Mental Pivot #64: Paying the Price
David Cain’s two price framework, making the most out of analogies, and milestones in the history of web design.
Some weeks, I’ll find an article that resonates more greatly than the others, a piece that impacts me far more than anything else I’ve read recently.
David Cain’s “Everything Must Be Paid for Twice” gets that designation this week. I can’t stop thinking about it.
As Cain explains in his article, everyone must pay two prices when acquiring something new. We pay the first price for a book, gadget, or new software application at the point of purchase. It’s an easy price to pay. Easy, because all it requires is money.
But the steeper price, according to Cain, is the subsequent time and energy required to unlock the true value of the purchase. In the case of acquiring a new book, this “second price” involves the time spent reading, understanding, and grappling with the work itself. For a new gadget, the second price might entail learning how to use the item and gaining some level of competency with it. This second price is harder to pay. You can’t simply whip out a credit card and make payment.
Cain’s article touches a nerve because I’m so damn good at paying the first price and, like many others, not always great at managing the second price. It’s a topic I’ve touched on in a 2019 blog article, “Gear Lust and Practice Avoidance.”
Thankfully, Cain offers a way forward:
The only solution I can think of is to consciously throw the switch the other way: avoid paying any more needless first prices, and set your lifestyle around paying certain second prices, so you can finally enjoy the long-promised prizes waiting in your bookshelf, storage room, and hard drive.
Note: Cain’s blog, Raptitude, has been publishing excellent articles to help readers “get better at being human” for years. It’s a worthwhile bookmark with a rich archive to dive into.
Now onto this week's other recommendations…
Thinking Tools:
How to Use Analogies for Good and Evil: Analogies are a powerful tool for sense-making. They save effort by allowing us to use existing ideas and apply them in other contexts. This article offers some tips on making the best use of analogies while pointing out their limitations.
My Seatbelt Rule for Judgment: Danny Guo’s spin on Chesterton’s Fence. Inspired by a childhood experience involving a seatbelt, he offers this rule of thumb: “my willingness to judge something should be proportional to how much I know about it.”
Unlearning Perfectionism: “Process over outcomes; systems over goals; growth mindset over fixed mindset; satisficing over maximizing; professionalism over amateurism; boring fundamentals over flashy tricks; response over reaction; agency over passivity; presence over regret and worry.”
Reading Enrichment:
The Internet Is Just Investment Banking Now: “Even if the social-media and search tycoons could use the popularity and apparent utility of their products as a cover story, they optimized their work for wealth and power.”
If Everything Is Trauma, Is Anything?: Jessica Bennett scrutinizes a cultural trend that has flourished in social media: “When did we start using the language of harm to describe, well, everything?”
Mergers Ruin Everything: Matt Stoller writes about the recent history of the corporate merger and its role in the consolidation of monopoly power in the United States. Particular attention is given to the $85 billion AT&T Time Warner deal of 2018.
She Used to Sing Opera: Imogen Crimp’s failed odyssey to become a professional opera singer in her early 20s is an alternately humorous and heart-breaking look at crushed dreams and youthful naïveté.
Odds & Ends:
The Web Design History Timeline highlights milestones in the history of web design from 1990 to the present. It’s a fascinating look at 30 years of technological innovation and a great reminder of how far we’ve come in mere decades.
Wiki Trivia tests your knowledge of history by having participants place cards (depicting important events or historical figures) on a timeline in the correct order. My best streak is 12.
Cross-Promotions:
Refind is a content discovery tool that sends curated articles to your email inbox or via mobile app (iOS and Android). Focus your attention on what’s really relevant to you.
The Sample: A newsletter discovery tool. Based on your interests and feedback, The Sample sends a new newsletter recommendation to your inbox on a daily or weekly basis.
Thank you for subscribing to the Mental Pivot Newsletter. If you’re enjoying it, be sure to share it with your friends and spread the word.
I want to be able to deliver a top-notch newsletter to all of you. To that end, I’d love to hear your thoughts on what’s working, what doesn’t, and things you’d like to see more of. You can reach me by replying directly to this email or by adding a comment on Substack.
If this newsletter was forwarded to you, visit this link to subscribe.