Quote:
Originally Posted by BeccaPrice
I ran across this article in The Digital Reader where they're making the case for why a $4 cup of coffee is a better deal than taking a $13 flier on a new-to-you author.
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I think Nate Hoffelder makes a good case in the article. |
We all know that things like the enjoyment you get out of a good book or a cup of coffee are highly subjective and not easily quantified. It has also been argued that we do not make rational buying decisions, even though we think we do - some scientists have been telling us that for years. But just for the sake of the argument (and for a little bit of fun), let's try to do exactly that - quantify it.
Let's say that a cup of coffee will give you five minutes of enjoyment - hell, let's make it ten (perusing the newspaper while drinking, perhaps, or slurping it on-the-go). Which makes it 40 cents a minute at $4.
Let's say reading a book lasts you ten hours (just bear with me). Which comes to a little over two cents a minute at $13.
There are two unknowns here: the risk of picking a book you won't enjoy (since, as the article claims, you'll enjoy each and every Starbucks coffee, but not each and every book) and the
relative quality of enjoyment you get out of one compared to the other (not
how long it lasts, but
how much you like it). That is, of course, almost impossible to quantify, but let's see where that leads us.
If we assume that the quality of enjoyment is more or less the same (i.e. you enjoy a good book as much as a cup of Starbucks while you're reading or drinking), that would mean that you could pick 17 wrong books and still get more bang for your buck with the 18th book (since 40 cents a minute is 18.46 times 2.17 cents a minute).
On the other hand, you'd need to enjoy that coffe more than 18 times as much as a good book in order to get your money's worth.
So, let's say that Starbucks coffee might be 5 times as enjoyable as a good book for every minute of consumption (the instant high of caffeine, let's say, compared to reading a book where not every page is as gripping as the finale) -- you could still pick two duds for every book you like and the books would come out ahead.
See how it's done?
That's what I call science
Matt