I recently had the pleasure of meeting up with a few friends I made through Instagram, and among the many topics we discussed, we explored the concept of envy in relation to watches and Instagram. It is a pretty gnarly topic which, understandably, doesn’t get discussed too often. I thought it would be interesting to explore. I’d like to thank @running_sands, @horology_ancienne and @watchguy315 for their opinions and thoughts on the matter.
Category: Philosophy
Who enjoys the best of us?
One of life’s greatest ironies is how often we treat friends, co-workers and even strangers … better than we treat our own family. We often preserve the best of ourselves for those who mean the least… Surely, it ought to be the other way around?
Happiness versus Relief
What is the difference between happiness and relief, and how does this apply to watch collecting? This is a discussion about our inner-critic, and our inner-cheerleader – along with some thoughts about pursuing lasting joy; not only when it comes to watch collecting, but life in general.
Do you like the idea more than the reality?
As we collect, we find ourselves seeking advice and opinions from those around us. Inevitably, we might receive so much positive external input about a watch that the idea of owning it seems too good to ignore… and against our own better judgement, we fall into the trap of succumbing to this idea of owning that particular watch… only to find we don’t really enjoy owning it at all.
What is collecting?
In an attempt to understand “collecting”, I fell into a rabbit hole and found myself reading academic papers on the subject, trying to make sense of it all. What you will read below is a collection of ideas from the papers referenced below, as well as several other publications which are linked in the text. Even after all that reading, the topic is so abstract that it was challenging to reach any universally applicable conclusion. Instead, I offer a universal truth about people who are passionate about collecting. I hope you enjoy it, and look forward to your thoughts.
The Expectation Effect
The Expectation Effect: there is a wide range of phenomena in everyday perception … where we see things in terms of the properties of objects as they are conceived, and fail to ‘notice’ those features that deviate from this conception.
ScrewDownCrown 