哪種享樂方式最適合你 這裏有個公式

A few years ago, my wife and I considered buying a boat. We both grew up water-skiing on the lakes here in Utah, and some of my best memories involve being on the water. I was talking about this with my friend Eric, because he has a boat, and he introduced me to his “cost per units of fun” concept.

幾年前，我和妻子考慮買一條船。我們都是從小就在猶他州的湖上滑水，我最美好的記憶也都和水有關。我的朋友埃裏克(Eric)有一條船，我和他聊起這個主意，於是他就向我介紹了他的“單位享樂成本”理念。

“Over the years,” he said, “I’ve looked back carefully at the things we’ve done that have been the most fun for our family. Above all else has been our trampoline. It cost us considerably less per unit of fun than anything else I could think of. In second place were our motorcycles. Then way down on the list, like a long way down behind motorcycles and trampolines, was the boat.”

他說：“我仔細回想一家人這麼多年來做過的最有意思的事情，發現最開心的就是玩蹦牀。我們在它上面花費的‘單位享樂成本’比任何東西都少。其次是我們的摩托車。這個單子再往下排，摩托車和蹦牀之後很多名才能輪到船。”

Now, whether you agree with that hierarchy or not (or their particular choices or tastes), the concept itself is extremely cool. We have seemingly unlimited options for fun, which is great. But we all have limits on the time, energy and money we have. Even if you are a millionaire retired at age 40, there are still only 24 hours in a day. We are constantly faced with decisions on how we spend these limited resources. Whether you are aware of it or not, you are doing those calculations all the time. We all are.

好吧，不管你同不同意這個順序（或者說他們的選擇和品位），這個概念本身還是挺酷的。我們似乎有無窮無盡的享樂方式，這很棒。但我們的時間、精力和金錢都是有限的。就算你是百萬富翁，40歲就退休，但你一天也仍然只有24小時。如何運用這些有限的資源？我們一直需要做出取捨。不管有沒有意識到，你都是隨時隨地在做這樣的計算。我們大家都是這樣。

Consider something as basic as dinner. I used to really like going out to eat. I thought it was fun. But over time, I found that taking our four children out to dinner wasn’t always the most fun. Making dinner at home, especially on a Friday or Saturday night when everybody was around and involved, now that was awesome. We spent years going out to eat before we did this back-of-the-napkin calculation based on what my friend had mentioned about the calculation of cost per unit of fun.

就拿晚飯這麼基本的事情來說吧。我過去確實很喜歡出去吃。我覺得這是一種樂趣。但是隨着時間推移，我發現，帶着四個孩子出去吃飯並不會總那麼開心。現在我發現，在家做晚飯纔是很棒的事情，特別是星期五和星期六的晚上，大家可以歡聚一堂。很多年來，我們都是出去吃，如今有了朋友的這個“單位享樂成本”計算公式，我們可以草草計算一下。

Here’s how the formula works. You start by putting the total amount you are spending in the numerator. Then, in the denominator, goes a guess of the units of fun you get from the activity. Now, I realize that is totally subjective because there is no standard unit of measurement for fun. But we’re not going to let that get in the way. Just make a guess. In the end, the only measure of fun that matters is your own, so your guess will work just fine. But to make it a little easier, we are going to use a scale from one to 10, with one being the least fun and 10 being the most fun.

這個公式是這麼算的。先拿你爲某件事花的錢的總數當分子。然後再估算一下你從這個活動中得到多少個單位的樂趣，拿這個數字當分母。我知道這太主觀了，能獲得多少單位的樂趣根本就沒有可以量化的標準。但是別讓這個妨礙你。就是估計一下。到頭來，唯一能夠衡量樂趣的標準還是你自己的感受，所以你自己估計一下就很好。如果要簡單一點，你可以使用從1到10的分級，1代表最沒樂趣，10代表樂趣最大。

Let’s go through this calculation together with the dinner example. First, we start with the cost. We’ll assume a meal out with the family costs $100. In this case, we would put $100 in the numerator. Then, we’ll just take a guess at the units of fun. Over the years, we’ve discovered that for us, eating out is about a four. What we have, then, is $100/4, or $25. So eating out costs us $25 per unit of fun.

讓我以晚餐爲例演示一下這個計算式。首先是成本。我們假設全家人一起出去吃一頓飯要花100美元。所以我們就拿100美元當分子。然後，我們要評估一下樂趣單位。這麼多年來，我們發現，對於我們來說，出去吃飯的樂趣等級相當於4。所以我們就可以用100美元除以4，得出25美元。於是，我們外出吃飯的“單位享樂成本”就是每單位樂趣25美元。

Now, let’s compare that with making dinner at home. Typically, eating in costs a little less, like $80. So $80 becomes our numerator. For us, eating in is a really fun experience, like a nine out of 10. So for our unit of fun, we use nine, and $80/9 equals $8.89.

下面要把它同在家做飯的單位樂趣成本進行對比。一般來說，在家做飯花的錢要少些，大約是80美元。所以就用80美元做分子。對於我們來說，在家吃飯真的是很開心的體驗，如果最高標準是10，那就大概相當於9。所以我們用9來做分母，單位享樂成本就是80美元除以9，合8.89美元。

There’s a huge difference between $8.89 per unit of fun and $25. The calculation made our decision much more clear. Eating at home costs us considerably less per unit of fun.

8.89美元的單位樂趣成本和25美元的單位樂趣成本相差真不是一星半點。這個計算讓我們更加明確了自己的決定。在家吃飯讓我們大大節約了單位享樂成本。

This formula has its shortfalls. It’s not great for comparing a drive in your $50,000 car with going to the free concert at the park. It may not even be valuable in that situation. But I’ve found it to be an incredibly useful tool for comparing similar activities. It doesn’t really matter what number you come up with. The point is to use the formula to help gauge which activity or purchase will give you the most bang for your buck. And the boat did not win out in our family, since we decided we valued other forms of outdoor activity much more.

這個公式也有缺陷。要比較開着價值5萬美元的車出去兜風和去公園參加免費音樂會，用這個公式就不容易比出來。但我發現，如果用來比較類似的活動，這個公式是個非常方便的工具。最後得出的數值其實無關緊要。重點是使用這個公式來幫助你評估一項活動或一項購買是否能帶來最佳性價比。最後我家沒有通過買船的方案，因爲我們覺得還是其他形式的戶外活動更重要。

Try using this formula in your day-to-day decision making and actually think it through. Pull out a napkin, put a value in the numerator and make a guess at the denominator. If you are like me, and everybody else I have ever talked to about this, I bet you will find examples where you say, “Wow, I spend a lot of time on that, and I don’t even really like it.”

試試在日常生活決策中應用這個公式，並且認真思考吧。拿出一張草稿紙，把價格寫下來當分子，再評估一下分母。如果你和我一樣，我猜你肯定會發現這樣的例子，“天哪，我花了那麼多時間在這個事情上面，我其實根本就不喜歡它。”我和不少人聊過這個話題，他們也是這樣的。

That will give you the information you need to start making different decisions, and you can start minimizing the cost per unit of fun on the things you like to do as we roll into a new year.

這種方式能讓你得到有用的信息，幫你做出不同選擇，這樣一來，在新的一年裏，你就可以做你喜歡做的事情，把單位享樂成本降到最低限度。