Apparently gas prices are dropping. Slowly. Apparently inflation is deflating. Maybe. I hope that means we humans will behave a little less irrationally. Like driving to save on gas. Read on.

(By the way, have you wondered why a gas price increase drives inflation? Well, I was once a formal economist. Allow me to explain it in a few simple sentences. Gas inflates a balloon. The more gas, the more inflation. Our economy is like a balloon. It grows and grows. And then it pops. Get it? Hang on. That sounds like nonsense. Surely, the more expensive gas is, the less gas you buy, the less you have for inflating. Now I’m confused. Maybe that’s why I am no longer a formal economist.)

A friend recently shocked me into sanity. He said that he seldom shops around for the exactly right product or a better price. He decides and buys. If wrong, he buys again. Sure, I thought, you can afford to.

But then I realized how much time and energy I waste on product and price research, on agonizing whether to buy now or later. It’s the equivalent of burning gas while driving to a slightly cheaper gas station. Where’s the logic in that?

Yes, it’s called opportunity cost. But you have not only lost the opportunity to spend that money on something else. You have also lost the opportunity to spend that time differently.

You could have engaged in more meaningful activities such as being with family and friends; eating and drinking; reading and sleeping; or even getting back to and on with your work.

Okay, scrub the last one.

Welcome to my side of the nonsense divide