Mostly a note to myself to stop being impractical.

It’s hard for me to enforce this rule on myself, because sometimes I really want to use the wrong tool.

For example, I bought a motorcycle, but it’s really not the right tool for my life. In New Jersey, there’s a lot of dangerous intersections. There’s a lot of SUVs with distracted drivers. Here, driving is a chore, and one that people don’t care to really do all that well. When other people slack off, it just increases the chance that I get hurt, which seems like a really bad trade-off. Furthermore, I’ve got to put on all the gear, and because I insist on wearing a clean pair of khakis and a dress shirt to work, means that I have to pack my change of clotes, and allocate more time in the morning and evening to take this stuff on and off. Lastly, if I visit a friend’s house, there’s a good chance that I’ll be dropping one of them off at their home, and I’ve found it very hard to market the motorcycle as a more convenient way of getting dropped off over using a sedan.

I love the motorcycle, but it’s the wrong tool for my environment, and what I do on a weekly basis. It hurts to say it, but a car is what lets me drive other people, and a bigger car is something that’s just going to make me safer on a road shared with 8000 pound SUVs.

And for another example (I believe my last example), it’s all these big speakers that I’ve been collecting. They’re great. They sound phenomenal. Headphones don’t feel like they’re in the space around you, and nothing replicates the feeling of a subwoofer literally shaking your chest. However, I live with other people, and that means that I’m just a nusiance to everyone else whenever I want to blast music or really get engrossed in a movie. (The movie bit requires me taking the living room, and it means that if I’m watching it, everybody is invited to see it, and everyone is forced to hear it.)

And so for these two big-ticket items, and for a lot of other smaller things, I’m constantly reminded that just because I love something doesn’t mean I should have it. Big speakers are really good, but they’re not the right tool for me.