Hacker News Reader

Comment by jldugger | Hacker News Reader

> A browser extension called Curb Your Consumerism that detects when you are on a checkout page and shows you how long it took you to earn enough money to complete that purchase.

> The idea is about increasing the mindfulness of your purchases and reducing unnecessary environmental waste driven by impulse buying.

I like the idea, but this could backfire on me =/

app: "it will take you 10 minutes to afford this" me: "but it took 30 minutes to decide which one! now i need to buy three!"

View on HN

This was my exact thought... I already rationalize too many purchases with “whelp, that’s not even a days work!”

Small purchases easily eat up way more budget than most people realize. I bet a “you’ve $$$ in the last $TIME” feature would really help with that use case.

I mean, I really don't have a spending problem. It's a joke.

Oh I got you, I was just piggybacking for the OP’s eyes if they see it. Because lots of people do end up having budgeting difficulties due to a large number of small, seemingly inconsequential purchases.

“I made more money then I spent because I bought this at work!”

To everyone who plays the occasional video game during “wfh hours” - that $60 triple A title steam purchase actually is MAKING you money!

As someone who has worked from home my whole career - not really. You still have to get your work done because there is no butts in chairs measure of productivity in wfh. You will be judged on your output. In fact you often have to work harder than the people in the office because of this.

Taking time off during work hours usually means making it up in the evening or on the weekend.

As someone who has just started working at home, not really. Instead of sitting at my desk at work browsing the internet while I keep some terminals open to make it look like I’m doing stuff, now I can just explicitly do whatever I want at home.

Of course, it depends on your job and work load. Mine is basically this comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21961560

It also shows you a random but helpful prompt to reflect on the nature of consumerism and happiness. Maybe they'll decide to not buy all 3. Not guaranteed to save everyone or anyone.

If it monitors the cost of Time, then I hope it reminds you of how much earning potential you've lost arguing on social media too.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com