[2021-07-10] Needs versus solutions
My daughter had been thinking about replacing her laptop. It's five years old and has several issues: the charging port is loose, the headphone jack is finicky, and several keys (W, 3 and 4) work only intermittently.
In recent days, she explored buying a new laptop, purchasing a used or refurbished laptop, or having her current laptop fixed. Buying new is costly, and it can be challenging to narrow down the plethora of devices on the market into one that passes the Goldilocks test: not more laptop than she needs, but not less. There's also the question of which vendor to choose from. Purchasing used, though less expensive than buying new, can be a gamble and risks trading one set of problems for another. Fixing the laptop, potentially the least expensive option, is also risky, as the costs can quickly mount, and the time without a device can be lengthy. And, even if fixed, the device could fail at any point given its age.
The most frustrating issue for Melanie was the keyboard. You don't realize how many words in the English language contain a W until your W key fails, or how often you type the numbers 3 and 4. She could make do with the persnickety charger port and headphone jack, but she couldn't abide the failing keyboard.
After sleeping on the buy/fix options, Melanie came up with a brilliant, inexpensive workaround to her most irksome issue: she purchased an external keyboard. For only $20, she succeeded in meeting her most pressing need—functional keys (hello W, 3 and 4). Because she uses the device exclusively in the home, portability isn't an issue. And she can continue using her current device until one of her current problems or a new one renders the laptop unusable.
This story illustrates several principles that Melanie likes to apply when contemplating a purchase: use what you have if possible, think about the environmental impact of your choices, and focus on your need, not the solution that comes readily to mind.
Melanie's experience reflects ideas I read many years ago in a wonderfully helpful book—How to Survive Without a Salary: Learning how to live the conserver lifestyle by Charles Long. Even though I never adopted the living without a salary part of the book, I always remembered Long's advice about understanding our need before rushing out to buy the product pushed by advertisers. Long writes:
[T]he most common solution to any problem is often the most expensive one as well. The commercial economy provides a ready answer to meet any need. The economy expects you to go out and buy the patent answers to your problems. You, on the other hand, have to be flexible enough to dodge through and around that network of ready-made solutions if you want to keep your money for more important things. A wise consumer learns where he can buy the cheapest chicken wire or get the best deal on a syrup evaporator. The conserver goes one step farther and learns to do without, adapt alternatives, or invent his own solution.
Long shares that whenever he and his family considered spending money, they would rigorously assess the need and the options. He explains:
The usual consumer response to a problem or need is not to look at the problem, but to look at the solution, the normal expensive commercial solution. Consumers say, "we need a new car," when they ought to be saying, "we need a means of getting to work, getting out of town on weekends, to the in-laws at Christmas". The answer may well turn out to be a new car, but if you're going to start with the solution instead of the problem you'll never find out if there might be other, less expensive answers.
Long and his family would ask "what will perform the function?" not "what do I need to buy?"
In Melanie's case, a new or used laptop would have performed the function she needed done, but so did a new external keyboard—at a fraction of the cost. Had we had an extra keyboard lying about the house, she might have been able to avoid a purchase altogether. But for a small investment, she has a new, clean keyboard and can type to her heart's content.
