The Value of Delight

I recently stumbled upon Ali Abdaal’s newsletter where he wrote about a concept named the ‘Value of Delight’.

The Value of Delight is a concept where you spend money on stuff that provides more ‘delight’ than another similar product and if it encourages us to do more positive things using that product.

This is under the Utilitarianism principle of living where you do things which make you happy in life.

For example, if you want to spend more time writing a blog on the internet you might want to invest $50 in a keyboard that you find comfortable to use. I invested $30 in a Logitech K380 keyboard (You can check my review of it here) as I wanted to use my monitor as my main display instead of it being a secondary display when using my laptop and that investment has already added so much value to my life as it encouraged me to write more using my computer.

A few years ago, I would think twice before buying apps and books that cost £3-10. I would think ‘ahhh do I really need this’ and ‘I’m sure I can find a free pirated version if I look hard enough’. Later that day I’d blow the same amount of money on a Starbucks or a random takeaway that I really could’ve done without. My stance has now changed completely – I view (useful) apps and books as investments with a potentially huge return, and I think my life has improved as a result.

Paragraph from Ali’s newsletter:

However, you might not want to invest a hundred grand on Samsung 98inch Ultra HD Smart QLED TV as that only encourages you to spend more time consuming entertainment media and wasting the time which you could have otherwise spent more productively on things such as finishing your homework or that essay given out 3 months ago that you still haven’t done yet.

So, hopefully you have learnt this idea of the Value of Delight.

Stay Epic,

Sharvenium