and sufficing. On the other hand, the Backpacking Light forum seems to me to draw more of those who are nearer to, or obsessively at, the maximizer end of the scale. It may just be me but threads on that site are heavy with “What is the best (fill in blank)” threads. Passionate arguments will often break out over what are, to me, relatively trivial differences between, say, packs or wind shirts or light knives or water filters.

I like to think that I gravitate towards the sufficer end of the spectrum. I don’t like shopping or researching purchases, I have no fashion sense (and no interest in gaining one) and I have relatively little interest in pursuing evolving technology. I prefer items with which I am familiar, made of tested materials using familiar technology. Yet, I am neither a Luddite nor an early adopter of technology. And, I do find myself drawn to some of the more recent stuff such as Cuben fiber. But, I would much prefer to let others pay to work the bugs out of a product before I jump in. Finally, I like to make as much of my own gear as is economically possible.

What about you? Where do you feel that you fit in this hypothesis? Are you a maximizer, a sufficer or somewhere between? Do you favor cutting-edge stuff over time-tested technology or do you feel that your Army surplus stuff is good enough for you. I’ll be interested in hearing your opinions.