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Showing posts with the label Yuval Noah Harari

Just my thoughts #0627

The relativity of values causes us to use money irrationally. I go to the supermarket to buy a $15 pen, and the clerk smiles and says, “You can buy this pen for $7 if you walk 5 minutes from here.” Then, most people walk five minutes and buy a $15 pen for $7. But if you want to buy a $1,000 jacket and the clerk smiles and says, “You can get a $992 jacket in five minutes from here,” most people simply buy the $1,000 jacket. Reasonably, walking for 5 minutes equals the effort, and the profit of $8 is the same. However, people might go to a store that sells pens cheaper, but not for the jacket, because the discount rate is too low. In other words, the relativity of comparing values makes us act irrationally. The pen’s discount rate is 55%, and the jacket’s is only 0.8%. Yet, the total amount is the same for all $8, and the effort to gain that profit is identical. Attitudes and misconceptions about consumption influence how we build wealth. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Just my thoughts #0023

History professor Yuval Noah Harari said, "The most distinguishing feature between humans and other animals is the ability to believe not exist imagination." If you eat a banana exchanged with a bill from the chimpanzee, then the chimpanzee must be angry with you. The bill is just a thing to believe non-existent imagination each other in the human world, it's never important and meaningful for the chimpanzee. Unless the belief is to exchange the value, the money is just paper. This belief makes our social community. - Joseph's "just my thoughts"