This class is "eight squirrels in a trenchcoat:" many loosely related helpful concepts. The squirrels are:
- Reductionism - things are made of parts
- Currencies - parts may be exchanged
- A list of the typical relevant currencies (see below)
- Cost Benefit Analysis - you can analyze the pros and cons of a course of action using one or more currencies
- Hidden Costs - taking a moment to think of costs in other currencies may be illuminating
- Diminishing Returns - benefits tend to trail off
- Arbitrage - in inefficient markets, repeated trades might get you somewhere
- Examples of tradeoffs (see below)
Here are some currencies that are often relevant in daily personal life:
- Money
- Time
- Energy / Willpower
- Affection / Goodwill
- Attention
- Knowledge
- Pleasure
- Rest
Examples of potentially beneficial tradeoffs:
- Rearranging commutes or other regular time commitments
- Improving reading or typing speed; switching to audio books
- Using earplugs, eye masks, and white noise to improve sleep quality
- Regular re-evaluations of job, career, salary, project, team role, etc.
- Efficiency systems like keyboard shortcuts, email routines, & to-do lists
- “Batching” small recurring tasks to avoid switching costs
- Making one-time purchases (including “purchases” of time, energy, or social effort) that remove or reduce the cost of a repeated expense
- Using Craigslist, Uber/Lyft, Ebay, OKCupid/match.com, mailing lists, and event calendars
Upward links:
- Systematization
Related somehow (from the intro):
- supply and demand
- Pareto curves
- value of information
- sunk cost fallacy
