Success Quote by Scott Cook

Cook is describing a peculiarly modern kind of trap: choice that masquerades as empowerment but functions as friction. By calling the mortgage "once simple", he’s invoking a lost era of financial legibility, when a household debt product was comprehensible enough to feel like a civic on-ramp rather than a high-stakes negotiation. The punch of the line is in the sensory language: "flavors and styles and variations" borrows the vocabulary of consumer goods, as if mortgages have been merchandised like yogurt or sneakers. That rhetorical move isn’t accidental; it implies the financial industry has learned to sell complexity the way brands sell personality.

The intent reads like a business leader’s critique of product design and market incentives. Cook is pointing at a gap between what innovation is supposed to do (simplify, expand access) and what it often does in finance (segment, upsell, obscure risk). The subtext is sharper: complexity isn’t just an unfortunate byproduct, it’s profitable. When options proliferate, responsibility shifts from institutions to individuals. If the borrower chooses wrong, the system gets to shrug. "Difficult for people to make a decision" is polite phrasing for decision paralysis, and also for asymmetry: lenders can model the outcomes; consumers can’t.

Contextually, this sits in the long arc from plain fixed-rate mortgages to adjustable rates, teaser terms, points, refinancing ladders, and bespoke packages that exploded in the decades leading to the 2008 crisis. Even after reforms, the core problem remains: a home mortgage is both a consumer product and a life-altering contract. Cook’s line works because it frames that contradiction in everyday language, making a structural critique feel like common sense.