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To be fair there is no objective value in travelling either. It's a matter of the specific personality profile that makes a person attracted to one or both or n

To be fair there is no objective value in travelling either. It's a matter of the specific personality profile that makes a person attracted to one or both or neither of those two modes of consumption.

chris_overseas 7y ago
Well there's evidence that spending money on experiences rather than material goods will make you happier: https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2013/01/feel-happier-talk-about-experiences-not-things https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2013/01/feel-happier-talk-a...
throw0101a 7y ago
> To be fair there is no objective value in travelling either. Except that the literature has shown that people generally find greater happiness using their money to buy experiences rather than things. From a researcher who wrote (the) book on happiness: > "Shifting from buying stuff to buying experiences, and from spending on yourself to spending on others, can have a dramatic impact on happiness," writes Dunn and her co-author Michael Norton. * https://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/happiness-is-buying-experience-not-stuff-29833931.html https://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/happiness-is-buying-exp... * https://dunn.psych.ubc.ca https://dunn.psych.ubc.ca * http://www.amazon.com/Happy-Money-Science-Happier-Spending/dp/1451665075 http://www.amazon.com/Happy-Money-Science-Happier-Spending/d... If, per Aristotle, happiness is the supreme good, it would objectively be better to spend your limited resources on things that are more likely to give it to you. * https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hide-and-seek/201301/aristotle-happiness https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hide-and-seek/201301/ar...
- bildung 7y ago
  > Except that the literature has shown that people generally find greater happiness using their money to buy experiences rather than things. Yes, but a) travelling is not the only way to buy experiences by any means, b) Actually doing/ creating things or experiences is infinitely more rewarding than consumption[1]. Programming, making music, painting, woodworking, cooking, gardening, whatever tickles your fancy. All those studies still only are about buying. [1] for certain personalities.
  - asdf21 7y ago
    Thank you. Traveling is generally pretty boring to me (especially after the first couple times visitng somewhere.) Making things with friends though, amazing time.
  - throw0101a 7y ago
    Except that nowhere in my post do I explicitly say travels. Travelling is not the only way to create experiences. (I personally have no interest in it.)
- growlist 7y ago
  Let's be honest though, travelling is becoming less fun in the era of mass travel. I'm not saying everyone doesn't have the right to travel or something like that, but I think only a fool would argue it's a better experience visiting x tourist hotspot when that involves having to fight it out with thousands of other people doing the same thing.
  - hellisothers 7y ago
    We’re tourist hot spots ever all that special? Travel is still amazing, lame spots are now super lame :)
    - shantly 7y ago
      World's full of 2nd-tier places to visit that are damn near as good as 1st-tier, but have 1-5% the visitors, putting them way the lead, experience-wise, except for taking instantly-recognizable "I been thar!" photos. World population should level off before those 2nd-tier ones start to get swamped, too. So that's nice.
    - growlist 7y ago
      Believe it or not, they have got worse based on my experiences in the 80s versus now. Think about it - whole regions of the world were effectively shut out of tourism either by economics or politics back then e.g. China, India, Soviet Union.
  - magduf 7y ago
    We have an entire planet here; you don't have to go only to tourist hotspots. Of course, I'll admit there's many very boring places that probably aren't worth your time and money, like Oklahoma, and some very dangerous places that you should avoid, like El Salvador or Syria, but there's lots of very nice places in civilized countries where you can go, which aren't chock-full of tourists. As a bonus, they're pretty cheap to stay at, since there's not so much demand for lodging there. Even if you confine yourself to western Europe, there's lots of places to go without running into throngs of tourists.
- Jach 7y ago
  You can't just come in here with "the literature has shown" in $current_year. Here's an article on a piece of the literature that clearly hasn't shown: https://slate.com/technology/2017/07/new-research-clouds-the-belief-that-one-kind-of-spending-is-better-than-another.html https://slate.com/technology/2017/07/new-research-clouds-the... "We found no significant evidence supporting the greater return received when buying experiences." That was a couple years ago, there might be a meta analysis or actual replication attempts by now, but I'm not going to dive for them, just pointing out this bad discussion tactic of "studies show [what I want to argue for]" without considering the ongoing replication crisis. Speaking personally, the most bang-for-buck is probably video games. I don't know if I would classify those as experiences or things. Perhaps it depends on the game's replayabilty.
  - throw0101a 7y ago
    > You can't just come in here with "the literature has shown" in $current_year. Read the book. Every chapter covers an idea on how to best use one's monetary resources to increase happiness, and there are dozens of endnotes to studies for each chapter. This is literally the book author's field of study. If you have a problem with the claims, talk to her: I'm just the messenger and will bow to the experts.

chris_overseas 7y ago

Well there's evidence that spending money on experiences rather than material goods will make you happier: https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2013/01/feel-happier-talk-about-experiences-not-things https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2013/01/feel-happier-talk-a...

throw0101a 7y ago

> To be fair there is no objective value in travelling either. Except that the literature has shown that people generally find greater happiness using their money to buy experiences rather than things. From a researcher who wrote (the) book on happiness: > "Shifting from buying stuff to buying experiences, and from spending on yourself to spending on others, can have a dramatic impact on happiness," writes Dunn and her co-author Michael Norton. * https://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/happiness-is-buying-experience-not-stuff-29833931.html https://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/happiness-is-buying-exp... * https://dunn.psych.ubc.ca https://dunn.psych.ubc.ca * http://www.amazon.com/Happy-Money-Science-Happier-Spending/dp/1451665075 http://www.amazon.com/Happy-Money-Science-Happier-Spending/d... If, per Aristotle, happiness is the supreme good, it would objectively be better to spend your limited resources on things that are more likely to give it to you. * https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hide-and-seek/201301/aristotle-happiness https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hide-and-seek/201301/ar...

bildung 7y ago
> Except that the literature has shown that people generally find greater happiness using their money to buy experiences rather than things. Yes, but a) travelling is not the only way to buy experiences by any means, b) Actually doing/ creating things or experiences is infinitely more rewarding than consumption[1]. Programming, making music, painting, woodworking, cooking, gardening, whatever tickles your fancy. All those studies still only are about buying. [1] for certain personalities.
- asdf21 7y ago
  Thank you. Traveling is generally pretty boring to me (especially after the first couple times visitng somewhere.) Making things with friends though, amazing time.
- throw0101a 7y ago
  Except that nowhere in my post do I explicitly say travels. Travelling is not the only way to create experiences. (I personally have no interest in it.)
growlist 7y ago
Let's be honest though, travelling is becoming less fun in the era of mass travel. I'm not saying everyone doesn't have the right to travel or something like that, but I think only a fool would argue it's a better experience visiting x tourist hotspot when that involves having to fight it out with thousands of other people doing the same thing.
- hellisothers 7y ago
  We’re tourist hot spots ever all that special? Travel is still amazing, lame spots are now super lame :)
  - shantly 7y ago
    World's full of 2nd-tier places to visit that are damn near as good as 1st-tier, but have 1-5% the visitors, putting them way the lead, experience-wise, except for taking instantly-recognizable "I been thar!" photos. World population should level off before those 2nd-tier ones start to get swamped, too. So that's nice.
  - growlist 7y ago
    Believe it or not, they have got worse based on my experiences in the 80s versus now. Think about it - whole regions of the world were effectively shut out of tourism either by economics or politics back then e.g. China, India, Soviet Union.
- magduf 7y ago
  We have an entire planet here; you don't have to go only to tourist hotspots. Of course, I'll admit there's many very boring places that probably aren't worth your time and money, like Oklahoma, and some very dangerous places that you should avoid, like El Salvador or Syria, but there's lots of very nice places in civilized countries where you can go, which aren't chock-full of tourists. As a bonus, they're pretty cheap to stay at, since there's not so much demand for lodging there. Even if you confine yourself to western Europe, there's lots of places to go without running into throngs of tourists.
Jach 7y ago
You can't just come in here with "the literature has shown" in $current_year. Here's an article on a piece of the literature that clearly hasn't shown: https://slate.com/technology/2017/07/new-research-clouds-the-belief-that-one-kind-of-spending-is-better-than-another.html https://slate.com/technology/2017/07/new-research-clouds-the... "We found no significant evidence supporting the greater return received when buying experiences." That was a couple years ago, there might be a meta analysis or actual replication attempts by now, but I'm not going to dive for them, just pointing out this bad discussion tactic of "studies show [what I want to argue for]" without considering the ongoing replication crisis. Speaking personally, the most bang-for-buck is probably video games. I don't know if I would classify those as experiences or things. Perhaps it depends on the game's replayabilty.
- throw0101a 7y ago
  > You can't just come in here with "the literature has shown" in $current_year. Read the book. Every chapter covers an idea on how to best use one's monetary resources to increase happiness, and there are dozens of endnotes to studies for each chapter. This is literally the book author's field of study. If you have a problem with the claims, talk to her: I'm just the messenger and will bow to the experts.