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+[1]Tom MacWright
+
+tom@macwright.com
+
+[2]Tom MacWright
+
+  • [3]Writing
+  • [4]Reading
+  • [5]Photos
+  • [6]Projects
+  • [7]Drawings
+  • [8]Micro⇠
+  • [9]About
+
+Maximization and buying stuff
+
+2024-12-29
+
+I’ve been revisiting the vintage 37signals blog post [10]A Rant Against
+Maximization. I am by nature, a bit of a maximizer: I put a lot of time into
+research about everything and have grown to be unfortunately picky. On the
+positive side, I don’t regret purchases very frequently and can be a good
+source of recommendations.
+
+But this year I decided to starting figuring out how to spend money more
+effectively – to figure out what it’s useful for that gives me joy and
+long-term satisfaction. Partly inspired by [11]Die With Zero and [12]Ramit
+Sethi’s philosophies.
+
+It has been a tough transition. I’m used to finding some price/quality local
+maximum, and nice stuff is always past that point. Leicas, luxury cars, fancy
+clothes, etc are usually 80% more expensive and 20% technically-better than the
+value-optimizing alternative.
+
+To be clear, I bought a fancy bicycle, no BMWs for this guy. But it followed
+the same diminishing-marginal-utility arc as other fancy stuff. I’ve spent a
+lot of time thinking about whether I would have been better off choosing a
+different point on the cost/value curve.
+
+But really: for most things there are a wide range of acceptable deals. We were
+not born to optimize cost/value ratios, and it’s not obvious that getting that
+optimization right will really bring joy, or getting it wrong (in minor ways)
+should make anyone that sad. And it’s a tragedy to [13]keep caring about
+inconsequential costs just because of psychology. I’m trying to avoid that
+tragedy.
+
+Anyway, the bike is awesome.
+
+Also, with the exception of sports cars and houses, people in the tech industry
+and my demographic in the US likes to keep its consumerism understated. For
+example, an average tech worker in San Francisco tends to look clean-cut middle
+class, but going up the stairs from the subway you’ll see a lot of [14]$500
+sneakers. There are acceptable categories of consumerism – you can buy a
+tremendously oversized house and get very little flack for it (maybe the home
+is a good investment, though I have my doubts), and a big car (bigger the
+better, to protect your family in crashes with other big cars, apologies to the
+pedestrians). Uncoincidentally, I guess, these are also the two purchases that
+in the US are usually financed, or in other words, leveraged.
+
+
+References:
+
+[1] https://macwright.com/
+[2] https://macwright.com/
+[3] https://macwright.com/writing/
+[4] https://macwright.com/reading/
+[5] https://macwright.com/photos/
+[6] https://macwright.com/projects/
+[7] https://macwright.com/drawings/
+[8] https://macwright.com/micro/
+[9] https://macwright.com/about/
+[10] https://signalvnoise.com/svn3/a-rant-against-maximization/
+[11] https://macwright.com/2021/09/11/die-with-zero
+[12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramit_Sethi
+[13] https://wggtb.substack.com/p/having-a-healthy-relationship-with
+[14] https://www.nordstrom.com/s/common-projects-original-achilles-sneaker-men/4976450