5 ms·

Taking a couple of tennis balls to the local park and throwing them with your kids costs about $5, depending on how many you lose. Going for a run along the bea

by strken 3y ago

Taking a couple of tennis balls to the local park and throwing them with your kids costs about $5, depending on how many you lose. Going for a run along the beach costs a bus fare. You can camp on the weekend for an initial outlay of a few hundred dollars of secondhand gear plus perhaps $40 a trip. Having everyone bring a plate for a potluck dinner costs slightly more than you'd normally spend for a meal. I think experiences can be as cheap or as expensive as you like. Essentials are the crux of the article, and without essentials most experiences are harder.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
stevage 3y ago
Those things aren't what are meant by "paying for an experience". They're paying for the ingredients and DIY the experience.
- MrJohz 3y ago
  I'm not really sure I see the difference. The point is the experience and how much it costs, whether or not you pay that cost financially or through DIY. And as the previous poster points out, you can get great and life-changing experiences for very little money. I think what's interesting here is that that's not so true for things. For example, I'm looking into custom ergo keyboards at the moment, and there's lots of off-the-shelf options, but there's also lots of DIY options where you print and solder lots of parts yourself. DIY keyboards tend to be cheaper, but not usually by very much, because fundamentally, the cost of the product is driven by the cost of its constituent parts. Fundamentally, both things and experiences are driven by supply and demand. Rare experiences that have a low supply but high demand are naturally going to be expensive, just like rare or hard-to-manufacture things. Experiences that can be found everywhere - like throwing a ball around with friends or family - are cheap, just like many common things are. That said, my intuition would be that the cheapest experiences are pretty much always cheaper than the cheapest things, and the most expensive things (e.g. one-of-a-kind art, rare objects, etc) are generally more expensive than the most expensive experiences.
  - stevage 3y ago
    Well, I think there is a clear difference that I'll try to make clearer. Most people, when they talk about buying an experience, essentially want to do something fairly passive, that is directed by someone else. Like going bungee jumping - pay lots of money, turn up, do as you're told. Or go to a concert - buy tickets, turn up, do as you're told. As opposed to something like a hike, where you need to contribute a lot of your own decision making and energy into creating the experience. The dollars you spend on food and gear are a bit beside the point. > Rare experiences that have a low supply but high demand are naturally going to be expensive, just like rare or hard-to-manufacture things. I don't think the rarity of the experience is relevant. Watching the aurora australis in Australia is rare, but it doesn't cost anything. The cost of experiences is mostly about the labor. Very niche experiences might be expensive because there's a high staff-to-participant ratio, but I wouldn't call that a scarcity cost exactly. International flights are common but expensive. So are 4 star hotels and fancy meals. And escorts for that matter. > That said, my intuition would be that the cheapest experiences are pretty much always cheaper than the cheapest things, and the most expensive things (e.g. one-of-a-kind art, rare objects, etc) are generally more expensive than the most expensive experiences. Probably. Though it gets a bit fuzzy how you define experience. Running for US president is extremely expensive and kind of an "experience". Probably the most expensive genuine experiences you can buy are space tourism trips, which cost in the millions. Although arguably high stakes poker is just an expensive experience for some people.
mgaunard 3y ago
Renting a tennis court will cost you more than 5 dollars, even in a public park.
- ben_w 3y ago
  You don't need a tennis court unless you're getting serious. I used to play cricket with apples[0]. As a kid I always had more fun from freeform play than from rules. (Also strken wrote "throw" so I think they were thinking of a game of catch). [0] Not sure which exactly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malus — unless they've been replaced since I was a kid, the ones on the right as you leave the cul-de-sac: https://maps.app.goo.gl/bsdmAm5cXtDyxwYy9?g_st=ic https://maps.app.goo.gl/bsdmAm5cXtDyxwYy9?g_st=ic
  - mgaunard 3y ago
    You're being surprisingly overly specific with those tree links.
    - supermatt 3y ago
      The wikipedia link is for the apple tree genus. The word generic literally comes from the word genus, i.e. they couldn't be less specific when talking about apples.
      - ben_w 3y ago
        In fairness, my other link was to a Google street view image of (possibly) the actual trees from which the apples fell in c. 1993.
- kasey_junk 3y ago
  There are dozens of public tennis courts within a 5 minute walk from my house that are all free all the time. I’m sort of shocked to hear they aren’t free everywhere. Which park system charges for tennis?

by strken 3y ago

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

stevage 3y ago

Those things aren't what are meant by "paying for an experience". They're paying for the ingredients and DIY the experience.

MrJohz 3y ago
I'm not really sure I see the difference. The point is the experience and how much it costs, whether or not you pay that cost financially or through DIY. And as the previous poster points out, you can get great and life-changing experiences for very little money. I think what's interesting here is that that's not so true for things. For example, I'm looking into custom ergo keyboards at the moment, and there's lots of off-the-shelf options, but there's also lots of DIY options where you print and solder lots of parts yourself. DIY keyboards tend to be cheaper, but not usually by very much, because fundamentally, the cost of the product is driven by the cost of its constituent parts. Fundamentally, both things and experiences are driven by supply and demand. Rare experiences that have a low supply but high demand are naturally going to be expensive, just like rare or hard-to-manufacture things. Experiences that can be found everywhere - like throwing a ball around with friends or family - are cheap, just like many common things are. That said, my intuition would be that the cheapest experiences are pretty much always cheaper than the cheapest things, and the most expensive things (e.g. one-of-a-kind art, rare objects, etc) are generally more expensive than the most expensive experiences.
- stevage 3y ago
  Well, I think there is a clear difference that I'll try to make clearer. Most people, when they talk about buying an experience, essentially want to do something fairly passive, that is directed by someone else. Like going bungee jumping - pay lots of money, turn up, do as you're told. Or go to a concert - buy tickets, turn up, do as you're told. As opposed to something like a hike, where you need to contribute a lot of your own decision making and energy into creating the experience. The dollars you spend on food and gear are a bit beside the point. > Rare experiences that have a low supply but high demand are naturally going to be expensive, just like rare or hard-to-manufacture things. I don't think the rarity of the experience is relevant. Watching the aurora australis in Australia is rare, but it doesn't cost anything. The cost of experiences is mostly about the labor. Very niche experiences might be expensive because there's a high staff-to-participant ratio, but I wouldn't call that a scarcity cost exactly. International flights are common but expensive. So are 4 star hotels and fancy meals. And escorts for that matter. > That said, my intuition would be that the cheapest experiences are pretty much always cheaper than the cheapest things, and the most expensive things (e.g. one-of-a-kind art, rare objects, etc) are generally more expensive than the most expensive experiences. Probably. Though it gets a bit fuzzy how you define experience. Running for US president is extremely expensive and kind of an "experience". Probably the most expensive genuine experiences you can buy are space tourism trips, which cost in the millions. Although arguably high stakes poker is just an expensive experience for some people.

mgaunard 3y ago

Renting a tennis court will cost you more than 5 dollars, even in a public park.

ben_w 3y ago
You don't need a tennis court unless you're getting serious. I used to play cricket with apples[0]. As a kid I always had more fun from freeform play than from rules. (Also strken wrote "throw" so I think they were thinking of a game of catch). [0] Not sure which exactly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malus — unless they've been replaced since I was a kid, the ones on the right as you leave the cul-de-sac: https://maps.app.goo.gl/bsdmAm5cXtDyxwYy9?g_st=ic https://maps.app.goo.gl/bsdmAm5cXtDyxwYy9?g_st=ic
- mgaunard 3y ago
  You're being surprisingly overly specific with those tree links.
  - supermatt 3y ago
    The wikipedia link is for the apple tree genus. The word generic literally comes from the word genus, i.e. they couldn't be less specific when talking about apples.
    - ben_w 3y ago
      In fairness, my other link was to a Google street view image of (possibly) the actual trees from which the apples fell in c. 1993.
kasey_junk 3y ago
There are dozens of public tennis courts within a 5 minute walk from my house that are all free all the time. I’m sort of shocked to hear they aren’t free everywhere. Which park system charges for tennis?