Only buy something if you can afford to buy it twice

Weather: 33C, very mild (compared to yesterday’s 40C)

For any piece of gear or tool I’ve found that if you can’t afford to buy it twice, you’re better off not buying it at all. Why? Because something you can’t easily replace is something you’ll be precious about. You will be afraid that it will get lost or stolen or damaged; because of that you will be overly careful with it and won’t be using it to its full potential.

Cameras, laptops, phones, backpacks, powertools, vacuum cleaners, paint brushes, this is true for every tool. If you’re scared your laptop will be stolen, you won’t take it to the coffee shop to write. If you’re afraid your camera will get wet or you’ll knock it on something and the paint will chip, you’ll never take it out of the bag.

On the other hand when you buy a good tool, you’ll learn it, get used to it and if it needs to be replaced, you’ll want to get the same tool again so you don’t have to re-learn it. If you can’t buy it again, you either won’t use it or will have to learn to use the more affordable tool once the expensive one inevitably gets damaged or lost.

A tool that is too precious to be used is worse than no tool at all. Buy the most expensive tool that you can still afford to buy twice.