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_{Exploring the Diderot Effect, giving thanks, and the mssing link}

Happy Thursday and Happy Thanksgiving! Thanks for reading Intentional Dollar — where we look at old money ideas through a new perspective.

What’s inside?

• One idea to experiment with

• Two quotes from others

• Three questions to dig deeper

• Four lines of poetry for the point

Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. These weekly posts represent my simple thoughts, a few quotes, and some questions — for educational purposes only.

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_{One idea to experiment with:}

The Diderot Effect:

Before making a big purchase, there’s a little mental exercise I love: try forecasting the decision through the lens of the Diderot Effect.

If you’ve never heard of it, the Diderot Effect comes from an 18th-century essay by the French philosopher Denis Diderot. The story goes that he received a brand new dressing gown as a gift. From the moment he put it on, everything else around him suddenly looked shabby. His rug? Too dull. His desk? Too worn. His chair? Practically an unnatractive antique. So he replaced them. All of them. One “free” gown turned into an expensive house-wide upgrade. He even joked that he was now “the slave of the gown.”

That dynamic is still alive in 2025.

You buy a new sweatshirt, and somehow your jeans start looking a little outdated. So you replace those. Then the jeans make your shoes look sad. So you upgrade those too. One purchase plants a temptress of an idea in your mind: wouldn’t everything look better if it all matched my new things? And suddenly you’re knee-deep in a slow-motion shopping spree you never consciously planned.

This is the core of the Diderot Effect: a single new item creates a ripple of desire for more new items, not because you actually needed them, but because your old stuff suddenly looks out of place.

And this doesn’t just happen with small purchases. It shows up in the big, life-shifting decisions, the ones we thought we budgeted for.

Buy a house? It’s never just the down payment. It’s new furniture for rooms you didn’t have before. It’s a lawn mower. It’s patio furniture. It’s curtains for 15 different windows. It’s organizational bins, a bigger TV, chairs for the front porch. You think you’re buying the house, but you’re actually signing up for a lifestyle and one that comes with ongoing costs you didn’t include in the monthly mortgage calculation.

Even upgrades that seem practical or “responsible” activate the same pull. You get a new laptop for work and suddenly feel like your office chair should be nicer. Then the wall decor, paint, bookshelves, and desk all follow. You finally replace your worn dishes and now the mismatched silverware looks like it belongs in a college dorm. One domino falls and nudges the next.

None of this means you shouldn’t buy nice things, or that every purchase is a slide into financial ruin. The Diderot Effect isn’t a warning, it’s a lens. A way to pause before you buy and ask:

What is this purchase likely to trigger next? And am I okay with that?

Sometimes a new thing is genuinely worth the cascade. Sometimes it’s not. But simply knowing the cascade exists gives you enough power. It turns you from a passive spender reacting to shiny objects into an intentional one choosing what truly matters.

Forecast the hidden costs. Expect the ripple. And make the decision with more clarity.

_{Two quotes on giving thanks:}

We count our dollars but how often do we count our thanks?

_{Three questions on the missing link:}

1. What do I feel like is missing in my life?

2. What problems or other ‘missing things’ might pop up after the first one goes away?

3. How can I shift the lens from the missing link(s) to the many well connected links all around?

Which question stuck with you? Questions like these are spotlights for the mind. Reply to this email and let me know which one shined light on a previously dark cave.

_{Four lines of poetry for the point:}

Contact Me:

Content ideas, questions? Reply to this email or reach out to me at [email protected]

Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. These weekly posts represent my simple thoughts, a few quotes, and some questions — for educational purposes only.

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