I would definitely do this for USD $500/day. For one, I am convinced that it's in the realm of things that I (and most people) would get used to quickly enough for the unpleasant aspects to fade to tolerability or even pleasure. Also, I may have some minor masochistic tendencies... but not enough of them to do this for $100/day.
I don't believe absolutes such as "no amount of money" for things like this. Imagine a million dollars, or more. Even for people who have sufficient access to funds for their own direct use, that would represent a huge amount of leverage for helping other people, which I think most folks would eventually decide made the agony worth it. Of course, this potentially opens up the thought experiment to other things even less universally appealing than cold showers, but I'm not sure that actually discussing those possibilities would be sufficiently edifying or amusing for us. Jeremy P.S. Apologies for the previous empty mails... it looks like my mail client had been in a running broken state. > Clearly I cannot afford this but I still want to test the > longevity/sustainability of this decision - that USD 500 is enough. > > Can you convince yourself that you receive 500 dollars worth of > health, motivation and resilience benefits to withstand 180 seconds > of 12-15 centigrade water every. Single. Day. for a week? > > My assumption is that you’ll decide it isn’t worth it, even for USD > 500. > > My motivation for cold showers (6 months of pure agony, I’ll add) is > twofold and deeply personal -watching my father die -cancer- and be > miserable about being cold, and my own mental health benefits > enormously from it (it is the hardest thing I can do in a day, > everything else is a piece of cake). But no amount of money would > incentivise me to do this. > > Huda Masood > +91 9886796967 > > > On Fri, 26 Jan 2024 at 02:37, Charles Haynes > <[email protected]> wrote: > > I would do the shower thing for somewhere between USD$100 and > > USD$500 per day. ($100 is probably not enough, $500 definitely is.) > > > > One learning about money is that looking at investments daily makes > > me unhappy and that for me the "asymmetry of happiness" is real - > > that losing $100 makes me more unhappy than winning $100 would (and > > it's not just about the non-linearity of the value of money, but it > > may be an endowment effect). So in circumstances where good and bad > > things are both likely to happen relatively frequently I try to > > "smooth out" the frequency by checking less often. > > > > On Fri, 26 Jan 2024 at 07:52, Huda Masood via Silklist > > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Tell me then, in what other areas of your life have you applied > > > the new learnings with money? > > > > > > I find the human relationship with money extraordinarily > > > interesting. My current social experiment is asking how much > > > could I pay them to take a 3 minute cold shower every day, for a > > > whole year. No hot water before or after. > > > > > > I’ve had no takers so far. Everyone wriggles out with some > > > condition or the other. No amount of money is incentive enough. > > > > > > But they’d happily do it if family was in danger or they could > > > work half time for the same pay. > > > > > > I find that very telling. > > > > > > Huda Masood > > > +91 9886796967 > > > > > > > > > On Thu, 25 Jan 2024 at 18:27, Christopher A Kantarjiev via > > > Silklist <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > On 1/24/24 10:16 PM, Udhay Shankar N via Silklist wrote: > > > > > > > > > Very interesting thought. The most thought-provoking part is > > > > "changing > > > > > your mental model" which resonated with me, because the > > > > mental model > > > > > which causes this to be an issue in the first place is "Am I > > > > being taken > > > > > advantage of?" (which is completely different from "Can I > > > > afford this?" > > > > > which requires a separate thread, I think.) > > > > > > > > Yes ... I grew up in a household where my father tracked every > > > > penny of > > > > expenses and basically invented a double-entry bookkeeping > > > > system so he > > > > could resolve his cash accounts Sunday night. I guess it was > > > > "fun" for > > > > him, but hell for everyone else when he wandered the house > > > > saying "where > > > > did I spent twelve cents?". > > > > > > > > It came both from a history of not having enough (he lived > > > > through WWII > > > > in Germany) and a fear of being taken advantage of ... which I, > > > > somewhat > > > > unfortunately, inherited. > > > > > > > > Those two things were very intertwined in my attitude towards > > > > money, and > > > > this experience was a big step in learning to let go of them. > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > > Silklist mailing list > > > > [email protected] > > > > https://mailman.panix.com/listinfo.cgi/silklist
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