When in Doubt, Don’t Buy Anything

The goal ain’t to buy stuff for the sake of it, instead, to increase our artistic productivity and fruitfulness!

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Why and when do we want to buy new stuff?

xiaomi selfie

One thought:

We desire to buy new things when we get bored of ourselves, or we don’t see growth/inspiration/progression in ourselves.

And the way we try to overcome our boredom of ourselves:

Buy new tools that we believe can augment our inspiration, abilities, creativity, productivity, and output.

When you really need to buy something, the decision should be quite obvious

BMW HANOI
Hanoi, 2019

“When in doubt between two different decisions, take neither.” – Nassim Taleb (Bed of Procrustes)

What is one of the hardest things for us to do? Make a decision. To be culpable and liable for the decisions we make. To have the courage to make a decision and stand by it; irrespective of the outcome. I think this is the necessary first step of an entrepreneur.

Why don’t buy anything?

This is the problem:

Often we pressure ourselves into buying something, and then we end up with it, and it then ends up collecting dust somewhere, taking up space, taking up mental space, or you just feel guilty/dumb for buying it (buyer’s remorse).

Far easier to have not acquired or accumulated the thing in the first place.

Amelia

What are the consequences of NOT buying anything?

One of my beliefs is that innovation often comes from need, necessity, and constraints (rather than unlimited options).

For example, NOT having multiple lenses or focal lengths on your camera forces you to become more creative and innovative with your framing and compositions.

Also having LESS money and FEWER resources makes you more frugal, resourceful, ‘scrappy’, and helps you innovate new ways to do things (consider how poor the founders of AirBnb were, which gave birth to their brilliant idea).

Many technological innovations were also “hacks” which seemed “quick and dirty”, but ended up being recognized as genius (after the fact).

Amelia walking plank

What is your ultimate goal?

Consumerism and buying stuff ain’t an end into itself. We often want to purchase new things, tools, and equipment IN ORDER to improve, optimize, augment, or increase productivity of something.

I believe that our ultimate goal is artistic creation and flourishing. Anything which makes us more artistically fruitful and helps us create more artwork is good.

Let this be our primary focus and impetus in life!

ERIC