I read this one: The Art and Science of Spending Money which was interesting, but I didn’t find myself agreeing with it much.

For myself I am quite sure that I don’t spend money in order to impress others. My discretionary spending is mostly directed toward my health, capacity, and growth.

On the health front I have a nootropics program which costs me about $4,500 per annum.

Under “capacity” are all my computers and electronics equipment, which give me a certain capacity to do particular kinds of work (the kinds of work I happen to be interested in).

And then growth is about information and learning, mostly books, but not only.

In my head things kinda work the reverse, and I worry “people are going to think I’m doing this to show off, but I’m really not, I just wanted to get an opinion…”.

Of course I am proud of things I have made such as my lab, and I enjoy showing them off, but I do so not to show you that *I’m* cool, but to show you *how cool my lab is*. If *you* have a cool lab, I would love to see it and bask in how cool it is with you.

Within my peer groups I’m somewhere in the middle between living in relative poverty and having extreme wealth, only the latter bringing me embarrassment.