Xingxin on Bug I was kidnapped by deprival-super reaction tendency. Even though I’ve learned it from Charlie Munger, I was ambushed anyway.
CitePoor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger
I include the natural human reactions to both kinds of loss experience-the loss of the possessed reward and the loss of the almost-possessed reward-under one description, Deprival-Super Reaction Tendency.
^4db68f
Here’s how it happened. I needed a photo for my US visa application, so I booked an appointment at a local photo shop. The price was steep, 180 RMB for a single profile picture, but I shrugged it off as the cost of bureaucracy. Oh, in the meantime, they are crazily good at the makeup, feeding the vanity of seeing myself look good.
The photographer snapped a few shots, and then said, “Hey, why don’t you put your glasses on, and we can take several lifestyle photo”? Without too much thought, I did it. When the shooting was done, he showed me all the results. I saw 2 images side by side: the stiff, formal visa photo and a candid shot of me smiling. It was a good photo. Not great, but good. Then came the pitch: “If you want the lifestyle photo, it requires an extra 90 RMB”.
Man, I didn’t ask for this photo and I didn’t need it at all. But now I’d seen it, the thought of not having it felt like a loss. Especially when I imagined getting bald in the future, I might not look good as I do now. What if I regret not keeping it? That moment, that smile, will be gone, rotting in the bin of the folder, disintegrating into binary ghost.
CiteOn Photography
To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt.
The deprival-super reaction tendency had me in its grip! And so, I paid.
It’s funny how easily we can be manipulated by the mere possibility of losing something we never intended to possess. The photographer knew exactly what he was doing. By dragging the photo to the bin, he created a series of near misses. It’s just like a slot machine spitting out a lot of meaningless 🍋🍋🪙. That’s exactly the power of the deprival-super reaction tendency.
The lesson? Be aware of anyone who tries to sell you something by making you feel like you’re about to lose it. Or better yet, identify the sneaky move and stop the irregular process before it starts.