Greg McKeown
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The Tim Ferriss Show · #885: How to Simplify Your Life — Tips from Oliver Burkeman, Chip…
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What Does a Stormtrooper Costume Have to Do With Clutter?
Greg McKeown says a stormtrooper costume shows the clutter that is not sitting in a closet. In a Halloween store he stood in the mirror dressed head to toe in a suit that was not cheap, and he saw he had been half-planning the moment for 30 years. It went back to age 10, around Return of the Jedi, when an older brother said it would be great to own a real stormtrooper outfit from the movies. The idea sat unquestioned. He says it lived that way for 13 years. In the mirror, no part of him wanted the suit, including the child he thought he was buying it for.
His wife now uses the costume as a test. She asks whether a goal is the stormtrooper: something he keeps chasing because he caught it onc
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What Is the Endowment Effect?
Greg McKeown says the endowment effect is a brain habit that makes people value things more because they already have them. It covers physical objects and the opportunities in a life. The habit helps until someone overvalues an item that should not stay.
A closet shows how it works. Plenty of people who do not feel incredibly successful still own more clothes than they can use. One woman had hers organized by decade, the 70s and the 80s, and was not using any of the clothes. She just had them. Almost everybody eventually decides to clear a closet, picks an item up to give it away, and then finds it harder to let go than before they picked it up. They think of using it sometime in the future