Fool Price

 

I had to purchase a new pair of bluejeans recently. They are the only jeans I own. My previous pair, tattered after two years of literal wear and tear, were beyond repair. Soon, the boots I’ve been wearing since age 29 (the above photo is from 2011, a year into their tenure), now sole-less and scuffed from 12 seasons of use, will need to be replaced. I plan on ordering a new pair this week.

The bluejeans were $100, the boots $300. Full Price, both of them.

You see, I avoid Sale Price whenever I can, opting instead to pay Full Price. Plus, even though I don’t earn a lot of money, I tend to purchase higher quality items, not for their brand names (I don’t wear clothes with logos), but because I’m willing to pay more for things that look good, work well, and last longer.

Because I’m responsible with money, the higher priced, higher quality items actually cost less in the long run—I use them till they’re finished. (I wore my jeans roughly 700 times, my boots 1,000; ergo, I paid only 14¢ every time I pulled on my pants, 30¢ each time I stepped into my shoes.)

The reason I avoid Sale Price, though, has less to do with quality or money and more to do with my own impulses. I prefer to pay Full Price because it makes me question the purchase a great deal. When I discover something I want to buy, I must think it over and spend time budgeting for it, all the while questioning whether the new possession will add real value to my life.

Conversely, Sale Price is the compulsory price, a fool’s price. Not long ago, I played the fool. Repeatedly. I fell for all the tropes of Sale Price: Act now! Limited time only! While supplies Last! But much like Pavlov’s bell, these clever stratagems incite a false sense of scarcity that clouds our perception of reality, prodding us to act on impulse. Sure, you might save 70% off that clearance-rack dress you sort of like, but you’ll save 100% if you just leave the store without it.

When I pay…. [Read the rest of the post on The Minimalists]

Let’s Play a Minimalism Game Together

A new month is approaching. Let’s play a little game together.

Find a friend or family member. Someone who’s willing to get rid of some of their excess stuff. This month, each of you must get rid of one thing on the first day of the month. On the second, two things. Three items on the third. So forth, and so on. Anything can go! Clothes, furniture, electronics, tools, decorations, etc. Donate, sell, or trash. Whatever you do, each material possession must be out of your house—and out of your life—by midnight each day.

It’s an easy game at first. However, it starts getting challenging by week two, when you’re both jettisoning more than a dozen items each day. Whoever can keep it going the longest wins. You both win if you can make it all month. Bonus points if you play with more than two people.

Win or lose, we’d love to hear about your game on Twitter or Facebook.

Ready? Go!

[Read more posts from The Minimalists]

Life Is an Acquired Taste

The best coffeehouse in the United States isn’t located in Seattle or Portland or NYC or any of the usual suspects. Nope. Rather, Press Coffee Bar is nestled between a parking lot and a sewing shop, across the street from a pair of abandoned warehouses and beneath several stories of old brick apartments in Dayton Ohio, the birthplace of aviation, the cash register, and hundred-spoke gold rims.

I’m sitting at Press now, tucked in the back enjoying a black coffee, a subtle milieu of roasted beans and Radiohead’s OK Computer in the atmosphere around me. Back in Dayton for a spell, I’ve been spending a lot of time here dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s in Ryan’s and my next book, Everything That Remains.

The shop’s tattooed proprietors, Brett and Janell Barker, are hard at work behind the counter, utterly unaware I’m writing this. The Barkers are an awesome husband-and-wife duo, wonderful in more ways than one: friendly, attentive, passionate, etc., etc. Plus, they are sticklers for detail. From the wood floors and wood-paneled walls, to the music and changed-monthly local-art installations, everything at Press is carefully and intentionally curated. Not to mention a handful of employees—Caleb, Awni, Brenden, Eric—who feel much more like family than staff, and customers who seem to embody a Cheers-esque camaraderie (Woody Harrelson and I went to the same high school after all, albeit two decades apart).

Oh, and then there’s the coffee of course: sourced from only the best roasters and brewed or pulled so carefully—so meticulously—that it resembles art much more than foodservice. All of which culminates in the perfect coffeehouse—elegant and unpretentious and simple.

The simplicity of Press transcends the shop itself. Not simple for the sake of being simple, Press is simple because they’ve eliminated the excess in favor of the essential. It was Brett, after all, who convinced me to do the same with my coffee…

Back in the day, I used to load my cup of joe with heaps of cream and sweetener, more like a weak, milky, calorie-laden dessert than a drink. As I stirred in the excess, Brett would to quietly rib me, encouraging me to enjoy the flavor without the additives.

I didn’t listen. Well at least not at first; not until the day when they ran out of my sweetener of choice, and I was forced to go without. It was an unpleasant shock at first—drinking only coffee and cream—but soon my taste buds adjusted, and guess what: I could better taste the coffee, and so I went without sweetener from then on.

A month later, being the experimenter I am, I wondered what my coffee would taste like without milk, so I ordered an Americano and shook my head when Janell asked whether I wanted room for cream. Because I was unacclimated, the first sip was bitter, a strong punch to the palate. But then of course, a few days in, I acquired the taste, and for the first time in my life I could taste the actual coffee. It was more delicious than any of the sugary, weak, milky cups of yesteryear. Suffice it to say I never went back.

It seems to me that black coffee is also a synecdoche for life: when you eliminate the excess… [Read more of this article on The Minimalists]

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The Go-Anywhere Workspace

…For a full breakdown of everything in Pete’s mobile workspace, simply click on the image…

The Standing Desk challenges continue…

You know that sitting isn’t healthy, that the hours you spend in your chair cancel out the minutes you spend in the gym.

You know that standing while you work improves your health and can help you drop pounds by burning extra calories.

But you’re still sitting all day

You’ve wanted to switch to a standing desk, and you even rigged up a temporary desk to give it a shot. But after an hour, you started casting longing glances at your cushy desk chair.

Your arches ached.

Your back hurt.

You had trouble focusing on your work.

And after the newness of the idea wore off, it started to seem like a terrible burden to move your laptop all the way over there.

So there you sit

But what if you could bypass the pain and start reaping the health benefits of standing?

Click on the picture to learn more at DeskHacks