
Is the Stuff You Buy Over 20 Years Worth 40,000 Hours of Time? - jseliger
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/21/your-money/is-the-stuff-you-buy-over-20-years-worth-40000-hours-of-time.html
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icanhackit
There are some simple rules my partner and I live by: buy implements/tools
that make life easier/save time/produce good results, avoid items used only or
largely for signalling or which lack utility, buy quality so that the item
will last as long as possible and will be a pleasure to use.

I'd say the easiest hack would be: stop signalling. You're not your fucking
Babushka dolls or Banksy print. You're not the coffee style you drink or the
coffee shop you drink it in. No one _gets_ you by seeing what clothing you're
wearing, and anyone who is attracted to you because of those things will be
toxic company.

~~~
zbobet2012
One thing not to do is remove "minor" pleasure because you _think_ they are
signalling. The [research says]([http://time.com/59684/the-simple-thing-that-
makes-the-happie...](http://time.com/59684/the-simple-thing-that-makes-the-
happiest-people-in-the-world-so-happy/)) "savoring the small things" is hugely
important.

That includes enjoying your cup of coffee. If you genuinely can't taste the
difference, don't buy it. But if you do, then buy good coffee.

Adding small, every day joys that you savior to your life is worth your money
(and time).

~~~
icanhackit
> _If you genuinely can 't taste the difference, don't buy it. But if you do,
> then buy good coffee._

Perhaps I should have been more clear about signalling. I'm not suggesting you
remove the small pleasures from your life. If something has utility (including
pleasure) and the capacity to signal, then go nuts. Consider it a bonus.

~~~
Nomentatus
Much easier said than done. Empirical studies of wine-tasting and
reproducibility show that our unconscious minds are wonderfully good at
tricking us into mistaking mere signalling for intrinsic qualities such as
better taste. Without a lot of meditation (Samadhi then Vipassana) you can't
stop being fooled, a lot of the time. (As well as confusing secondary
reinforcement for primary, in general.) Nature doesn't want you to; it wants
you to attract "better" mates and impress others (establish dominance.)

One or two simple rules can help, however. Rarely buy what's generally
coveted, never buy any product that's advertised, and do not hang out with
those who do.

~~~
icanhackit
I don't necessarily agree with your final points. Often tools will be branded
and stylised, but as long as they hold utility they're more honest than
"articles of self" or items that you didn't create, have no relationship with,
and are using to vaguely define your sensibilities.

The simplest rule: Buy tools i.e. anything that can be used to create or
modify something. A knife is a tool, a (functional) camera is a tool, a
microwave is a tool, a couch is a tool, a bed is a tool, a computer is a tool.

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jimrandomh
The usual way of thinking about this (if you think about it at all) is to
think on the margin: was the marginal hour worth the marginal purchase? That
is, if you cut the hours you'd most like to cut, and cut purchases until the
budget balances again, is that better?

If you compare all of the work to all of the stuff, then there's no way to
notice (within that framework) if the best answer was to work part-time, or
slightly less overtime, or slightly more overtime.

~~~
cfmcdonald
That assumes that one can arbitrarily exchange free hours and money. Most
workers do not have that choice.

~~~
ThrustVectoring
Assuming that you retire, you most definitely can. Each dollar you don't spend
today can be saved for retirement, at which point the invested dollar can be
"spent" by retiring marginally earlier.

~~~
ikeyany
> Assuming that you retire

Thus proving most workers (as in >90%) do not have that choice.

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JoeDaDude
It's been said already but deserves repeating: "Most people buy things they
don't need with money they don't have to impress people they don't know".

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gdulli
Happiness is neither the presence of material things nor the absence of work.

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TKDPenguin4390
Personally, I like to use this as a way to prevent myself from impulse buys.

For Example (Easy numbers used for math):

Stupid Random Thing I want to Impulse Buy is $400.00 At $10/hour, this object
costs me 40 hours. Is it worth a week's work to have Random Thing I want to
Impulse buy?

If 40 hours of work = Object's value to me, then buy Else, pass- and save
money for future endeavor

~~~
xupybd
I do something similar. But I like to factor in my overheads. 40 hours work
may pay for that thing. But to work 40 hours I also need to live for a week.
So that's a week's rent, food, power and so on. So that thing is probably
going to cost me a week and a half of my working life.

~~~
bgirard
Ideally you should be budgeting for discretionary monthly spending. If I want
to buy a Nintendo Switch then it might be, say, a full month of discretionary
spending.

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phaed
Depends. In many cases Stuff(life) > life. Having access to a toothbrush and
toothpaste throughout my life enhances the quality of the life lived. A car
saves tons of hours of life that I would otherwise have spent it walking from
place to place, giving me extra time. A phone allows me to communicate with
loved ones far away that I would never see otherwise. Books give knowledge and
perspective that allow me to overcome many obstacles in life. etc.

A lot of it is worth it. Some of it is not. Time is not the only thing of
import in this life, just ask any prisoner living a life sentence if he thinks
he's lucky for having all that extra time.

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nickthemagicman
I think so. The term 'Stuff' is super complicated.

I buy stuff as life enhancers. It keeps my mind stimulated or body healthy
when I get a new macbook or a mountain bike.

I also try to buy durable stuff BIFL type stuff. So that the value is massive,
and will possibly be passed on after I'm dead.

I think it's less about the abstract term 'stuff' and more about the idea of
'value' that 40000 hours of your life provides to yourself and your
family/friends.

The goal of just accumulating 'stuff' is consumerism...the goal of
accumulating 'value' in your life if a better pursuit imo.

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dorkwood
If I was only working to accumulate 'stuff', then I wouldn't work at all. Or
at least I wouldn't work as many hours as I do.

The sad fact is that if I stop working, I can only survive for maybe six
months until I need to start working again. I don't like having to give half
of my life over to someone else, but I haven't happened upon a better
alternative yet.

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fwn
The authors definition of stuff is very different from the common definition
of stuff (as he includes experiences as stuff as well).

I don't see how such a term can be used consistently in a meaningful way as
entities like an actual physical thing and the memory of an encounter are
vastly different things on a conceptual level.

------
0xf8
[vipassana] = [answer]

~~~
etplayer
I agree in part. Meditating (using vipassana) has helped me examine
assumptions I made about my life, what it is, and what value it has, and the
impermanence of our posessions and indeed our own bodies. I'd recommend it,
even to the skepetical reader.

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drtillberg
Because it is not possible to conserve life, I think the equation is more
accurately:

    
    
      [Life] = ( [Stuff] || [NoStuff] )
    

That is because sometimes NoStuff is what we use life to enjoy.

