From: Dan Fabulich (daniel.fabulich@yale.edu)
Date: Wed Dec 22 1999 - 15:41:49 MST
'What is your name?' 'Lee Daniel Crocker.' 'Do you deny having written
the following?':
> This is an interesting psychological phenomenon I've always wondered
> about: why is it that we often value something that is labor-inefficient
> more than the equal or superior-quality item that isn't? To value
> "real" Hendrix over a quality imitation is just snobbery, as is valuing
> a real Rembrandt over an equal-quality forgery. Screwtops make better
> wine, but no self-respecting eonophile would be caught dead admitting
> that fact. I personally would never use a clip-on tie. Why?
In almost all such cases, you'll find that the items under consideration
are status symbols. The fact that they cost more, are hard to make, and
are, generally, wasteful, is an indicator to others that you are wealthy
enough to be able to waste it extravagantly. In other cases, the product
demonstrates that you are more knowledgeable or better connected; again,
symbols of status. If there was an automatic perect tie-tier, we might
see ties vanish from the face of business. (But, then, they're also
traditional.)
Pick up Pinker's "How the Mind Works;" the second half of the book is
really great material. The first half is,too, but it's barely related to
the second half, and I'd already heard just about everything the first
half had to tell me.
-Dan
-unless you love someone-
-nothing else makes any sense-
e.e. cummings
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