I’m reading Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Rolf Potts. I’m only a quarter of the way through it and it’s already worth the price. In the third chapter, Rolf talks about the American reaction to the Exxon Valdez oil spill in the late 80s. The nation suddenly became, on the average, much more environmentally minded. So what did we do? We bought “environmental” products. Recycled products, energy-efficient this-or-that, health food, etc. What did we not do? Actually change our behavior.
Here’s a quote from page 29:
The more our life options get paraded around as consumer options, the more we forget that there's a difference between the two.When I read this I recognized a pattern in myself and many people (everyone?) I know:
I do this all the time. I decide I’m going to do something challenging, and my first step is to load up on stuff related to whatever it is I want to do. My second step is to continue to load up on stuff related to the topic. And so on.
Why do we do this? Because we know that we’re staring in the face of something that’s both very important and very scary. We want to feel like we’re doing something about whatever goal it is we have in mind. And the easiest way to feel like we’re doing something is to buy stuff.
What’s upsetting is to realize that in my case, simply buying the stuff is all I typically need to get enough of the feeling that I’m “dong something” to be satisfied. The end result? I’m fat, I still can’t program in Haskell worth a damn, I haven’t run the triathlon, I don’t know Spanish, I can’t play accordion very well, and I’m totally unorganized.
Experiment: next time a really important goal comes along, I’m not allowed to do any discretionary spending related to that goal.
My hypothesis is that unfunded life goals stand a better chance of being met.
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June 9th, 2009 at 12:58 AM
Back when I was a teenage skateboarder, something I noticed was that often the best skaters at any spot you went to were the guys who had the ragged second-hand clothes, and often didn’t even have a board of their own.
In other circles they would have been regarded as losers, but to us they were heroes.
The opposite? The rich kid from around the corner who decided to take up skateboarding and felt the need to kit himself out from head-to-toe. As we used to say: “all the gear, no idea”.
June 9th, 2009 at 12:59 AM
Cool, I think I’ll get the book; it’s been on my Amazon wish list for some time. Kind of ironic since your post motivates me to acquire a book in reaction to something I want to accomplish.
June 9th, 2009 at 02:16 AM
Funny but I was just thinking about this today. I’ve recently (thanks in large part to being inspired by you) taken up my health as a hobby. While I do not think the gym + personal trainer were a bad idea, I was able to stop myself before spending more.
I decided I was going to do this so what did I want to do? Purchase new clothes, a new gym bag, new towels, etc. I wanted to sign up for weight watchers, wanted to pay for gyminee (dailyburn) pro membership. I wanted to subscribe to Men’s Health and purchase any book I could find on working out.
I’ve fallen in this trap every time.
This time, for some reason, my business mind kicked in. I thought about it and decided I would be fine packing the same clothes I’ve used to paint the house in a grocery bag for now. I decided I could make due with the basic membership until I know I will keep using it (and it won’t be a fad). When we started the company, we did not go out and purchase amazing chairs. It took us awhile to purchase desks. It was (and continues to be) all about getting items as needed.
So I’ve chosen to do the same thing with this new endeavor. Only getting items as I need them. At times, if its something I really want (I would LOVE to get an ipod arm band), I’ve decided to use it as a carrot (one month of working out without missing a session and it’s mine!).
Great thought.
June 9th, 2009 at 03:28 AM
It’s a really good and true point. Although you’re resolute about not falling in that trap it’s a much sneakier trap than you think. The first time I noticed that type of behavior, I was a teenager. Playing music, I collected many different music books and transcriptions. Most of them I never finished, a few I never even opened more than twice. Once I figured it out I decided not to spend the money for them. So I ended up getting those books from the library. (found a surrogate)
Every once in a while I’d notice I fell in the trap again, but I’d shrug it since at least it didn’t cost me anything.
The act of purchasing has a really weird effect and triggers. Have you ever made a big purchase because you were so excited you were going to make so much money in your brand new job, that you haven’t started yet?
I have, a few times. One time it was so glaring that it burned me so bad when I realized the pattern, it never happened again. I think you really have to have that one Eureka moment that is so glaring, so painful, so damning that can by itself change your future behavior.
For me it was the purchase of a 2*16 Mesa-Boogie Cabinet that cost me $1000 in 1990 in lieu of a job that I never started. It was so painful that the realization of it killed that impulse for good.
What about the impulse to load up on stuff that you’re momentarily interested? Much harder to control. Usually the damage is in the tens of dollars.
I found a solution a couple years back. Write down the purchase on your notebook/pda/iphone and give yourself a 48 hours cool-down period. Then revisit the list and 90% of the time you’ll come to your sense.
If you absolutely must make a purchase, buy only 1 item. Put the time aside for that week to dedicate yourself to it, and most of all you can’t buy any other related items or like-kind items until you’re done with this one.
If it’s a book, and you succumbed to purchasing the book. You can’t buy or read any other book until you’re officially done with that book. If half way through it you realize that you don’t care to finish it, donate it. Get rid of it. No half-measures.
After 3-5 purchases you’re going to really ponder every purchase, and make only the necessary one.
That’s my road to a lean life.
Btw, a good book to read on the subject is Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational. The best book I have read this year so far.
June 9th, 2009 at 03:46 AM
I’ve learned this is a complex topic. Over the years I have tried to wean myself off the American consumer culture, but it can be quite difficult. We are constantly inundated with marketing from just about every direction, and it is hard not to be at least a little drugged by it. One thing I have done is not have cable TV in my house for the entire 6 years I’ve been here. That helps, but there are still plenty of ways for marketers to get to me.
Another motivating factor I have to not go out and buy things is a very cluttered house. Despite not being a shopaholic I have acquired a lot of things over the years (quite a bit of it was given to me.) Plus I am very slow to get rid of things and I hate to be wasteful. Basically I’m a pack rat. So the idea of bringing more things into my house is not very appealing. Though Craigslist has been helping me move some stuff out of the house recently…
One game I play is to see how minimal of a kit I can get by with for any particular hobby. For example for grilling I have a simple Weber kettle charcoal grill, a charcoal chimney, and the most needed utensils (spatula, tongs, a few forks and the grill brush.) Though today I bought a couple (discounted) grilling books. But there is a certain “MacGuyver” feeling to getting by with basic tools and also using multi-purpose items. For example instead of buying a big grilling mitt I can use my big thick leather welding gloves. Instead of buying special Weber aluminum drip pans I can use the turkey pans I’ve had in the house for the last three years (and they are pretty much the same damn thing!)
I also pride myself on getting the most out of my computer hardware. I’m typing this on my 3 year old ThinkPad Z60m.
Finally my solution for books and DVDs is the library. I saw another book at Barnes & Noble today that was tempting (when shopping for those grilling books), but I knew it was not something I would need long term and I was sure it would be at my library. Sure enough it is (12 copies are on order actually) and by putting it on hold I can guarantee I’ll be reading it as soon as they have it. This requires some patience and the ability to reduce your need for instant gratification, but I’ve learned to enjoy anticipation a lot ;)
Also you just can’t compare watching TV shows on normal TV (even with a Tivo) to a free library DVD set. Yes I do watch at least a little TV. Some glowing-box-induced vegging is nice once in a while.
June 9th, 2009 at 04:02 AM
Well Diego, I’ve found “Predictably Irrational” at the library web-site and put it on hold as well :)
One bad habit I do have that is along the lines of consumerism is checking out a huge number of books from the library (on the order of 30-40 at the same time, usually from several different trips.) This of course has gotten me in trouble with overdue fees in the past, and inspired me to write a Ruby script to automatically renew them (which I have used as fodder for a Ruby meetup presentation.) Of course eventually those books have to go back to the library, and besides overdue fees they don’t cost me anything. But I think this “acquiring” of library books fills a consumerism need.
I have also been doing this lately with seeds. I am going to redo my yard using native plants and have been able to collect quite a few seeds while visiting various places. There is a certain thrill in acquiring strange seeds, learning what the plant is, and seeing it is a good landscape plant. Again this free collecting fills a need to “have, have, have.”
It kind of makes me wonder if the need to have is just ingrained into humans for evolutionary reasons, and our American culture has just taken it to the extreme.
The irony in all this for myself is I really appreciate minimalism and order yet constantly find myself surrounded by clutter.
June 9th, 2009 at 05:21 AM
I could be wrong, but my first reaction to this is that it’s the wrong diagnosis. That buying stuff and doing nothing about it is just a sign that you have more goals than you can handle. That you’re spreading yourself too thin instead of focusing on a few priorities. And that the alternative to buying stuff and doing nothing is just doing nothing. Of course the stuff is pointless if you don’t use it, but it’s more a symptom than a cause of not achieving your goals.
June 9th, 2009 at 09:25 AM
I have read the book more than once and can say that it is definitely one of those books that makes you re-examine what you are doing with your life. In any case, after reading his book and being a reader of his blog, Rolf is not one of those anti-consumerism people, he just makes a simple case for making a goal and accomplishing it. Ultimately, if buying something really truly will get you to your goal, then go ahead and get it. If it doesn’t (and more often than not, it doesn’t), then don’t buy it.
It’s also a matter of priorities. When you buy one thing that means that you don’t have that money for something else. So, unless your priority is to be surrounded by a bunch of stuff, don’t do it. Ultimately, Rolf is saying “well, you could buy that stuff, or you could save it and use it to fund a life experience.” To back his theory up, there are studies that have shown people are happier when they spend money on experiences rather than things. When people get old, there are no things to comfort them, only memories. Creating those memories is the key to being happy.
As a side note, I like that at RailsConfs there has been some focus on lifestyle as well as code. I remember the fund raising effort in Portland in 2007 and after watching some of the keynotes from this year online, I like that Tim Ferris was included, even if I don’t agree with him.
Lastly, that book can be dangerous in a good way. It was the catalyst for me to quit my programming job and travel the world with my wife. We’re on our 15th month and our 15th country. While I miss doing programming for a living sometimes, I have zero regrets and more memories than I can count.
June 9th, 2009 at 09:44 AM
It’s not just Americans, sadly, although maybe you’re leading the field. We’re similarly infected/affected in the UK.
My wife, for example, has a tendency to think that because she paid for something (like a new diet plan or an exercise machine) she has done everything necessary to enjoy the benefits. Confusing means and end, or something.
Perhaps we should be more wide-reaching in our application of YAGNI and DTSTTCPW?
Want to try as triathlon? Get (if you don’t have them already) running shoes, a bike and some swimwear and start running/riding/swimming.
Want to build a web site? ‘gem install rails’ (OK, buy the hammock book and keep the Prags happy). Or maybe sinatra or camping until it gets larger?
Possibly because of the vicious economic attrition inflicted by my children, I’m getting better at this. I have a tedious lower back problem that can be addressed by focused exercise or surgery. Call me a wimp, but I’m strangely reticent about letting anyone hack around on my spine. Self-supervison on the exercise early morning and late evening hadn’t been working and proved to be less than simple.
After a spell of wishing that the problem would go just away (simple, but couldn’t possibly work) I joined the gym most local to the office and signed up for personal training, on the way acquiring just enough suitable clothing – at a discount retailer – to start attending. To date I haven’t needed anything else. And the back is slowly improving.
Now if I could just stop my wife from buying me more back-support products I’d be heading for good shape…
June 9th, 2009 at 01:38 PM
I own a Mastiff and a cat. One of the results of this is animal hair everywhere. The other day I looked at the carpet in the family room and proclaimed, “We need the Dyson DC17 Animal Cyclone!” To which my wife replied, “You do know that simply owning this vacuum isn’t going to make the hair go away. We’re actually going to have to use it.” The only appropriate response to that was to get out our beat up old vacuum and start vacuuming.
June 9th, 2009 at 09:27 PM
Experiment: next time a really important goal comes along, I’m not allowed to do any discretionary spending related to that goal.
Good luck, but I think there’s a “middle way.” That is, define some reasonable goals in the activity that you need to achieve before doing any discretionary spending. For example, learning Haskell.. you might specify that you need to be able to complete a reasonably meaty application (some sort of Web app, perhaps) before buying any further Haskell materials, etc. Once you’ve achieved that goal, these purchases should actually be of use, since you’ll already have your head fully into the subject matter and find things like books, screencasts, or whatever, far more useful than if you bought them on day one.
June 15th, 2009 at 07:13 PM
It’s the difference between wanting to be something (easy) and wanting to become something (harder, sometimes very hard.) It’s confusing the destination with the route, or the product with the process. That’s why “wannabe”s are objects of contempt, but “beginners” are treated with kindness, because “beginner” implies that they have accepted the process.
Buying things comes from wanting to “be” whatever. Not buying things forces you to start off with “becoming.” Once you’ve started to become, then you know what to buy.
Want to be a walker? If you don’t buy shoes, magazines, memberships, you’re left with just walking. If that works out, then you’ll know what to buy.
There is an exception: want to be a yoga practitioner? Start going to lessons, free ones if possible, but pay if you must. Ditto for any other activity that can’t be learned safely “just in your head.”
Still, when you buy things, it shifts the emphasis away from doing, so I agree, buy only what you absolutely must in order to start doing.
June 19th, 2009 at 08:29 AM
Blogs need a Facebook “Like this” option, because I have nothing to contribute, but I like this post. So: “Like this”
June 25th, 2009 at 05:02 AM
As a huge proponent of discretionary spending, I strongly disagree. However, I can see how things like this can sometimes lead a false sense of fulfillment, especially when you have a list such as above. Dagfinn hit the nail on the head though- it’s a symptom of something else, not a cause. For most people, spending is often the fastest way to a positive end result.
I want to be a better programmer… I think I better buy a copy of Textmate. I want to mountain bike the Continental Divide Trail… maybe I should buy a bike and start riding it. I want to photograph the world… and it is REALLY difficult to get off of this continent without handing SOMEBODY some money.
But wait- maybe I should just keep using Notepad, borrow my friend’s bike as much as he’ll let me, and… I don’t know, swim the Atlantic?
We spend to save time, to reach our goals quicker. It works, more often that we realize, because we take it for granted.