I believe I've mentioned here before what I call, The Sadness of the Optimizer.

This guy is a kindred spirit. I enjoyed this article. It allowed me to feel entertained, smug and superior without having to get my mind dirty with any of the important events of the world around me and it confirmed many of my biases. In short, an excellent article.

https://thepointmag.com/examined-life/the-enemy-of-the-good/

QuoteWhat I had learned was more valuable than how to get free flights. I had learned that getting free flights would involve learning how to optimize my use of credit cards and airlines and websites, and putting some amount of my limited capacity for analytic rigor to work in service of something I find fundamentally boring and unpleasant. This is what distinguishes me from Points Guy, and from the points guys in my life: optimization costs me joy.

It also includes this choice quote from Orwell's Reflections on Ghandi

QuoteNo doubt alcohol, tobacco and so forth are things that a saint must avoid, but sainthood is also a thing that human beings must avoid.

- https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/reflections-on-gandhi/

I like it. On a similar but slightly different note...

 As a society, I think we all know people who chase penny (cent) saving, and so miss the joy.

I have just had a quick 4-day escape to Val d'Isere. It's an expensive trip. So why niggle about the £9 beer? I say enjoy it, the sun's shining, it makes little difference to the cost of the holiday.

Life's too short for playing games, getting stuff for free, as we all know, nothing is ever free.

>> nothing is ever free

A friend advises, "Don't be cheap in the wrong places."

Over the years I've found out that I can do lots of things I hate doing. I've quit many and am in the process of quitting more.

Managing investments in the stock market was one of the early casualties.

I've stopped mowing the lawn.

>>  why niggle about the £9 beer?
>> "Don't be cheap in the wrong places."

A much younger friend reminded me a while back that 13 years ago when we met and he was in his early 20s, I told him I was rich. He said how so. I told him that I buy raspberries and blueberries whenever I want.

It was mostly, but not entirely, a joke. Those $7 little boxes of raspberries were NOT on my graduate student budget. Then I was poor and had no berries. Now I have berries, therefore I am rich.

Didn't think much of it until I listened to a few episodes of Ramit Sethi's podcast and was amazed at how many people with more than $5 million in the bank will not buy berries because they are too expensive.

I thought, "Am I just noticing it because of my old joke with Will?"

Then Ramit did a "What I learned after a year of interviewing couples" episode and one of the first things he said was, "What is it with rich people and berries?" The funny thing is that most of those people will willingly spend $32 for a mediocre pasta dish at an Italian restaurant, not to talk about things like owning more cars than they have drivers and so forth.

> quit

- Doing my own taxes
- working full time
- opening the rental in the winter

>> raspberries and blueberries whenever I want

I have to buy blueberries but we planted a raspberry patch a few years ago.

Now, I'm a slave to the raspberries for a few weeks in the summer, then I'm rich again when I take them out of the freezer.

I went picking wild blueberries <once> and now I'm both happy and respectful to pay for berries already picked.

>  rich again when I take them out of the freezer
 
That would be elderberries in our case. As for blueberries, one of the (few) things I miss about climbing in the northeast US is topping out on a pitch and finding a rich trove of blueberries. And eating them *before* putting your partner on belay. Friends are friends, but blueberries are blueberries.

Quote from: Rupert on March 02, 2026, 06:25:56 AMI have just had a quick 4-day escape to Val d'Isere. It's an expensive trip. So why niggle about the £9 beer? I say enjoy it, the sun's shining, it makes little difference to the cost of the holiday.

I hear you.  I bought the €9 beer last time in Val D'Isere, but only so I could forget the €11 coffee.  (Clearly didn't work)