Spend better

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Three principles for spending your money to make you happier from the excellent titled paper "If money doesn’t make you happy then you probably aren’t spending it right."

Buy experiences instead of things.
Help others instead of yourself.
Buy many small pleasures instead of a few big ones.

If I feel like I have money and I'm not feeling so happy, the tips from this paper come to mind, and I find myself reflecting on what I could be doing differently with my money.

More generally, I believe there is a correlation between money and happiness, but only up to a certain level, at which point most of our needs are met, and more money doesn't tend to make people that much happier.

Elizabeth W. Dunn, Daniel T. Gilbert, Timothy D. Wilson, If money doesn't make you happy, then you probably aren't spending it right , Journal of Consumer Psychology, Volume 21, Issue 2, 2011, Pages 115-125, ISSN 1057-7408, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcps.2011.02.002

Published 23 Aug 2013

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Henrik Kniberg's release strategy for happier customers, sooner showing a car built piece-by-piece and a car built skateboard, to scooter, to bike, motorcycle then car.

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I love this diagram by Henrik Kniberg for determining what to release to your customers and when. The idea is that a standard approach of having your grand plan of what you think people want at the start and then working on each bit at a time until finally, after months of work, you have something that works is not so smart. Each piece, in the car example, doesn’t help the customer at all until it’s all put together. Instead, you can focus on providing the next piece of functionality that helps someone get their job done a little better than before. In the beginning, they’ll probably have to put up with a lot if they want to use it, but with each successive release, they find they can get their job done a little better than before and get value out of what you’re building. A side-effect is the feedback you get along the way will likely help you learn and build something that is better than what you had in mind at the beginning, and all along the way, the customer had some value instead of waiting for months. Providing usable functionality at every step is not always easy, and it requires rework as you move from one step to the other. But it’s generally a price worth paying to give your customers value sooner and start learning as soon as you can. This diagram is explained in the brilliant product management book User Story Mapping by Jeff Patton.…I love this diagram by Henrik Kniberg for determining what to release to your customers and when. The idea is that a standard approach of having your grand plan of what you think people want at the start and then working on each bit at a time until finally, after months of work, you have something that works is not so smart. Each piece, in the car example, doesn’t help the customer at all until it’s all put together. Instead, you can focus on providing the next piece of functionality that helps someone get their job done a little better than before. In the beginning, they’ll probably have to put up with a lot if they want to use it, but with each successive release, they find they can get their job done a little better than before and get value out of what you’re building. A side-effect is the feedback you get along the way will likely help you learn and build something that is better than what you had in mind at the beginning, and all along the way, the customer had some value instead of waiting for months. Providing usable functionality at every step is not always easy, and it requires rework as you move from one step to the other. But it’s generally a price worth paying to give your customers value sooner and start learning as soon as you can. This diagram is explained in the brilliant product management book User Story Mapping by Jeff Patton.

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