Oct 2, 2024–Do you know anyone who shies away from going to parties and public events? Maybe you consider them to be aloof or distant. They seem not to be interested in spending time with anyone. They forsake parties, avoid luncheons, never go to movies or backyard barbecues. Don’t think of asking them to spend a weekend camping.
Many considered this aberrant behavior. But while listening to a podcast this week I learned, when considered in economic terms, such a social life is completely logical and rational.
According to Stephen J. Dubner, host of Freakonomics, this is merely the behavior of an individual who has figured out the Opportunity Cost of every choice.
Dubner was a guest on a puzzle podcast, and started the show awkwardly by declaring he didn’t like to spend time doing puzzles. When the host asked for clarification, Dubner explained that life is a series of choices you are constantly making.
“When I was a young lad,” he said, “I learned the notion of Opportunity Cost, one of the essentials in economics. I was quite taken with it. It says that for every hour or dollar or brain cell you spend on one thing, it is an hour or dollar or brain cell you can’t spend on something else.”
One source points out that “opportunity costs are not restricted to monetary or financial costs: the real cost of output forgone, lost time, pleasure, or any other benefit that provides utility should also be considered an opportunity cost.”
Dubner cited a maxim in acting, in that “your choice is your talent.” He went on to admit he wastes a lot of time in life, like everyone, but one way he has chosen not to waste time is doing puzzles.
Whether you agree or not that doing puzzles is a waste of time, this perspective explains some behaviors.
Opportunity Cost is a very real factor in that every moment you spend doing one thing, keeps you from doing everything else. The largest and most unforgiving limiting factor in our lives is not money, talent, or ambition–it is time. The moment you are born, the grains of sand start spilling through the hourglass.
Once you become self aware enough to control and plan how you spend your time, you learn about Opportunity Costs. If you go to Jan’s party, you can’t go to Jane’s party at the same time. If it’s Friday and you have a term paper due on Monday, you painfully learn you can’t spend your weekend playing video games.
On the other hand, Opportunity Cost is subjective. Mixing with peers is a part of growing up. Looking back on our youthful indiscretions, we all wasted cumulative years partying, dancing, listening to bands, and just hanging out. At the time, we didn’t think of it as wasting time. Rather, it was an opportunity to learn who we were, what we liked, and how to relate to our peers. Perhaps we selected our mates during those rituals. But most of us realize there is no benefit, economic or personal, to continue going to the disco into our own middle ages.
Sticking with the social theme, when someone requests your presence at any function, you must weigh the Opportunity Cost of attending. Would those two hours have a better return on investment if you used them working on finishing your novel? Or, instead, might you meet someone who could be the protagonist and create a new story arc? Or maybe even you will meet a book publisher looking for an author who is expert on writing drivel about trivial subjects?
None of this can be predicted. But we can measure the odds. Certain gatherings offer higher chances of interesting engagements, say a slide show by a world explorer, than, say, a kid’s birthday party at a pizza joint.
The pressure in society to conform and let other people control your productive time is strong. Weighing such decisions in terms of Opportunity Cost gives you a tool that will help you say, no, thank you, I can’t be at your event, because it will cost you the opportunity to be doing something more productive.
It’s not disfunction. It’s economics.
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Phil Houseal seized the opportunity to write and own Full House PR. Contact him at phil@fullhouseproductions.net, www.FullHousePR.com.