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Maybe you’re not trying

(usefulfictions.substack.com)
448 points eatitraw | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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nicbou ◴[] No.45945150[source]
Great post!

I find that this happens when I want to do something The Right Way, but don’t have a clear path, nor the energy to figure one out.

For example I want a nice winter wardrobe, but first I have to figure out what I like, what is trendy, where to buy it, what will suit the weather. I am wholly unprepared for it. Suddenly it’s a whole ordeal, so I just wait.

In another category - art - I had to learn to be okay with suboptimal outcomes. Each attempt teaches you something, so to make good art, you have to make a lot of bad art first. Paper is cheap and making bad art is fun once you move past perfectionism.

Socialising is the same. You get better at it through practice. Practice is fun, it makes you do fun things and meet fun people.

With “shopping problems”, you are stuck with your bad purchases, your suboptimal wardrobe. Each iteration is expensive in time and money. So you try to get it right the first time. Cue weeks of research for something that is ultimately not that important. The worst is shopping problems that have an element of taste.

If someone knows a way to deal with this, I am listening.

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1. sn ◴[] No.45945430[source]
With clothes, make it cheap so if you make the wrong decision it's not a big deal.

Also recognize you're engaging in the sunk cost fallacy by keeping clothes you don't actually want, and you're making the world better by allowing it to go to an owner who would better appreciate it.

Some more concrete ideas:

1. thrift stores

2. clothes rentals

3. clothing swaps

4. Buy the cheap version of what you think you might like (if it exists) first before buying the expensive version

5. Don't make your entire wardrobe trendy clothes. Make most of it relatively classic / basic and limit "trendy" to a subset of items.