When thinking about using high quality products, I'm often reminded of what Aziz Ansari said in an interview (before his reputation was tarnished by allegations of sexual misconduct) about the one thing he is happy to have spent money on during his career (the thing he least regrets), and his answer was the extra comfort he enjoyed from flying business class or first class on airplanes when flying across the country for shows. My initial reaction was, that's actually the LAST thing I spend money on, comfort! It's not surprising for a guy who played Tom Haverford, a well-dressed, high-spender South Asian government employee who often "treated himself" with lavish expenditures, to spend on high quality, but recently I've been realizing the extra value in high quality, as in there's actually more value in getting the higher quality item...sometimes. It's like buying an "expensive" stock like Amazon at $3400 versus a "cheap" stock like Gamestop, $141.........Amazon is cheaper because it has better earnings, future earnings, growth, everything you want in a stock!
The analogy works on a number of different arenas as well. Just recently I got the JNJ vaccine, but turns out it causes blood cotting in a very very low percentage of the population, and now it's been halted! I would still recommend getting the vaccine and even the JNJ vaccine if that's the one that's available, but it adds more fuel to the building opinion that Pfizer and Moderna are superior vaccines (by effectiveness), and now by the fact they don't raise serious questions about damaging side effects. The only good thing about JNJ is its one-shot convenience, but I've found that that sort of "covenience" sometimes doesn't save time in the long run, like if I have to get a Pfier and Moderna shot anyway down the road if and when the JNJ vaccine loses effectiveness. It's a lot like computers I bought in the past, I got the $200 laptops that I filtered by price on Amazon, whereas MJ got the more durable, virus-protected Apple Mac, and she gets to use it longer plus gets the better quality computer during that time, and if hers costs triple what my laptop costs but lasts 3 times longer, it's a good deal for her!
As some major purchases are coming up for MJ and I like buying another car (we share my good 'ole 2013 Honda Accord for now) and houses (oh man just the thought of home buying makes me nervous) that's something to keep in mind, and makes MJ's clammoring for a Tesla or similarly high-priced but next-level technology car that much more convincing.
Part of my new-found appreciation for high quality also has to do with age...I can't eat buffets all the time anymore! My stomach, digestive tract, and more importantly taste buds, just can't handle it anymore. Sure a 2 for $5 deal at a fast-food restaurant (McDonald's, Arby's, Burger King seem to have those specials revved up all the time) seems tempting and is much less than a meal at a sit-in or even just a decent restaurant, but the fast-food just doesn't taste like real food anymore, so my mindset shifts to that $5 being actually a waste of money rather than a saving from having a nice meal, it's just $5 wasted dollars to make me less healthy and feel greasy. I'll instead try to savor my food even though there's less of it, not just wolfing it down and forget the taste. Oh and Youtube subscriptions/ other online digitial subscriptions to take out the ads? I'm really thinking about doing it.....ads and interruptions are just like fast food except they're draining the most limited and precious of all resources.....time.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
No comments:
Post a Comment