I can tell because I have read every last scrap of tesla news and inadvertently memorized every last technical detail about the company and their cars and energy storage systems that has ever been printed or youtubed.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia since about 2012. When this happens to me for any product, whether it’s a new laptop or a different vehicle or a house in a certain neighborhood, I usually end up buying it.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia

And it’s not just me. As I’ve talked to more and more people about this, I find that most of us have some sort of purchase justification machine running in the background of our minds.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia the PJM’s effects can range from very useful, like a carpenter buying a nailgun which will be used every day to make money, to completely disastrous, like the office worker who buys a $40,000 8-passenger honda pilot for his 12,000 annual miles of mostly empty driving on smooth roads, because “I need to make sure I can get to work in the winter, too.”

cognitive learning definition wikipedia

I like to fancy my own PJM as being at least a bit better than average, after all I have always maintained a slightly-less-ridiculous level of spending than the average middle class worker.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia most of the things it has talked me into buying have indeed been things like nailguns or reasonably good quality clothing that just happens to be from costco or the thrift shop.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia

• “you don’t even have anywhere to drive that tesla, dude! If you had a mandatory 20-mile commute and absolutely could not move closer to your six-figure job, that would be one thing.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia but you’re retired and you bike everywhere, so a car is only for camping and hiking trips. Wait until you are further along in the child-raising project and have more free time to take off for month-long road trips.”

cognitive learning definition wikipedia

• “you can’t just leave a $40,000 car out in the searing colorado sun to bake and fade and collect birdshit, but you also don’t want to sacrifice an entire bay of your tidy workshop garage for a car.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia so you need to at least wait until you build that master bedroom deck which doubles as a carport, right? So you’d better get out the post-hole digger before you sign into the tesla design studio.”

cognitive learning definition wikipedia

A friend of mine loves to cook, and has been pining for a kitchen upgrade for many years to make this activity more enjoyable. And I can’t blame him – his kitchen is indeed dated, as is the rest of the house.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia but he’s also in debt and not climbing out very quickly. And too busy to do the kitchen upgrade work himself, because work and kids suck up all his time.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia should he allow himself to upgrade this kitchen?

• use another hour of each day for cleaning, organizing and optimizing the house you already have.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia is every drawer in the kitchen well-organized? Could you get more space by hanging up the pots and pans? Adding one of those large but simple heavy duty rolling islands with butcherblock top from costco?Cognitive learning definition wikipedia what about just a super nice faucet for 80 bucks and a couple of nice track lights?**

• how about the finances? Have you checked around for lower mortgage rates, home and car insurance, mobile phone plans, and canceled any unused subscriptions?Cognitive learning definition wikipedia ask your friends what rates they are paying for all these things, switch to the best option, and you cut your bills by $500 per month, which will add up to pay for a kitchen pretty quickly.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia

They were the same reasons that I had listed above – he’s mostly curious about the future of technology, wanted to support it, and knows that tesla is it.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia if it weren’t for tesla’s existence, he would be perfectly content with a 15-year-old honda. This company is really pulling out a unique set of buyers that no other car company could ever entice.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia

So we took it for a test drive. My diagnosis: very similar to the nissan leaf in interior size and tight, silent driving feel for standard urban driving – except much more artistic inside and out, and so fast that you literally start to lose consciousness and get dizzy under full acceleration.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia kinda silly, but the very existence of cars is silly so you might as well embrace it.

In the comments: what is YOUR purchase justification machine trying to make you buy?Cognitive learning definition wikipedia have you already bought the model 3 or are you still milking the 2010 prius for all it’s worth? How long are you going to push your current smartphone until you allow yourself to replace it?Cognitive learning definition wikipedia sharing your battles will give others the strength to keep their own procrastination game strong.

Great job holding off! I fight against my own purchase justification machine regularly for things like a used S with the rear facing kids seats, or a 3 wheeled electric assist cargo trike that could take the kids to school for just a few thousand bucks (currently I’m working on convincing myself that even when they outgrow our bike trailer we can still always walk to school).Cognitive learning definition wikipedia that being said there are things out there which have fallen in price so much that buying them will literally make you money. In these cases our reluctance to purchase is screwing us.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia

One example of this is solar panels. The ROI on panels is greater than that of bonds or cds in most states in the country, and yet you don’t see them on all that many houses.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia obviously shaded roofs, renters, and the general populace’s lack of assets have something to do with this, but still it’s surprising that there aren’t more of these money making marvels out there already.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia even more surprising is that MMM hasn’t done more solar than they small array he installed at his co-working space (or maybe he has, but the blog post about it just hasn’t come out yet).Cognitive learning definition wikipedia

Another example is used nissan leafs. I’ve seen 2012s for under $5,000. At that price many people could simply add a leaf to their already bloated car collection and actually make money just by shifting all the wasteful around town miles they put on their gas guzzler onto that leaf.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia the fact that people aren’t doing this boggled my mind enough that I wrote a whole blog post on it.

Do you really buy the reducing the damage to mother earth statement?Cognitive learning definition wikipedia I guess if you compare buying a brand new gas vehichle vs. TESLA, then ok that makes sense. But you are still building something that ultimately has extremely negative consequences to the environment.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia the goal should be how to elimnate the need for cars, by building better cities, more efficient public transporation, encourage the use of bicycles (or e-bikes for longer distances), etc.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia even something a simple as encouraging more remote workers so we don’t have everyone trying to get to work at the same time can be immensely more beneficial than people just switching to EV cars.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia I know you are a big supporter of all of these as well. I’d much rather see elon use his brillance to actually saving the environment rather than building a slightly less harmful product than the current gas powered car.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia I know that you are really are an environmentalist at heart, but ever time I hear the term “green vehicle” it really makes me cringe. Reply

cognitive learning definition wikipedia

However… you say that “you still generally need a gas car.” this is a common misconception, and it’s absolutely false. I’ve taken multiple 800+ mile road trips in my model 3, each with multiple adult passengers and all their luggage.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia it’s the best road trip car I’ve ever owned, and you’d have to drag me, kicking and screaming, back to a gas-powered car. When, amongst my circle of friends, we’re going on a road trip, I always (happily) drive now, whereas we used to trade off the responsibility.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia the supercharger network is mature enough for me to easily and comfortably drive anywhere in the continental united states, and the charge times are fast enough that it’s not really a significant change compared to driving an ICE vehicle.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia consider that most of us need to stop for food and bathroom breaks, and we can’t do that *while* filling a gas tank. We CAN do that while filling an EV, though, and by the time everyone in the car has had a chance to use the facilities and get a quick snack, the car generally has charged considerably more than needed for the next leg of the trip.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia and even though superchargers cost 2-3 times as much as home electricity rates, they’re still a good deal cheaper than gasoline (leave with a full charge, and stay someplace with a free destination charger, and that cost just keeps plummeting).Cognitive learning definition wikipedia

CCS and chademo networks are starting to make headway in catching up. That means that soon, this should be a reality for non-tesla EV drivers, too.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia and at least within certain regions (e.G. Up and down the coasts), this is already a reality for non-tesla EV drivers, assuming they bought a car with a DC fast-charging capability (I was surprised to see that both nissan and chevy offer DC fast-charging ports as additional-cost options, whereas tesla includes it with every vehicle).Cognitive learning definition wikipedia reply

Just the opposite. My model 3 is the best road trip car I’ve ever owned. I’ve taken multiple 800+ mile road trips, and charging really adds a surprisingly minimal amount of time.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia A lot of people make the comparison between charge time and gas pump time as if they’re 1:1 comparisons… but you can’t do anything else while pumping gas, and more often than not, you need to satisfy other bodily functions after you finish pumping gas (which you can do while charging a car).Cognitive learning definition wikipedia and at least once we’re past our 20s, most of us need to stop more often than necessary to pump gas anyhow. My old altima could go 550 miles on a tank of gas.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia I needed to get out and stretch my legs every couple hundred miles. With the model 3, my need to get out and my need to charge are nicely aligned, and the end result is that only a few minutes are added to an 8+ hour drive.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia I’ll accept that delay of a few minutes given how much cheaper electricity is than gas, given how much cleaner it is, and given how much more fun this car is to drive.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia

My current dilemma: I recently crashed and broke my mountain bike. The frame is cracked and a replacement carbon front triangle is $900. The PJM is making the case for putting the $900 towards a new and improved $2k aluminum frame.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia I would then move all the parts from the broken frame to the new frame. I “need” a working mountain bike. The questions is do I reinvest $900 in “old” 2016 mtb technology or spend $2k on new a 2019 frame design.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia

I am not a fan of tesla. Given your engineering background I understand why you are. Everything you said about them is true but I think tesla’s primary impact will be the perpetuation of our broken system built on a car based lifestyle and its numerous negative externalities.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia without tesla it might be more likely for the fossil fuel based car lifestyle to implode, collapse, and eventually give rise to more happy city style walkable/bikeable communities.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia my concern is that tesla basically gives a “green” rubber stamp of approval to wealthy people who design there lives around a 20 mile commute from suburbia.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia

As far as the “green” argument goes, electrification of private vehicles is a minuscule improvement. The embedded energy and lifecycle cost of a private vehicle is mostly in the manufacture, storage, and service of that vehicle, not fuel.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia an electrified fleet of private vehicles that continue to sit 95% of the time, and occupying multiple parking spaces within a city, is going to continue to have a big negative impact on both the energy efficiency and quality of life in our cities.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia it’s also such a massive environmental waste to have huge banks of valuable li-ion cells just sitting in peoples driveways pushing their shelf-life, rather than maxing out their discharge cycles in an intensive application.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia

We should be focusing on electrifying our intensively used vehicles: taxis, buses, delivery vehicles, shared-vehicles, waste management trucks, etc.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia that would be, by far, the best use of limited resources to have an actual impact on air quality, energy efficiency, carbon emissions, noise levels, etc etc.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia now, sure, buying a tesla is supporting a new industry that will eventually electrify those vehicles, but so would *investing* in electrification companies like tesla.Cognitive learning definition wikipedia the actual private car it’s self is still a big “green” negative and a drain on quality of life in cities (unless you plan on sharing it or putting it to intense work in some way).Cognitive learning definition wikipedia reply