Why I Don't Shop At Thrift Stores

This was originally published in my free weekly newsletter, How It Actually Works.

I went to a thrift store today because – this is important in a meta way – I’m going to Burning Man for the 1st time next week. I needed to buy some crazy but cheap clothes.

Now, why do I feel a strong urge to tell you why I had to enter a thrift store?

(God knows it’s not because I wanted to tell you about Burning Man. Being a cliche causes me physical pain.)

It’s an easy answer: because Successful People don’t shop in thrift stores, and I want to be a Successful Person.

If the people I want to be like don’t go in there what does it say about me if I do?

Flipped a Switch

But what if instead of seeing myself as an Aspiring Successful Person my identify were Bargain Hunter?

With the flip of a switch in my brain now I’m driving around town looking for discounts, and I’m proud of the amazing deals I find on the racks. Discovering a new product at a steep discount gives me a rush and genuinely makes me feel good.

Even though what I’m physically doing – buying used clothes in an undecorated commercial building – is identical, how I feel is totally different.

What’s amazing to me about this little exercise is that nothing in the real world has actually changed. You don’t have more or less money, you don’t own more or fewer things, you live in the same place & have the same relationships & eat the same food.

Everything is identical except your perception of yourself.

The Links

Hacker News Comment (news.ycombinator.com, comment)

(Read the first 2 paragraphs)

Context: Y Combinator, the Harvard of tech accelerators, accidentally sent acceptance emails to all 15,000 applicants. They had to go back and tell most of them of them it was a mistake.

Some people were upset at the mistake, but this commenter (who was one of the people accepted and then later rejected) had the best take IMO.

If the acceptance letter made you feel validated and unstoppable, but now you’ve discovered that was a mistake, what has actually changed?

This Is Water (youtube, audio only)

The famous commencement speech by David Foster Wallace. I listened to it again this week, still amazing.

The One Rule For Life (markmanson.net, article)

A highly enjoyable reading of Immanuel Kant’s Formula for Humanity

This was originally published in my weekly newsletter, How It Actually Works.