Slapping your face to look prosperous.

I am blogging from SMU where I am looking for textbooks to buy and read.

( By now, reading textbooks and academic papers have become more interesting than management books which are becoming just an endless stream of narratives with no unifying theme or point. Another point to select an ace engineer : Find out whether he reads IEEE papers. )

Two issues ago The Economist published a short article about folks belonging to the lower income group who have a propensity to overspend on branded goods. It was discovered that as we move towards the lowest quintile of income, extroverts tend to buy more branded goods but introverts do not exhibit this behavior.

What does this mean :

A) That ancient Cantonese saying makes some amount of sense.

The link to the saying is as follows. Our ancestors did not have the analytical tools to figure out that this only applied to extroverts.

B) If you want to marry someone who will suffer with you, choose an introvert.

This idea really takes on some traction if you claim that you want to marry someone who is willing to suffer with you. When you are poor, it is the introverted person who will stick around and cut their spending. Extroverts will double up and exhaust whatever resources you have.

Don't say I didn't warn you !

C) The folks queuing up for branded stuff might be rich or simply poor extroverts.

With this insight, we're no longer so sure that the folks queuing outside ION or the Apple Store are rich or simply extroverts who earn at the bottom quintile of the population. With the right kind of credit card, any acquisition is possible.

D) This might explain Sapeur culture

If you are frugal and follow financial blogs, you will find sapeurs or folks who adhere to La Sape culture fascinating. Sapeurs are African dandies who pawn their land to dress in French Designer wear.

This discovery has also caused me to have a double take of my personal life. I'm fairly extroverted if you benchmark me against the other guys who write financial blogs.

My life would have been very different if I were born under poorer circumstances.