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Sure, but are you optimizing for "utility" or happiness? There are definitely circumstances where you can be happier "wasting money" than not.



My point is orthogonal to "utility vs happiness". Let's say someone spends $5 on starbucks per day, I just want them to realize that's $1800 per year and so they're really making the choice between a coffee per day and an RTX 3090 every year. Or a $150 bottle of wine per month. Once you accept you are indeed making a choice, then you have the power to consciously choose what you want to splurge on.


But it's ignoring the human psychology involved. "Ignorance is bliss" is true. Yes ok, I could have invested in $GOOG and earned a bunch of money that would be worth more to me today, but that just isn't how we process information. What happens instead is that I buy the coffee because I want it and now I can't even enjoy it because I know it's "stupid."




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