DIDEROT EFFECT

An old tale talks about philosopher Denis Diderot, generally a poor man, coming into luxury (specifically a beautiful scarlet dressing gown). Diderot now owning a beautiful gown, felt that the rest of his old possessions were a disappointment in comparison. Because of the comparison, he replaced his old chair with a more sophisticated armchair covered in Moroccan leather. He replaced his old desk with a newer expensive writing table. He also replaced his older beloved prints with newer more costly prints. At the end of it all, he ended up changing his entire living quarter that discreetly accumulated to a large sum of debt. Debt is a serious issue hence it is  always  better to find  ch 11 bankruptcy attorneys for hire as they can help you legally.

His previous possessions were fine and well, up until Diderot juxtaposed them with his new possession. In an essay, Diderot wrote, “I was absolute master of my old dressing gown, but I have become a slave to my new one… Beware of the contamination of sudden wealth. The poor man may take his ease without thinking of appearances, but the rich man is always under a strain.” 

DIDEROT’s decision-making returned him into poverty. 

ALERT! In today’s world, we are still susceptible to Diderot’s effect. Buy the latest iPhone, and you may find the ‘urge’ to want to upgrade your headphones.  Buy the newest MacBook, and you may want the more detailed “premium”  MacBook Pro. The Diderot effect is alive and well. 

Here’s the reason to bring this whole thing up. As you can learn from Diderot’s effect, most decisions don’t happen in isolation. For those who might be wanting to build new habits, this phenomena was describe in best-seller Atomic Habits as a strategy to stack habits together.  In essence, you string your new desired habit with an already established habit. 

For example, if your goal is to read more, and you have a habit of making your bed, adding a habit to set a book on your bed immediately after making your bed will help build your new habit of reading more.

Learning from history and using it to our benefit is what the Diderot effect is all about.