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I tend to use the "inversion" argument, but mostly with vacations and not physical stuff: "We should go to Barbados for a week. It's only $1000." "If someone
by byrneseyeview 17y ago
I tend to use the "inversion" argument, but mostly with vacations and not physical stuff:
"We should go to Barbados for a week. It's only $1000."
"If someone offered to give you $1000, plus an extra week to accomplish stuff you want to do, wouldn't you take it?"
This works with appliances, too: not buying that juicer means getting a few square feet of counterspace and $100.
- novum 17y agoThere's always an opportunity cost. Traditionally you see opportunity cost expressed in dollars; I haven't really thought to view it in time. But time is the most valuable resource there is. Money comes and goes, but would that week of time in Barbados have been better spent elsewhere?
- mos1 17y agoYes. I'd suggest Seychelles.
- eli 17y agoSometimes the long term gain of taking a nice relaxing vacation is easily worth $1000 and a temporary decline in productivity. Or, to put another way, what's the point of making money and getting things done if I never feel able to take a break? Edit: Reminds of Stefan Sagmeister's TED Talk: The power of time off. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNuOmTQdFjA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNuOmTQdFjA
- orblivion 17y agoBut... you also don't have a juicer.
- byrneseyeview 17y agoWe ended up getting the juicer a couple weeks ago (due to a weird coincidence, we got it for free). It has been used once. It gets in my way every day.
- robryan 17y agoThe coffee machine has to be an exception to this, The appliance that just keeps on giving.
- jmoiron 17y agoInversion works so long as you understand what the true cost of the purchase is. And yet, if someone gave me a week off and $1000, I'd immediately be looking for plane tickets, because I love travel and I'm limited more by time than by money.
- lotharbot 17y agoI have friends who have always been very conscious of the monetary cost of items, but seemed to think space is free (that is, "hoarders"). They very recently began a transition away from that, triggered partly by the local health department and partly by a worsening medical condition leading to full-time wheelchair use. It's fascinating to see people who spent decades accumulating stuff suddenly getting rid of it and turning down new free stuff, all because their valuation of "space" changed. One of the reasons simplicity is hard is that owning stuff has psychological connotations for everyone involved. A digitial copy of your photograph or document "in the cloud" seems less permanent and less under your control than one on your hard drive, which itself seems less so than a physical copy -- and this perception is at least partly mistaken. Those seeking control and "certainty" may still accumulate paper copies far beyond what is reasonable, all because they have a psychological desire to do so. IMO, it all boils down to how we value space, time, money, effort/frustration, certainty/risk, efficiency, and a whole host of other factors -- and how accurately we understand those factors. Remembering to account for "a few feet of counterspace" or "a week getting stuff done" are key to simple living.
- mrshoe 17y agoI've spent a lot of money traveling and I've never regretted a single dollar of it.
- 100k 17y agoActually, research shows that unlike buying stuff, experiences like vacations lead to happiness that does not diminish over time. You're not just trading $1000 and a week to get stuff done, but also a lifetime of happy memories.
- spoiledtechie 17y agoresearch? Point to any?
- 100k 17y agoYou'll come across this if you read any book on happiness. From a quick search ("experiences happiness") the first result is a CNN article about this: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/10/happiness.possessions/index.html http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/10/happiness.possessions/i...
- randallsquared 17y agoplus an extra week to accomplish stuff you want to do, wouldn't you take it? For many people -- possibly most people -- what they want to accomplish mostly involves stuff like "going to Barbados", not "putting in another week at $job". If (like me), you have a job you like, or if you have a job that basically consists of accomplishing things that further your own private goals, that might not be the case, but such a situation is rare. Less rare for people on this site, I guess.
- jimbokun 17y ago"If someone offered to give you $1000, plus an extra week to accomplish stuff you want to do, wouldn't you take it?" Yea, in a heartbeat! I'd take that $1000 dollars and accomplish my goal of spending a week in Barbados!
- ErrantX 17y agoThis worked pretty well for me. Right up till the moment she bought it behind my back :-p