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Economists love to review our decisions through the lens of opportunity costs. Each decision we make has the added cost of that which we did not do.
When a big box-store clerk, paid hourly, volunteers to leave her shift early because foot traffic is particularly slow, she’s making a choice. She values what she does with that time more than the wage she would have earned.
When an influential academic, evaluated by her published research, agrees to take on another young mentee, she’s making a choice. She values that relationship and the person’s development more than what she perceives to be the potential career gains she could have developed with more time in the lab.
I wrestle with this paradigm more often than I might want to admit.
Continue reading Opportunity costs: think of the big but not the small