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  • Kevin Chiu 3:06 pm on August 27, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , marketing   

    The Ice Cream Integral 

    strawberry-ice-cream

    Last year, I bought 16 oz cup of Alpine Strawberry ice cream from a small eatery across the street from Columbia University, and it changed the way I’ve thought of purchasing this type of good ever since.

    As I enjoyed the creamy treat, I realized that I was deriving less and less satisfaction from each additional bite. The effect was so extreme, that as I scooped towards the midpoint of my cup, I found myself annoyed that there was even more ice cream to dig through. And, even though I didn’t want to eat it, I continued eating dutifully to avoid the guilt of wasting food.

    When I finally emptied and disposed of the white styrofoam container, I realized that what I was purchasing wasn’t the ice cream, it was enjoyment derived from the experience of eating the ice cream.

    The nonlinear relationship expressed on the ice cream store menu suddenly made sense. Larger sizes were disproportionately less expensive when compared using an assumption of a set amount of enjoyment per unit volume, which corresponded to the reality that enjoyment extracted from the ice cream as it was consumed fell over time.

    The integral of ice cream enjoyment in reality creates a measured enjoyment that is significantly less than the expected enjoyment estimated using the misguided assumption that there is a direct correlation between enjoyment and volume. Additionally, there are further negative enjoyment effects, such as an expanding waistline, to be taken into consideration.

    Purchases of things that temporarily improve your life at the cost of future well being should be avoided.

       
      • Ming Jack Po 4:48 am on August 29, 2009 Permalink

        you know what you need.. access to better ice cream..

      • Matthias 6:42 am on August 30, 2009 Permalink

        > 16 oz cup
        Well, duh. You Americans have a long way to go ;-)

      • Brad 1:10 pm on November 10, 2009 Permalink

        really enjoyed this post.

    1. Kevin Chiu 4:47 am on August 21, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

      The Best Tech Websites 

      Storage
      I read a lot of news feeds. Thousands of stories pass by my eyes nearly every day. Here are some selected sources from my tech section.

      1. Ars Technica – Very high quality stories, but slower to respond to breaking news.
      2. Engadget – Gadget blog – arch rival of Gizmodo
      3. Gizmodo – Gadget blog – arch rival of Engadget
      4. Lifehacker – Random life tips
      5. MacRumors – Mac Rumors (of course)
      6. Slashdot – An old standby that I temporarily left for Digg.
      7. TechCrunch – A rather famous tech blog – more like a newspaper
       
      • Wei Gong 9:35 am on November 25, 2009 Permalink

        thank you for your sharing.Will you come to china at shanghai expo?

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