i have a Goodwill problem.

i'm writing this post sitting next to a mound of clothes i've purchased from Goodwill over the past 8 weeks. in fairness to myself...nope, there are no mitigating factors here. i'm just simply in LOVE with the Goodwill experience. for those fortunate to be unacquainted with the intoxicating and seductive appeal of the Goodwill experience, i'll do my best to explain. First, the name "Goodwill" is shorthand for Goodwill Industries International Inc. - the $6B a year global non-profit focused on the recycling and reuse of clothes, books, and home furnishings. the organization uses its business operations to fund a powerful workforce training and employment program whose participants staff Goodwill operations across the globe.

i'd be lying if i told you that's why i love the Goodwill experience. i love it because i'm fascinated by the pricing, or mispricing - to be more precise. there are 3 Goodwill locations i visit on a weekly basis. each one is unique in character and floor arrangement, yet akin in one key way. they each hold a magical inventory of incredibly valuable items that for whatever reason, are all priced in the $3 to $6 range. i'm talking high-end, very lightly-used goods. incredibly nice stuff going for up to 100X the price online. i've never seen anything like it. it's a Garden of Eden-type moment for me anytime i visit. i'm generally embarrassed by the number of items i have upon checkout. several times i've thought about calling my wife and asking her to drop by the store and split my cart in half with me to spare me the embarrassment of checking out with 40 items (yes, i go to Goodwill alone, frequently).

my new Goodwill obsession is revealing to me how bad we are, as humans, at accurately pricing things. our whole market economy is a reflection of our collective miscognitions with respect to the relative value of things in our world. i don't know the right answer, but i do think i'm most joyful in my life when i apply my own personal value framework to the traditional market economy. in other words, i find the best "deals" when i ignore prescribed market prices as an indicator of true value, and instead listen to my inner child. what are the things i ACTUALLY LOVE and find valuable, for myself? and, where can i get those things fastest, at the lowest market price, while doing the least damage to the world? turns out my Goodwill habit isn't such a bad thing after all.

thanks for helping me work through that.

term of the day: "community capitalism." to me, this is capitalism through the lens of an abundance mindset. it's about freeing oneself from a "zero-sum" conception of capitalism, and being open to the idea that capitalism is useful as a tool to deliver as many people as possible, everywhere in the world, the sense of dignity that comes from access to resources that make their life comfortable and drama-free. it doesn't have to be an ideology. a ruthless prioritization of our objective community well-being ("community" being defined at each level of generality) - as measured by an aggregate index of an individual's or community's material, physical, mental and spiritual health - should be our ideology. everything else is a tool.

song of the day: Cynaide by Daniel Caesar. this is talent and resonance embodied.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZnWdA_uwYU