0:00:00 - 0:00:20 Ok. So I gotta do a warm up for my workout and I figured instead of walking on the treadmill, it's a nice morning. I have some thoughts, so I'll just record my thoughts and I'm gonna do my workout as walking. So forgive me. If I'm out of breath, I'm gonna try to look a little fast here. Let's get those 0:00:19 - 0:00:45 old man ligaments warmed up. So, um, Papa John's, I don't know if they still have this, but they used to have a slogan, better ingredients, better pizza. And, um, it's a funny thing because, you know, somebody got paid to come up with that and it just kind of makes sense. Right. Um, so I think if you 0:00:44 - 0:01:11 , if you just swap out the word inputs for ingredients, make it more general and outputs for pizza, better ingredients, better inputs, make better outputs. Ok. Well, that principle is true generally, but it's not true universally. But let's, let's just pause on the things. It is true for most things 0:01:11 - 0:01:34 . Most things, if you put better things in, you'll get better things out. So, um, if you think more about what you're doing, you'll probably make better decisions if you learn how to think better, you'll probably make better decisions. If you, um, invest a little extra money in whatever it is you're 0:01:34 - 0:02:01 doing, you'll probably get something out. That's a little better. Right? Ok. Um, what, when is this not true? Uh When is this? Not true? It's not true when you pay too much, when the cost of something exceeds the benefit. So I saw a picture of a chef not too long ago and you may not know that Brussels 0:02:01 - 0:02:24 sprouts do not come in a bag in nature. They come on a stalk and uh in my case, it's always a stalk covered with aphids and that's why I don't bother to grow them. Plus we have a growing season that's too short. So, um in this picture of the chef, uh he had Brussels sprouts and he's cutting them off 0:02:24 - 0:02:43 a stem. And immediately I could see this guy going to like a fancy farmer's market and all these stocks are laid out in a way that is horribly inefficient space wise, but is very aesthetically pleasing. Now, the funny thing about that sort of thing and this guy cutting the Brussels sprouts off the stalks 0:02:42 - 0:03:01 , I'm willing to bet any sum of money that you could not scour the earth and find anyone doesn't matter how much of a foodie they might be, who could tell the difference between Brussels sprouts cut off a stalk at the point of or at the time of cooking in Brussels sprouts come out of a bag and cost way 0:03:01 - 0:03:25 less money. So, um why the heck do people pay for, pay extra for things that have no benefit? That's a really good question. And it's not just the chefs in the stock photos who are committing the crime. Uh It's a really widespread issue. So that's a problem is paying more than you should for something 0:03:24 - 0:03:48 . So that's all over the scriptures, right? Um What about not paying enough for something? So when you skimp on the inputs, when does it really hurt you? And, and what are some keys to avoiding that? So the the key to avoiding paying too much for something is to think about why you're doing it, think 0:03:48 - 0:04:08 about the expected benefit, think about the odds that it's going to turn out that way. And when you combine those, you get something called an expected value. So do we have any reason to believe that Brussels sprouts right off the stalk taste any different once cooked than Brussels sprouts out of a bag 0:04:07 - 0:04:30 ? No, we do not. In fact, the ones in the bag might be fresher because they'd probably pump some kind of gas in there that prevents or slows decay. So in that case, it's actually even better to buy the thing that has a lower cost, right? And those examples are bound, those examples are bound. Ok. So 0:04:30 - 0:04:53 what about, what about um not paying enough? Well, this one's fun. If what you're after is actually valuable, you need to have a really good reason to believe that you're getting some kind of deal on it. Um, because you shouldn't believe it without a good reason. So you shouldn't believe anything without 0:04:52 - 0:05:19 a good reason. But the barrier of belief ought to be high from the get go. So, here's a, for example, young person looking for a vehicle, it happens to find a really convenient option in a local person selling the vehicle. Um, and it's like the first place he looked and the price seems very reasonable 0:05:18 - 0:05:41 . Ok. What are the red flags in this situation? Well, a car is actually a really big deal as far as the purchases. You, you make a house matters a lot is really expensive. It's probably the most expensive thing you'll ever buy. And then what's next? Maybe career preparation if you're paying for that 0:05:40 - 0:06:07 . But these days that's not very smart. And then next is going to be a vehicle. So if you are expecting something to be very high value and really important, you should not expect it to drop in your lap. The other thing is if it does, if it's very convenient and easy and inexpensive or any one of those 0:06:06 - 0:06:29 things, the question becomes, why hasn't someone else snatched it up or done the same thing? Now, if you have 20 people, the car example doesn't work here. Well, let's, let's go with that if this person's a dealer and they have this track record of selling discount cars that are these secret deals and 0:06:29 - 0:06:46 the cars run forever and everyone's happy and then it's actually their brand, it's their marketing that says come to us because we're the only ones that won't rip you off. You know, we treat you like family, whatever. We don't actually make any money. We have to make it up in volume because we only make 0:06:46 - 0:07:12 1/10 of the profit of the normal dealer or whatever. Then all of a sudden that's credible. But if it's just like mechanic Joe Bob with his, you know, I rebuilt this engine and I promise it's really good. Yeah. Right. Ok. Um, so this is not theoretical and when the guy bought the car and predictably the 0:07:12 - 0:07:37 engine blew up, um, he's facing a bill now to get a new engine in the truck and it's gonna cost as much as the truck did. So, how much money are you saving now? Right. So a lot of times in life you get what you pay for. And so if something's important don't concern yourself so much, um, in getting something 0:07:37 - 0:08:03 you don't deserve, concern yourself and whether it's actually worth it to pay the price that's required to get what you need, what you're looking for, what you seek. So I'll give you a counterexample to that truck example, which is when uh my family moved to Montana and uh, I started working as a professor 0:08:02 - 0:08:35 . I was, I was shocked by how low the offer was. I was, I was very shocked because it was absurdly low and there were alternate factors in it wasn't monetary, primarily not the offer, but the, the decision to take the job. So long story short, we were quickly in a position where a growing fa family didn't 0:08:35 - 0:09:01 fit in our dumpy vehicle that, uh, did what it needed to do while we're in an even worse economic situation. And we knew we needed a deal because it's all we could afford. But we also need a reliable vehicle. So we knew from past experience, which I credit my wife for this one because she's the one that 0:09:01 - 0:09:23 figured that one out back in the day with a prior vehicle, we knew our only hope was finding someone that had extenuating circumstances and that they had some other need where they had to dump a vehicle that was actually probably worth more. Now, we didn't want to rip anybody off. So, um, maybe they're 0:09:23 - 0:09:56 in a time constraint or whatever and, and it's just other people would not be available to buy the car. So it was still a win win because otherwise they couldn't sell it. So we found a person who was at least three hours away from here just far away. And, um, the vehicle was a rebuilt title which spooks 0:09:55 - 0:10:19 almost everyone, but the guy had purchased it at an auto auction and he was a mechanic and he fixed it up because it was basically brand new when he bought it. And it had been hit in the side and he had pictures of the car, how it looked when it's damaged and they had totaled it, but there was no frame 0:10:18 - 0:10:43 damage. It's just the two doors were bent in or one door. And so he fixed it all up himself and he used it as his own car for several years. He didn't drive that much. So it was a truck with super low miles. It was a big SUV, with super low miles. That was an older model. So the blue book was low because 0:10:43 - 0:11:04 it was old and, um, he had cared for this thing. So it's always a good sign when you go to buy a car from a private party and they say, hey, I have all the oil filters and oil for this thing because I bought it, you know, to do the maintenance on it for the next couple of cycles. Uh, do you want that 0:11:04 - 0:11:22 too? Because, you know, those are specific for the vehicle, not the oil all the time, but, you know, the filters. So that's a bonus and if they have a maintenance record even better. So when someone like that buys something to care for it, they're caring for it as if it's for themselves. And if they're 0:11:22 - 0:11:39 the kinds of people that take care of their, their people and their things, which you can tell by just looking around. Right? If they live in a junkyard of the house and, you know, there's garbage all over the place and there's cars rusting in their front yard falling apart, then it's probably not a 0:11:39 - 0:12:06 good place. So, um, the car worked great. It worked amazingly well for what we needed it for. So, um, that's the difference if you're looking for something that you know is valuable. So, so basically better ingredients, better pizza, right? If you want something that's worthwhile, figure out what it's 0:12:06 - 0:12:38 worth and expect to pay it and don't go after things that aren't worth what they cost. So that's, that's basically it and you avoid getting ripped off and um you also gain an appreciation for the worth of the experiences and things that you have or learn. Um So, so obviously, although everything I just 0:12:37 - 0:13:11 said applies to purchases like just temporal purchases, the vastly more important application is in how you 10, you, you choose to spend your um your resources for, for more important things, not just stuff. So food for thought cause I said better ingredients, better pizza. Uh All right, take care.