What is the cost of convenience?
By Rajesh Setty on Sat 15 Oct 2005, 10:08 PM – 2 Comments
Most of the time when you purchase something for your convenience you
pay twice. Once to purchase it and once when you make use of that
convenience. Typically, the first cost is measured and the second one
is ignored.
Take 24/7 email access for example. You can get it using blackberry and the costs are typically:
Cost of the unit: $X
Service fee: $Y per month.
Total: $X + ($Y times the number of months)
Actually, there is another cost which I think is easily ignored. Every
time you are playing with your son or daughter and in the middle of the
play, you take some time out to check your emails and probably respond
back to one or two of them, it costs. It’s just that your son or
daughter is paying for it!
- Convenience at a cost
- Can you assign seat numbers for standing?
- The cost of blindly copying someone…
- Is it just convenience or is your thinking outsourced?
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2 Comments so far, Add Yours
Anonymous on October 17th, 2005
Thanks Krishna.
I should also add “peer pressure” and the need to not be “left out” from the race.
I briefly used Instant Messengers but could not handle the interruption. I have friends who can’t live without IM and some like me who have totally NOT interested in IM.
As you can imagine, my views are biased and I rarely like anything that interrupts creative thinking. I am sure there are others who are perfectly fine with these and have no trouble with all these gadgets and tools.
Have a great week ahead.
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Anonymous on October 16th, 2005
Out of the Box Thinking. The additional cost paid by the Family is much higher that all other cost combined.
I guess with the Blackberry, it’s more of an addiction more than anything else. Not every one is addicted, i know few who are.
Rajesh, I wondering have you come across people who are addicted to Instant Messaging, Emails on the Go.