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”
A Tiny Crevice. In other words, it is also called an affordance, permissiveness, or tolerance. A 5mm hole and a 5mm rod don’t fit perfectly together. If you hit it with a hammer, the rod might go into the hole, but only by forcing it. If they are the same size, they don’t really fit. There needs to be a slight gap to ensure a proper fit, which is known as ‘engineering tolerance.’ In this world, 5mm exists only as a concept and doesn’t truly confirm its existence. For some, ‘tolerance’ might be seen as a mistake or imperfection, but for others, it’s a principle of life that drives the world and should be natural. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”