The Diderot Effect: How Buying Fuels Itself
In mid-1700’s France, there lived an artist and writer on the brink of poverty.
His name was Denis Diderot.
He had been born into an established family, the son of a successful
craftsman, and he had obliged the social standing of his birth by
pursuing a formal education. He obtained a Master of Arts in philosophy,
bound for a respectable profession in clergy or law.
But Diderot dreamed of becoming a writer.
When Diderot was 21 years old, he dropped out of school. His furious
father disowned him, and Diderot lived a scrappy bohemian lifestyle for
the next thirty years.
Yet he enjoyed this simple life. His robes were plain but comfortable.
He furnished his sparse home with a tiny writing desk and a tattered
straw chair. He spent his evenings at his battered desk, scrolling by
candlelight.
He wrote novels and scientific papers and critiques of the French
government, and article by article, book by book, his ideas began to
spread. He wrote Encyclopédie, one of the most comprehensive
encyclopedias of the era, and over the decades, despite his lack of
disposable income, he amassed an impressive collection of books.
His ideas impressed the Russian Empress Catherine the Great. When she
learned that Diderot needed financial help, she volunteered to serve as
his benefactor.
In 1763, Catherine the Great purchased his personal library, paying an
enormous sum for his collection. She requested that Diderot keep those
books at his home, offering him a generous annual salary to act as the
collection’s caretaker.
Then she ordered her staff to pay his salary for the next 50 years upfront.
Diderot, age 52, became a wealthy man.
That’s when his life turned sour.
Surely, Diderot reasoned, he ought to be permitted one small indulgence.
What harm could there be in spending a sliver of his windfall?
And so Diderot bought himself a fine scarlet robe. He loved this robe, and referred to it as “my sumptuous scarlet.”
But his joy was to be short-lived.
One night as Diderot sat at his desk, he noticed the jarring disparity
between his tasteful scarlet robe and his tattered straw chair.
He wrote that he saw “no more coordination, no more unity, no more
beauty” between his scarlet robe and his usual surroundings. How could
he sit in an ugly chair while wearing a beautiful robe? What if the
straw tore the robe?
Diderot replaced it with an armchair upholstered in Moroccan leather.
Problem solved. Right?
Except his elegant chair looked out-of-place next to his tiny writing desk. He replaced it with a gleaming new wooden table.
His pile of paperwork couldn’t sit atop this beautiful wooden table. He bought a finely-crafted bureau with drawers.
He bought a new kitchen table, new artwork, a mirror to hang above his
mantle. He bought a gold clock, an assortment of sketches, an antique
bronze statue of Venus.
Piece by piece, Diderot replaced every item in his home, until he lived in splendor that reflected his scarlet robe.
But he had spent his windfall.
And so it was that Diderot came to rue the day when he purchased his fine scarlet robe.
“All that remains of my original mediocrity is a rug of selvage,” he wrote in an essay.
“I can feel that this pitiful rug doesn’t go well with my newfound
luxury. But I swore and I swear, like the peasant transferred from his
hut to a palace … that Denis the philosopher will never walk upon a
masterpiece …”
“When in the morning, covered in my sumptuous scarlet, I enter my
office,” he wrote, “I lower my gaze and I see my old rug of selvage. It
reminds me of my beginnings and pride is stopped at the entryway to my
heart.”
Today, the Diderot Effect is a term that describes the tendency for purchases to trigger additional purchases.
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We buy a couch, and then we need accent pillows and throw blankets.
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We buy an outfit, and then we need shoes and accessories.
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We get a gym membership, and then we need better workout clothes,
earbuds, more towels, a combination lock, and a bag to carry everything.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
We live better lives than Denis Diderot and his peers.
We sit in castles made comfortable by thermostats we control from our
phones. We keep milk and meat in electric ice-boxes known as
refrigerators. We access safe, clean drinking water from a tap that we
turn on with a simple flick of the finger. We watch entertainment from
private devices we control with tiny remotes. We live lives of luxury.
Yet we hunger for more.
We decide our refrigerator isn’t nice enough; not when the latest models
are wifi-enabled with touch screens. We gripe that the pixels on our
private entertainment-streaming devices aren’t sharp enough. We nitpick
at the aesthetic of the tap from which our clean drinking water flows. “This faucets’ curve isn’t quite right, and I prefer stainless steel over chrome.” We walk on ceramic tile floors and grumble that it’s not hardwood.
We spend our windfall.
And then, in the midst of the madness, we take a step back.
We look around and realize that our castles have grown too large; our furniture and clothing, too fancy. We realize nobody goes to their deathbed regretting that they never had hardwood floors.
We realize that we are on-track to repeating the mistake of Diderot, surrounded by splendor with empty pockets. All flash, no cash.
But our situation is forgiving.
We can return the robe.
We can downsize into modest homes. We can find joy in home-cooked meals rather than extravagant restaurants. We can shop less and give away more.
We can simplify.
And piece by piece, choice by choice, the Diderot Effect loosens its grip.
Diderot can return the robe.
EFEKAT DIDERO:KAKO SAM KUPOVAO ,,GORIVO''
Sredinom 1700-tih u Francuskoj je živеo umetnik i pisac na ivici siromaštva.
Zvao se Denis Diderot.
Rođen je u dobrostojećoj porodici, sin uspešnog zanatlije, i obavezao se na društveni položaj njegovog rođenja provođenjem formalnog obrazovanja. Magistrirao je filozofiju, vezan za uglednu profesiju u sveštenstvu ili pravu.
Ali Diderot je sanjao da postane pisac.
Kada je Didero imao 21 godinu, napustio je školu. Njegov besni otac ga
se odrekao, a Didero je u narednih trideset godina živeo u neurednom
boemskom stilu.
Ipak je uživao u ovom jednostavnom životu. Haljine su mu bile jasne, ali
udobne. Opremio je oskudnu kuću sitnim pisaćim stolom i otrcanom
stolicom od slame. Veče je proveo u svom ošamućenom stolu, pomerajući
se uz svetlost sveća.
Pisao je romane i naučne radove i kritike francuske vlade, a članak po
članak, knjigu po knjigu, njegove ideje su se počele širiti. On je
napisao Enciklopedie, jednu od najsveobuhvatnijih enciklopedija tog
doba, i tokom decenija, uprkos nedostatku raspoloživog dohotka, sakupio
je impresivnu zbirku knjiga.
Njegove ideje su impresionirale rusku caricu Katarinu Veliku. Kada je
saznala da Diderou treba finansijska pomoć, dobrovoljno se javila kao
njegov dobrotvor.
Godine 1763. Katarina Velika je kupila njegovu ličnu biblioteku i
platila ogromnu sumu za svoju kolekciju. Zatražila je da Didero zadrži
te knjige u svom domu, nudeći mu velikodušnu godišnju platu da deluje
kao čuvar zbirke.
Zatim je naredila svom osoblju da isplati njegovu platu za narednih 50 godina unapred.
Дидерот, sa 52 године, постао је богат човек.
Tada mu se život pretvorio u kiselo.
Sigurno, smatrao je Didero, trebalo mu je dozvoliti jedno malo
zadovoljstvo. Koja bi šteta mogla biti u trošenju komadića njegove
štednje?
I tako je Didero sebi kupio finu grimiznu odoru. Voleo je ovu haljinu i nazvao je to "moj raskošan grimiz".
Ali njegova radost je bila kratkotrajna.
Jedne noći, dok je Didero sedeo za svojim stolom, primetio je
nesklad između nesvakidašnje grimizne haljine i njegove slamnate
stolice.
On je napisao da je video "nema više koordinacije, nema više jedinstva,
nema više lepote" između njegove grimizne haljine i njegove uobičajene
okoline. Kako je mogao da sedi u ružnoj stolici dok je nosio divnu
haljinu? Šta ako je slama pokidala ogrtač?
Didero ju je zamenio foteljom presvučenom marokanskom kožom.
Problem rešen. Jel tako?
Osim što je njegova elegantna stolica izgledala van mesta pored
njegovog malog radnog stola. Zamenio ga je novim svetlim drvenim stolom.
Njegova gomila papira nije mogla da sedi na ovom predivnom drvenom stolu. Kupio je fino izrađen biro sa fiokama.
Kupio je novi kuhinjski sto, nova umetnička dela, ogledalo koje je
visilo iznad njegovog plašta. Kupio je zlatni sat, asortiman skica,
antičku bronzanu statuu Venere.
Komad po komad, Didero je zamenio svaku stavku u svojoj kući, sve dok
nije živeo u sjaju koji je odražavao njegovu grimiznu odoru.
Ali on je potrošio svoju sreću.
I tako je Dideru došlo da pokvari dan kada je kupio svoju finu grimiznu odoru.
"Sve što je ostalo od moje prvobitne osrednjosti je tepih sela", napisao
je u eseju. “Osećam da ovaj jadni tepih ne ide dobro sa mojim
novootkrivenim luksuzom. Ali zakleo sam se i kunem se, kao što je seljak
prešao iz kolibe u palatu ... da filozof Denis nikada neće hodati po
remek-delu ... ”
"Kad ujutro, pokriven mojim raskošnim grimiznim, uđem u svoju
kancelariju", piše on, "spuštam pogled i vidim svoj stari ćilim sela.
Podseća me na moje početke i ponos mi je zaustavljen na ulazu u moje
srce. "
Danas, Diderot efekat je termin koji opisuje tendenciju kupovine da pokrene dodatne kupovine.
- Kupujemo kauč, a onda nam trebaju jastuci sa naglaskom i pokrivači
- Kupujemo odeću, a onda nam trebaju cipele i pribor.
- Dobili smo članstvo u teretani, a onda nam je potrebna bolja odeća za vežbanje, slušalice, više peškira, brava za kombinaciju i torba za nošenje svega.Ali to ne mora biti ovako.
