Quote of the Day: Paul Graham on "Stuff"
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 01. 8.08
Photo credit: sindesign
Stuff has gotten a lot cheaper, but our attitudes toward it haven't changed correspondingly. We overvalue stuff. That was a big problem for me when I had no money. I felt poor, and stuff seemed valuable, so almost instinctively I accumulated it.
What I didn't understand was that the value of some new acquisition wasn't the difference between its retail price and what I paid for it. It was the value I derived from it. Stuff is an extremely illiquid asset. Unless you have some plan for selling that valuable thing you got so cheaply, what difference does it make what it's 'worth?' The only way you're ever going to extract any value from it is to use it. And if you don't have any immediate use for it, you probably never will."
Amen.
My problem is more that I have lots and lots of seldomly (but surely) used stuff. In addition to the stuff that Paul mentions.
Useless Gadgets-stuff should be avoided in the first place, to save resources.
Getting rid of STUFF is a very liberating experience. Of course, there are others that can use much of that junk, so just find a useful cause and start purging!
I have two young children and it's never to early to impress upon them the values of living simply. After all, they have a bigger stake in the future than my wife and I do.
People tend to accumulate stuff and their standards go up.
I think it prevents alot of people from pursuing their real dreams. They get stuff, and they have to pay for it and they feel like they can't live without it.
That low-cost lifestyle that you were perfectly happy with in your college days isn't enough b/c now you're used to the higher standard.
So people set aside the dream and say you can't afford to pursue it.
It'll be a sad day when I look back at a perfectly happier younger me and say ah those were the good old days. but I can't live on that anymore.