3 ms·
Precisely, although I don't think it's spoiling yourself. You use some things a whole lot that it makes sense to spend comparatively more on them than you would
by bloopernova 7y ago
Precisely, although I don't think it's spoiling yourself. You use some things a whole lot that it makes sense to spend comparatively more on them than you would on "normal" items:
* Bed
* Office chair
* Keyboard and mouse
* Monitors
* Footwear
* Cooking basics like a couple of knives and a pan or two.
Perhaps this can explain it better than I will ever be able: https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Sam_Vimes_Theory_of_Economic_Injustice https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Sam_Vimes_Theory_of_Econom...
"At the time of Men at Arms, Samuel Vimes earned thirty-eight dollars a month as a Captain of the Watch, plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots, the sort that would last years and years, cost fifty dollars. This was beyond his pocket and the most he could hope for was an affordable pair of boots costing ten dollars, which might with luck last a year or so before he would need to resort to makeshift cardboard insoles so as to prolong the moment of shelling out another ten dollars.
Therefore over a period of ten years, he might have paid out a hundred dollars on boots, twice as much as the man who could afford fifty dollars up front ten years before. And he would still have wet feet."
Perhaps a modernized/realistic version would be "you can spend $200 on pizza ten times in a year, or you can spend the same on a couple of knives and second-hand stainless steel pans. At the end of the year, you may have some excess body fat depending on activity level, or some good useful cookware" (or something, I dunno, I'm never going to be as smart or eloquent as Terry Pratchett GNU)
- detaro 7y agoTbh, cheap(er) keyboards don't necessarily are unreliable and fall under that theory. I'm mildy interested in buying a fancy keyboard, but the Logitech I bought in highschool refuses to die...
- twic 7y agoYour keyboard, like the AK-47 rifle and the UN26 bottom bracket, is an interesting exception to the Vimes theory. Cheap, unsophisticated, but virtually indestructible. I'm not sure if there's a common mechanism by which things like that come to be. Possibly that they are designed for customers who are buying in bulk for use by other people (cubicle drones, PBI, buyers of assembled bikes), and who have a vested interest in reliability.
- detaro 7y agoSomething I hadn't quite considered: a 2000-something Logitech is cheap by todays standards, but back then Logitech was covered the range from affordable to high-end (Gaming keyboards with screens for maybe ~$100-130?), probably didn't make much really cheap ones, and likely didn't want to skimp to much on the cheaper models and ruin their reputation for the expensive ones. They weren't cheap enough for the effect to "trigger".
- sjy 7y agoYep. I got pretty into keyboards this year and ended up spending over $500 and probably 50 hours on research, key switches, key caps, soldering, firmware programming, and learning Colemak and ortholinear layouts. I enjoyed the process, but it would be pretty difficult to argue that it was a worthwhile investment on purely pragmatic grounds. When you spend $200 on a keyboard, you’re inclined to spend hours fixing it when there are problems (which every custom-built keyboard has) rather than just dropping $20 on a new one. I’m not getting any of that time back and I’m not any faster at typing.
- peterburkimsher 7y agoYour list of "Bed, Office chair, Keyboard and mouse, Monitors, Cooking basics like ... a pan or two." (all except footwear) aligns very well with my list of "things that don't fit on a plane". Unfortunately my life isn't stable enough to invest in something that I can't carry with me when I have to move. It's luxuries like these that I've often had to go without entirely (having a chair and desk is so nice compared to using a laptop on a mat on the floor). If immigration were easier, I'd have already settled down, but instead it's been 8 years and counting living like this. I really hope my pending resident visa application comes through this time, so I can start investing in things like those.
- Aeolun 7y agoThey do, however, fit in a shipping container. By the time you paid for all of these things, shipping them is a lot cheaper than buying them all again.
- peterburkimsher 7y agoShipping takes several months, and assumes I know the address in the destination before I set off. By the time a shipping container would arrive, I'd already have been there for 90 days, and need to leave again.
- Aeolun 7y agoAh, yeah, if you move every 90 days it may be a bit harder. I was thinking more about 1-2 yearish span.
- blaser-waffle 7y agoThe conventional wisdom on reddit is essentially the same things you listed, sans pots and pans: "spend money on things that go between you and the ground" aka tires, beds, chairs, footwear, cushions, etc.