Holy Cow! I'm wasting my life!

Thinking about free will, choice, agency. What does it mean? How big a deal is it?

Almost everything we think, say or do involves choosing. How do we make choices? What criteria do we use to choose this over that or THIS at all? It seems the puzzle involves a gazillion little judgments.

Is this good or is it bad? Is it going to help me or hurt me? Is it going to help or hurt others? Does it hurt? Does it make me feel good? Did it work? Did it fail? Each little micro-choice either takes us toward what we want or away from what we want. And once we’ve stumbled upon a satisfactory (it makes me feel good = satisfactory) result, we often continue making the same series of choices until "all of a sudden" we’ve created an autonomic (autonomic = done without thinking) habit!

I have a big riding lawnmower, A Craftsman GT5000, 25 HP V Twin. It became hard to start a while back. My friend Rich told me that he just sprays Berryman B12 carburetor accelerant into the carburetor directly when his equipment doesn’t start easily, so I did that.

It worked great - a satisfactory result. He shared this tip with me three years ago and I’ve been using accelerant to start the mower ever since.

Lift the engine cowl, remove the wing nut from the carburetor intake cover, remove the carburetor intake cover, remove the wing nut holding the carburetor filter from the filter assembly, find the Berryman B12, spray some in the carburetor (Oh, and remember to pull out the choke) and fire the engine up.

It works. Let the engine run a while until it warms up.

Reassemble the pieces I just removed and get on with whatever I needed the mower for (if I remembered the reason at all after all that). All toll, about half an hour down the drain each time I try to start the mower.

During late spring lawn growing season, I did this once a week for three to four months out of the year for three years.

At one point, I asked my friend Rich why he does this when his equipment won’t start and he said, "Because it’s cheaper" than fixing the root cause of the problem (usually).

I took him at his word and continued this practice. Now I figure after three years I’ve spent (3.5 months 4.3 weeks per month ? hour per event * 3 years =) 22.57 hours performing this "less expensive" exercise.

When I consulted, I averaged about $150/hour working. If my math is correct, this works out to be roughly $ 3385.00 in lost opportunity value.

Was this a good decision? A good use of my time? Maybe, maybe not.

Let me see.

A good lawnmower technician costs (conservatively) about $ 75/hour for labor + parts to fix the thing. Then there are transportation costs to and from the repair shop. Let’s say it takes a couple of hours to fix the root cause of the problem. Parts cost $50 and transportation to and from (aggravation costs $200/hour) involves a half an hour getting the mower in and out of the truck and a 45 minute drive to and from the repair shop - I’m looking at (2 $75 + $50 + .5 $200 + (.75 * $150) = $ 412.50.

If my reasoning is thorough and correct, the decision to keep spraying Berryman B12 into the carburetor every time I needed the mower cost me $ 2792.50 MORE than it would have cost to get the root cause of the mower’s problem fixed in the first place.

Why then didn’t I get the mower repaired shortly after I discovered it wouldn’t start and COULD HAVE EASILY realized it was something to do with the fuel system?

Because I was lazy. I didn’t want to THINK hard enough to evaluate the BEST solution to my problem.

How often do I navigate myself lazily through my life now that I’m seventy-one years old and set in my ways?

Holy Cow! I’ve scared myself silly.

How many habits have I accumulated that suck up my time doing needless things or things that need doing, but I’m not doing in the most cost effective and beneficial manner?

I’m gambling A LOT!

This gamble underlies my decision to attempt an exhaustive thought, behavior and habits analysis in GoalMind.

I’ll have to let you know how it turns out.

It may take a while.