It rarely matters when everything works perfectly.

But the moment something goes wrong, good customer service can suddenly become part of the product you're paying for.

I've been thinking lately about how much money people spend just for a brand name. Have you ever bought or encountered a high-end product or premium service that turned out to be absolute garbage? What was it, and what made it a total letdown?

When you already have ten similar products, it's hard to know whether the next one will genuinely improve anything.

But when you focus on owning things you actually use, every new purchase has to earn its place.

Not in a minimalist “never buy anything” way. Just being more honest about whether something solves a real problem or simply gives you the temporary excitement of buying something new.

A product can have twice as many features and still be worse for your needs.

More settings can mean more complexity. More functions can mean things you never use. Sometimes the simpler product is actually the better-designed one because it does exactly what you need without asking you to learn twenty unnecessary features.

What's a product category where simpler is usually better?

Those extra features looked important in the comparison table though. 😭

It's easy to imagine the version of yourself who will use something every day.

The person who starts cooking elaborate meals, goes camping every weekend, reads constantly, works out without missing a day, or finally becomes extremely organized.

But you're buying for the person you are right now.

Sometimes that's the difference between a useful purchase and an expensive object collecting dust.