Is There a Diderot Effect to Living Out of a Backpack?

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The Diderot effect makes it feel like you have to buy things for your things, says the author. "You end up accumulating a lot of stuff that has like null value or even negative value if it starts to weigh you down," he adds. But what I wanted to say is there are the essential things that you need. So if you're living out of a backpack, you really just truly have what you need to survive in a different place.

Have you ever looked around your home and thought, "Where did all this stuff come from?!"

Cal and Steph are currently going through this exercise, as they go through their first move in years.

It turns out they're not alone in this feeling of overwhelm and is shared by many others who used to be nomads. The need for *things* is universal, but so is the slippery slope to acquiring too many.

In this episode, Cal and Steph explore why weight of stuff – both physically and mentally – and how our decisions are often unconsciously driven by phenomena like the Diderot and Endowment effects. They also explore how our digital lives, although seemingly benign, can also turn into weights on your life and what simple frameworks they're using to change behavior.