The relativity of values causes us to use money irrationally. I go to the supermarket to buy a $15 pen, and the clerk smiles and says, “You can buy this pen for $7 if you walk 5 minutes from here.” Then, most people walk five minutes and buy a $15 pen for $7. But if you want to buy a $1,000 jacket and the clerk smiles and says, “You can get a $992 jacket in five minutes from here,” most people simply buy the $1,000 jacket. Reasonably, walking for 5 minutes equals the effort, and the profit of $8 is the same. However, people might go to a store that sells pens cheaper, but not for the jacket, because the discount rate is too low. In other words, the relativity of comparing values makes us act irrationally. The pen’s discount rate is 55%, and the jacket’s is only 0.8%. Yet, the total amount is the same for all $8, and the effort to gain that profit is identical. Attitudes and misconceptions about consumption influence how we build wealth. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”
The tallest mountain in the solar system is Olympus Mons on Mars, towering about three times higher than Mt. Everest. Its area, covering 295,000 ㎢, surpasses the size of the Korean Peninsula (220,850 ㎢) and is nearly equivalent to that of France or Arizona. While Olympus Mons has a greater height than any mountain on Earth, its vast area results in an average slope of only 5 degrees. As a result, hikers who ascend Olympus Mons often feel as if they are traversing a flat plain. For humans, the steepness of a climb matters more than its height. For example, ascending a steeper 5 m pole can be more challenging than gradually scaling a 500 m mountain. In life, choosing the right slope to climb is often more crucial than focusing solely on the height reached, whether going uphill or downhill. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”