Value and Happiness
I’ve been thinking about finding joy, specifically in things that give people happiness while their actual value stays the same. Perceived value will differ amongst people, but what are things that are a constant for someone with more money, status, and position of power, and inversely with someone with less of those things?
Some examples came to mind: listening to a really good song, a can of soda, walks in nature, reading a book, being nice to others, running, and more. I listed a can of soda because it’s relatively affordable and even if you’re a celebrity to not, it’s pretty enjoyable to drink a cold can of soda. You could argue that not everyone can afford it, so please substitute it with tea or water. Point is, that its actual value stays the same regardless of who’s buying it, but it still delivers a moment of happiness.
In a world where we fight tooth and nail to purchase new and more expensive things, we shouldn’t forget about the little things that brings us just as much joy. I know a friend named Pete, and when he was growing up, he didn’t have much. Pete was very determined and worked his way up to be a well-payed engineer with the power to purchase anything he wanted. True to his word, he bought things and cited they were all long-term items. He came to find out that purchasing things didn’t make him THAT much happier. There was always something more “valuable” or expensive to chase.
The moral of the story isn’t to not chase material objects, it’s to find things that deliver consistent happiness. What I didn’t tell you about Pete was while he was spending money on big-ticket items, He mostly spent his time writing code on free open-source applications. He loved to create programs and when he found out there were many free sources — I’d never seen a man happier. He’d try to convince me to code with him, but my passions lay with just reading books and exercising.
After a close examination of my own life, it was certain that there are only so many things that bring as much joy as programming did for Pete. The good news, is they’re mostly inexpensive or free. Sometimes I can’t believe applications like youtube are free because the amount of value I get from them is unquantifiable.
Another one of my joys is finding more things that have constant pricing costs regardless of who you are. There was a restaurant in Vietnam with the best Vietnamese baguette sandwiches aka Banh Mi, and thousands of people would flock to it every single day. I saw politicians, business people, tourists, and locals all line up just to have a taste of this one-dollar piece of heaven. With such demand, they could easily charge triple the price, but they don’t. Such things are rare to find but I’ll always remember the look on people’s faces when they had their first bite and their reaction of pure bliss.
I’d encourage more people to find such areas in their life where the perceived value of something is exponentially higher than what it’s priced and then share it with the people they love. A happy person is good, but if we can be more happy people in this world, even if it’s temporary, then it’s worth looking for these treasures.
Until next week,
Scott
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