WHY IS IT SO HARD TO CHOSE GOOD WINE?

by Gonçalo Campos

The other day I was choosing a wine for a dinner party with friends. And it was like every other time.

Spent 5 minutes looking at wine bottles only to leave unsure about my choice.

Judging wine (or any other thing) is really complicated. Unless we are experts, we just don’t have enough experience to make a confident decision and usually end up guessing.

That’s when we rely on context and ask easier questions:

How much does it cost?
What do other people like?
What will this choice say about me?
Does any expert endorse this choice?

(Dan Ariely studies many of these issues, you can learn more on this video, or this article. He’s quite fun too)

This doesn’t mean quality is not important, but generally our choices are very influenced by context. And that is defined by a great number of variables, often out of our control.

When our livelihood depends on other people’s decisions (of buying or not our product), and we understand that just like the wines, we are judged by the label and other aspects, it’s easy to feel helpless.

On the other hand though, accepting this opens up the possibility to create a context of our own.

People are very interested in finding connections and discovering new things, and we need to help them.

Our job then, is not only to do ever better work. We are also responsible for explaining what we do and why we do it. With that we help others make a more confident choice. We start putting ourselves in their shoes.

If we want to be picked, we have to meet our audience halfway.