8-2-2009

Sunday, August 02, 2009

[a la Bill Lumbergh of Office Space] "Whaaat's happening? Yeah.... if you could just... write in this blog more than once every 4 months, that would be greeeeeeat. Mmkay? Thaaanks."

It's been a long time coming, but here is a new entry! I could say that part of the reason why I haven't written is that life has been pretty routine, or consistent, during the last few months. However, that's not entirely true. Another part of the reason is that once I fell behind, it felt like the next entry would have to make up for lost time and be even longer... and then more time passed... and the cycle perpetuated itself. Anyway... highlights of the last 4 months:

• May: The things that I remember most about May were the events behind two trips I made to Arizona. The first was my sister's graduation from NAU; and the second was my best friend's wedding.
• June: Did anything happen in June? For some reason I'm drawing a blank on this one, so I will say the highlight of the month was a trip out to CT to play golf with Justin and Kim.
• July: July was a great month. I visited friends in DC for Independence Day, and was lucky enough to attend the concert at the Capitol featuring Aretha Franklin. I turned 25, celebrating three times with friends in Arizona, New York, and Connecticut. And I reconnected with one of my favorite people in the world.

So now it's August, and I have just started reading a book called Predictably Irrational (Dan Ariely) that delves into the "Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions," or behavioral economics. The first chapter of the book was enjoyable and thought provoking, and largely inspired me to write this new post.

Consider the following statement (the last sentence of Chapter 1: The Truth About Relativity). The more we have, the more we want. And the only cure is to break the cycle of relativity. The premise is basically that in a perfect world, we would be able to make decisions based solely on who we are and what we need - like living in a vacuum. However, in the real world, we are constantly comparing with other people, products or services - consciously or not - and this skews our goals and desires.

It's such a strong impulse that marketers can use it to their advantage by introducing options of different prices and feature sets designed to steer you toward the one they want to sell. How often do you go to the store for something basic only to walk out with an upgraded (and slightly more expensive) version?

For a while now, I've been pretty aware of the possibility for people to become the possessions of their possessions. It really started when I heard someone talk about not wanting to amass lots of material things because they would ultimately become something of an anchor. As I furnished my apartment in June of last year, with each major purchase (i.e. bed, TV) lurked a thought in the back of mind: If you ever move somewhere, these things are now your responsibility.

Anyway, from now on I will be attempt to be more aware of when I'm comparing or skewing my decision-making process away from what it would be in a vacuum. I consider myself to be a pragmatic person, but it really seems like this is a pervasive element in daily life that can always be improved upon.

That's all for now! Hope you are well.