I feel like the mindset of this post comes from a bygone era, when people actually spent a large portion of their income on consumer goods. These days people spend most of their money on housing, food, taxes, health care, travel, and education; none of those categories are really amenable to the type of analysis you are suggesting.
As to food, health care, travel and education, the type of analysis still works, it’s the amount of parameters that differs. And maybe the frequency of having to analyse.
I would suggest that when buying rutabagas in a village you should be much more concerned with interpersonal and social factors, and much less with whether you can rent or timeshare a rutabaga, or, say, with its power options and repair costs.
So? Assign zeroes to these points in some kind of score you keep when reading the list, or embrace the metaphor (can I rent or timeshare a rutabaga? That is, I have some rutabagas this week because my mom is coming to visit and she loves this mysterious vegetable, and than next week I give some rutabaga seed or whatever to the kindly farmer, or maybe just show the rutabaga to my mom and boast, in passing, of my gardening skills and then return it to the kindly farmer on the quiet side… Or, what are the rutabaga’s power options and repair costs—that is, does cultivating them enrich the soil or deplete it, and how long can one grow them in the same spot, and do they get hit with weird parasites that would mess with my glorious potatoes and I will end up spending money and time trying to set things right -)
(Also, I don’t feel like this is a productive discussion to have:(, since if you consider just one place where you buy rutabagas, it is strictly a subset of you considering n places, for which Elo’s list totally applies.)
I don’t feel like this is a productive discussion to have
It’s not particularly productive for rutabaga-buying purposes. It might be productive for thinking about what matters and what doesn’t. Matching the effort to the expected change in outcome, y’know...
Housing is something that a lot of these apply to.
Food is a more disposable thing and will fall under $20 often so be not worth the time; but sometimes it will be worth the time.
health care can be shopped around for, and you can find experts in the area and information online.
Travel certainly can be shopped around for.
Education is not a physical product; so many of these concepts do not apply (i.e. heavy/light), there are still several of these that do apply though.
I feel like the mindset of this post comes from a bygone era, when people actually spent a large portion of their income on consumer goods. These days people spend most of their money on housing, food, taxes, health care, travel, and education; none of those categories are really amenable to the type of analysis you are suggesting.
As to food, health care, travel and education, the type of analysis still works, it’s the amount of parameters that differs. And maybe the frequency of having to analyse.
A full application of this checklist to buying rutabagas at a farmers’ market would be awesome X-D
It would be fun to write the rutabagas evaluation; but it also feels like a waste of time; especially for a <$20 purchase in this case.
Oh, I believe a full-blown evaluation of a rutabaga purchase by this methodology would have great value.
You’d be surprised how… involved buying things from people living in the same village can be. ‘Machiavellian’ is one word for it.
Or are you, perchance, a city dweller for whom rutabagas are not really important?
And would Elo’s checklist help?
Partly, yes. To preserve one’s sanity.
I would suggest that when buying rutabagas in a village you should be much more concerned with interpersonal and social factors, and much less with whether you can rent or timeshare a rutabaga, or, say, with its power options and repair costs.
So? Assign zeroes to these points in some kind of score you keep when reading the list, or embrace the metaphor (can I rent or timeshare a rutabaga? That is, I have some rutabagas this week because my mom is coming to visit and she loves this mysterious vegetable, and than next week I give some rutabaga seed or whatever to the kindly farmer, or maybe just show the rutabaga to my mom and boast, in passing, of my gardening skills and then return it to the kindly farmer on the quiet side… Or, what are the rutabaga’s power options and repair costs—that is, does cultivating them enrich the soil or deplete it, and how long can one grow them in the same spot, and do they get hit with weird parasites that would mess with my glorious potatoes and I will end up spending money and time trying to set things right -)
(Also, I don’t feel like this is a productive discussion to have:(, since if you consider just one place where you buy rutabagas, it is strictly a subset of you considering n places, for which Elo’s list totally applies.)
Do note where we started :-D
It’s not particularly productive for rutabaga-buying purposes. It might be productive for thinking about what matters and what doesn’t. Matching the effort to the expected change in outcome, y’know...
Housing is something that a lot of these apply to.
Food is a more disposable thing and will fall under $20 often so be not worth the time; but sometimes it will be worth the time.
health care can be shopped around for, and you can find experts in the area and information online.
Travel certainly can be shopped around for.
Education is not a physical product; so many of these concepts do not apply (i.e. heavy/light), there are still several of these that do apply though.