major capital investments
Feb. 3rd, 2003 01:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chhotiiRecall that I was musing on the idea of maybe, someday, getting a new washing machine? Well, I got A Sign that this would be a good idea. Said Sign manifested itself in the form of some strange noises in the laundry nook, the smell of burnt-out machinery, and a lump of sodden wet clothing.
Went to Sears to stare at the front-loaders and work through my feelings about buying one. Having a salesguy hover over me did not help me sort out my feeling on this point. Whenever a salesperson hovers around, making encouraging noises, I start thinking about their commission and get really suspicious that they're trying to manipulate me, and my defenses go up against the idea of buying anything. Especially not what they want to sell me. But without the salesguy, you don't have any information other than what you can glean from staring at the machines. (I wish I could buy everything at REI; REI prints up sheets with comparison charts listing all aspects of all the products in a category and explanations of the significance of the various non-obvious features, so you can compare products without interacting with a salesguy.)
Went home, having bought a pretzel and a DVD but no major appliances, all tied up in knots inside with questions and doubts. How much should it be worth to me that this one spins 30% faster than that one? Would the super-hot or tap-cold settings be helpful? Am I being a sucker to fall for the push-button control panel? Should I go shop at Home Depot instead? etc., etc., etc.
I just get all wretched and miserable whenever I have to make a major purchasing decision. I absolutely agonize over every aspect of the decision. It took me months of agonizing to get a new tape drive for the lab. Looking back, 90% of that churning was probably unnecessary. The tape drive I chose has been... okay. It worked right of the box; it has adequate capacity such that we only use one new tape a month; we've had some crashes and bad backups, but this seems to be all the fault of bugs in the backup software or the bone-headed configuration I was using at first. The media is a little expensive, and we won't know until it happens if the company that makes the drives and the tape ever goes out of business and leaves us high and dry. Could I have found an equally reliable solution that would cost less for the tape? Maybe. Enough less that it would have justified the expenditure of my time to find it? Probably not. Could I have ever found, with any amount of research, the crystal ball that would show me the future of this tape technology? Certainly not. But is it reasonable to go ahead and buy into something without seeing the future? Must be; people do it all the time. Hardware gets bought, life goes on.
The day after the first Sears trip, I reflected on how ineffectual this pattern of getting really rat-holed by every purchasing decision is. Considered how to address this. Hmmm, I could have a long talk with my therapist about this commitment phobia that appears when I look at appliances and things... or, I could just buy a washing machine!
Resolved that, whereas, I. getting a new washing machine would be a major quality-of-life enhancement; and II. there are probably no absolutely "wrong" picks among the 4 or 5 choices offered by Sears in the front-loading washing machine category; therefore I would just be brave, dive in, and buy one.
It's coming in a week. It's going to be sooooooo cool.
Went to Sears to stare at the front-loaders and work through my feelings about buying one. Having a salesguy hover over me did not help me sort out my feeling on this point. Whenever a salesperson hovers around, making encouraging noises, I start thinking about their commission and get really suspicious that they're trying to manipulate me, and my defenses go up against the idea of buying anything. Especially not what they want to sell me. But without the salesguy, you don't have any information other than what you can glean from staring at the machines. (I wish I could buy everything at REI; REI prints up sheets with comparison charts listing all aspects of all the products in a category and explanations of the significance of the various non-obvious features, so you can compare products without interacting with a salesguy.)
Went home, having bought a pretzel and a DVD but no major appliances, all tied up in knots inside with questions and doubts. How much should it be worth to me that this one spins 30% faster than that one? Would the super-hot or tap-cold settings be helpful? Am I being a sucker to fall for the push-button control panel? Should I go shop at Home Depot instead? etc., etc., etc.
I just get all wretched and miserable whenever I have to make a major purchasing decision. I absolutely agonize over every aspect of the decision. It took me months of agonizing to get a new tape drive for the lab. Looking back, 90% of that churning was probably unnecessary. The tape drive I chose has been... okay. It worked right of the box; it has adequate capacity such that we only use one new tape a month; we've had some crashes and bad backups, but this seems to be all the fault of bugs in the backup software or the bone-headed configuration I was using at first. The media is a little expensive, and we won't know until it happens if the company that makes the drives and the tape ever goes out of business and leaves us high and dry. Could I have found an equally reliable solution that would cost less for the tape? Maybe. Enough less that it would have justified the expenditure of my time to find it? Probably not. Could I have ever found, with any amount of research, the crystal ball that would show me the future of this tape technology? Certainly not. But is it reasonable to go ahead and buy into something without seeing the future? Must be; people do it all the time. Hardware gets bought, life goes on.
The day after the first Sears trip, I reflected on how ineffectual this pattern of getting really rat-holed by every purchasing decision is. Considered how to address this. Hmmm, I could have a long talk with my therapist about this commitment phobia that appears when I look at appliances and things... or, I could just buy a washing machine!
Resolved that, whereas, I. getting a new washing machine would be a major quality-of-life enhancement; and II. there are probably no absolutely "wrong" picks among the 4 or 5 choices offered by Sears in the front-loading washing machine category; therefore I would just be brave, dive in, and buy one.
It's coming in a week. It's going to be sooooooo cool.
