Hi everyone 👋,

Recently I heard about this idea that looking at someones expenses can tell a lot about a person, perhaps sometimes more than having a conversation with them.

🤔 Can it be true?

The idea here is that if someone cares a lot about personal development (for example), they should probably be spending some money on that, because it can help and speed up growth.

Can spending money on personal development actually make someone learn more better faster?

The simple answer is yes. This might not be obvious (it was also not obvious to me), but thinking about this for a few minutes will probably lead most people to the same conclusion.

One reason I didn’t clearly see this is because in many situations educational expenses are handled not by the affected person, but on that person’s behalf by the government, by the employer, or by parents.

Because of that peculiarity it is entirely possible to become a highly educated, specialized professional without ever having spent much money on it.

So what’s the deal now with personal development? Why can’t that also be done by using other peoples money?

That’s precisely because it’s personal development. My personal development means I pursue my own path, my own dreams, which means I also need to take charge of the skillsets I develop.

If my goal was to follow an institutional path and become a doctor, perhaps I shouldn’t spend much money on education, because (in Europe) most of that sector is government controlled and there might be a very low correlation between extraordinary skill development and career advancement.

My journey though is entrepreneurship, and here this correlation is very high.

💰 How much to spend on Education?

First I tried to write about this with numbers, but it quickly turned out to be too complicated.

Instead I just want to challenge myself with some questions:

• Is it more important to me to enjoy fancy food or to learn new skills?
• Is it more important to me to live in a fancy place or to learn new skills?
• Is it more important to me to travel around the world or to learn new skills?

What all these comparisons have in common is that they are tradeoffs between short term hedonism and long term growth.

So, how much?

Honestly I really struggle to put any number here, because anything I could mention appears at the same time unreasonably high (according to average human behavior) and also ridiculously low (according to my first principles thinking).

Alright, I am just going to leave this open-ended, because I already spent way too much writing and thinking about this topic.

I’d love to hear if anyone of you ever grappled with this question and at what conclusion you arrived.

Warm greetings from Olten 😊

Gregor Olten