February 22, 2015

Rocking Luxury

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It’s no secret that one of my favorite bloggers, and certainly the most personally influential is Mr. Money Mustache.

Pete (MMM himself) does an incredible job of reframing societal assumptions.

If our dominant modern hypothesis is that consuming things brings us happiness, Pete stands this theory on its head, and points out (correctly I think) that we would be wise to focus on things that actually deliver happiness instead. Things like freedom (financial and otherwise), the sense that what we do matters, autonomy, and health.

But in the end Mr. Money Mustache is a counter narrative, and like all counter narrative as it has its own small holes.

Take the concept of luxury. In the mustachian worldview, luxury (or “fanciness”) is something to be suspicious of. It is a coddling force that leads to atrophied muscles, a susceptibility to advertising (and thus the inevitable and counterproductive impulse towards consumption.)

But what if luxury, or the feeling of luxury, is happiness inducing in and of itself?

Take this famous experiment where subjects were given two glasses of The exact same Cabernet Sauvignon and were imaged in an fMRI after having taken a sip of each. The only wrinkle is that they were told that one glass contained a $10 a bottle wine in the other contained a $90 a bottle wine.

The objective finding of the study was that the subjects’ pleasure centers (the medial orbital frontal cortices) of their brain were much more active after having sips of wine that they thought was more expensive.

I think the most intuitive reading of the study is as sort of an “emperor has no clothes” story.

“The larger the sceptor the smaller the..”

People are fakes and easily manipulated. That’s the obvious lesson here.

This lines up very nicely indeed with the Mustachian view of luxury. Luxury is a sucker’s play, a thin veneer papered over experiences and commodities cynically by marketers, in order to make them more expensive and profitable.

But there’s another interpretation of this finding. And that comes from the recognition that the subjects experienced more pleasure from drinking the exact same wine simply by being told that it was more expensive. What a bargain!

Being tricked costs nothing, and delivers extra happiness. Sign me up.

This is similar to the placebo effect whereby study subjects who are given a inert substance like sugar water and told that it is medicine, experience relief from their illness.

My feeling is; who cares if we are not perfectly rational? We are human beings after all, not gas chromatograph machines. Isn’t the smart move to figure out how to manipulate our environment in order to experience more pleasure (and happiness) from the exact same inputs?

Isn’t happiness the name of the game, after all?

Which brings me to my latest obsession: clear ice.

Although I’ve been known to enjoy a glass of wine or beer with dinner, my wife finds the taste of alcohol unpleasant.

But sometimes when we go out to dinner she will partake in a sweet cocktail like a Mojito or a Pimm’s cup and quite enjoy it.

This, motivated me to learn how to make cocktails, so we could enjoy a drink together from time to time in the evening.

And as I am want to do I got pretty into cocktail making pretty quickly.

And soon I realized drinks were far less appetizing when served over cloudy ice cubes. Which prompted a quick Internet search which taught me about the concept of “unidirectional freezing” to make clear Ice. *

And the clear ice was an absolute revelation. The drinks poured over clear ice blocks were far more beautiful, and actually tasted better. (My frontal medial orbital cortex was undoubtedly stimulated by the jewel like brilliance of the clear ice blocks.)

And although there is a lot of information out there about dilution rates, and ice impurities affecting the taste of cocktails, I’m pretty sure the major player here is the old placebo effect rearing its (attractive) head.

After all, which of these drinks would you rather take a sip of?

They contain the exact same ingredients in the exact same proportions, but one actually tastes better, brings far more pleasure, and delivers the stimulating experience of “luxury.”

Plus, the luxurious drink doesn’t cost a penny more, and comes with the enjoyable bonus of being able to learn how to carve your own clear ice cubes. (Trust me, this is a lot of fun.)

All in all making your own home made clear ice is a true value proposition. And it is luxury in the best sense of the word.

And if you are a tea totaller, no loss. Pour your iced tea over a clear ice cube. Trust me, it’s worth the bother.

*If you’re interested in making your own clear ice here is how you do it.

Step 1: procure an insulated container that will fit in your freezer. I like using a six pack cooler like this one, but an even cheaper option is to use Tupperware wrapped on five of six sides with two layers of duct insulation.

(The reason why the insulation is so important is that it allows the ice to freeze from the top down unidirectionally. All of the impurities and bubbles get pushed by the growing mass of ice towards the bottom of the cooler leaving the top sections crystal clear and beautiful.)

Step 2: fill the cooler 80 to 90% full with water. And put it in the freezer.

Step 3: 24 to 36 hours later remove the cooler from the freezer. and let it sit out for 15 to 30 minutes.

Remove the ice block. There should be a little area of unfrozen water or cloudy ice near the bottom, encased in clear ice. It will look like this.

Step 4: After letting the ice warm for 20 minutes or so, using a hefty knife and a hammer cleave away all of the cloudy and/or unfrozen parts of the ice block.