We were at a somewhat remote place for a few days recently and had rented a car. We ended up buying enough groceries to last us a few days and had enough food throughout – so right at the end of the trip, we took the rental car and drove straight back to the airport.
Our kids pointed out that we didn’t end up using the car at all. Maybe we shouldn’t have rented one. Maybe we could have taken a taxi for example.
The conversation we had then was about the fact that the car had brought us optionality. If we hadn’t gotten the right amount of food or groceries, we knew we could always drive out of the remote location, get to a grocery store, and make it back.
The meta lesson – optionality always costs something. This is obvious when we buy refundable tickets or accommodation anywhere we go. However, it is less obvious when the costs are hidden. For example, if we’re choosing a path that gives us optionality in our career, that’s totally fine. But there’s a cost to doing so vs. say specializing.
It isn’t that optionality is right or wrong. It’s just important to be thoughtful about when we choose to pay that cost – and when we choose not to.
A Learning a Day 