Careful With Luxuries |
August 9th, 2012 |
People are always asking "how did I ever put up with that?" Now that
we have a dishwasher I don't want to go back to washing up by hand.
Now that I have a smartphone, the idea of waiting for a bus without
knowing how long it's going to be sounds very unpleasant. Having a
light laptop I don't know how I managed carrying around a heavier one.
Things slip from luxury to necessity as I get used to them, but the
peculiar thing is I'm not any (much?) happier. [1] Once something
becomes a necessity it's very hard to give it up. Which means I
should be cautious about accepting new luxuries.
Referenced in:
[1] Not to imply that I'm unhappy; I'm lucky to have a good life and a
high happiness set point. Just that I'm about the same as I was back
when I didn't have any of these things I would hate to have to do
without.
- Consumption Smoothing and Hedonic Adaptation
- Rationing with small reserves
- Markov Me
- Hedonic Model
- How Much to Give is a Pragmatic Question
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