A wrong decision secured the princess a place in the dark world of the spirits.

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Title Picture

Imagery like this feeds folktales. If she knew a little about the cost of search, the princess would not have been deceived.

I do remember a folktale about a princess who wanted the best hand in marriage. Well, the court messenger went round the kingdom and beyond to declare the princess’ wishes for the hand of the best male suitor. So, her suitors came. They came with treasures and gold; they came with servants and entreaties – to seek her hand in marriage. One after the other, the best men in the world came for her hand. They all failed.

Eventually, when she thought none of the men was good for her, a spirit being, who listens to the happenings on earth, knowing her weakness, came for her hand. He deceived her, giving her the satisfaction she sought. How did the story end? She left with the spirit being and was never found in the world of men.

Too bad, you might say. Folktales like this exist aplenty. This story is not about looking for morals, it is a classic example of what so many persons know but never knew they did: when we seek satisfaction, if options are presented to us sequentially, that is, one after the other, we do not always have the satisfaction we seek. We always have that angst, that feeling of insecurity, that the next option will be better than the last and the last is not better than the one coming ad infinitum.

Satisfaction comes with making the correct decision or choice.

Have you gone shopping to discover that another model of that shoe you wanted was not on display? You’d think the store was underhanded, right? We all hate uncertainty. It is the reason for the existence of insurance. Most persons are ready to pay a premium to take away uncertainties. Uncertainty creates angst. On the other hand, there are situations in life where all the options for making the correct decision can never be ready at the same time, especially in times of emergency; that will be a subject for another day.

Without mincing words, if you make people take decisions without presenting them with all the options in existence, they will never be satisfied.

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That is the princess’ problem. She always thought another prince was more charming than the last. She hoped for an abstract prince who would satisfy all her dreams of what a crown prince would act and look like.

So, her uncertainty led her to make the wrong decision. She was not satisfied until the spirit being came. Satisfaction is a basic human need. When we are not satisfied, it creates a market for our wants or needs. We are ready to pay extra for satisfaction. The princess was ready to rely on hope; to wait eternally for her prince charming. Have you ever had the same situation? I have and I believe I am not the only one.

The problem of not presenting all the options for a decision rests with the existence of alternatives. If all the options were presented at once, the princess would not have fallen for the spirit being. The deceit would have been discovered. The King was not wise to have realized that. You are fortunate to be reading this blog today; make a note of this.

Search came about because someone was not satisfied.

As I said before, since her prince charming was an alternative, she was ready to think: would the next prince be better than this one? Imagine you are in her shoes. All the princes came with gifts of state; déjà vu! You would tend to think like her, that the next would have something better, and the next and the next, ad infinitum. She might not have taken a decision but for supernatural intervention. We all face that problem daily. While looking for the best prices, we comparison shop. We even spend time and resources online for search. Looking for the best chef or restaurant? We spend time going through magazines and reading reviews. Want the best travel destination? We could make use of services like Orbitz or hipmunk .

It is not easy to have all the options at once. It would be fine if that was possible. Doing so, we could make the best decision, be more satisfied and be more committed to our choices. Our world is inundated with so much options that the search for the best seems eternal. Yet, there is a cost to looking for the best. Our search ends when the cost starts getting higher than the perceived benefits. The spirit being must have realized this in the princess and that was when he made his entrée. This is the human weakness.

Now, after all, everything has a moral. So the moral of the folktale: Look for a wide variety of options presented at the same time if you want to make a satisfying, committing decision. If the King had fixed a date for all the suitors to the princess to present themselves and asked her to make a decision on that date, she surely would have made the best choice of a prince charming.

When next you are thinking of an online shopping store, whether be it amazon, zulily or zappos, keep this in mind for a satisfying, committing choice.

Happy shopping this season.

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Your reaction in times of chaos and uncertainty can be a sign of class

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Hurricane sandy has left destruction and chaos in its attack. Some of its features were power outages, homes lost, and personal possessions destroyed. The value of these losses cannot be quantified. You can see some 323 vivid images of its destruction. If you are a victim of Hurricane sandy, take heart. You could do well to ask yourself: in the wake of Hurricane sandy, where did you turn to for protection?

It is an established fact that in times of crisis, a person’s reaction shows what class he must possibly belong to. There are those who place their protection and security on material wealth and possessions; on the other end of the pole, are those who place their protection on love and acceptance by people and society. Those who fall into the latter class run to community funded institutions for help, while those in the former class run towards financial institutions and material possessions.

Have you noticed that sometimes people fight over issues like respect, greetings and memorabilia? Are they useless goods? When family members fight over inheritance, some run to established customary institutions for arbitration, while some use the police and power derived from their wealth for arbitration. Where do you fall into? It depends on which of the above classes you fall into.

Where you money is, that is where your heart will be.

Money can't buyPhoto credit: Flickr.com, guimaiolini.

If you have lived in poor neighborhoods, you would realize that religious institutions play a major role in the lives of the people, while in richer or wealthier neighborhoods, financial and governmental institutions have more say in people’s lives. The poor have always sought love and acceptance by others, placing these on a higher plane than material wealth, while the reverse is the case for the rich. The poor can proudly say that “love of money” is materialism, and can readily decrease the value of material wealth and possessions .

When troubled, as by chaos and uncertainty, conflict, crisis or even a hurricane, the rich have found material wealth to be a salient, accessible and preferred individual copying mechanism within the social environment, more than relationships can provide, and vice versa for the poor.

So, when you feel that the world is unpredictable, seemingly random, or that things have turned topsy-turvy in your life, your reaction is an indicator of where your protection lies.

When under enormous stress, do you think of how much it’d take the psychiatrist for a diagnosis, or do you run to friends for a heart-to-heart? If the tuition for your college was hiked, or you anticipate academic failure, where do you turn for help? Faced with a family squabble, where do you turn for arbitration? What would you answer to the question: “Money or humans, which is more important”? If given the opportunity to migrate to a country where you can earn more money but lose something like spirituality, contact with people, friends and family, which would you chose?

Whatever choice you make, whether rich or poor, you can rightly say that you value love and acceptance by people, and that you want to maintain it, or that you value wealth and material possessions above the former, and you can do everything to maintain it.

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THIS MIGHT BE THE REAL IITA WARNING

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I believe you must have read the IITA warning to Nigeria concerning the exportation of cassava. It was reported, virtually verbatim, online by many newspapers covering business news on Nigeria. In that report, the IITA station manager, Mr. Olusegun Adunoye reiterated that rather than exporting cassava, Nigeria should invest in refining it internally for production of derivatives like bread, confectioneries and pastries.

His foreboding brings up questions such as: “If Nigeria is more efficient and effective in producing cassava, why should she not be exporting it even if she builds industries for refining derivatives from cassava?” His warning makes one believe that there should be a real fear lurking behind the warning.

THE BASIS FOR ADUNOYE’S ARGUMENTS

Refining cassava internally for revenue generation and creating employment for the millions of unemployment youths is laudable. Everyone should be all out for it. Exporting and refining abroad, then importing these cassava derivatives, true, will make us pay more than we will earn because the process of refining adds value to cassava as a raw material for the production process which makes the value of equivalent imports higher than the value of exporting these cassava. No one likes spending more than he earns.

But I do not think that Adunoye realizes that we are already an import dependent country. So whether we export our cassava or not, it will never change the fact that Nigerians will still be importing refined cassava derivatives. Our exporting cassava does not depend in any way on the importation of cassava derivatives. So spending on cassava and its derivatives will always be a fact of life. Why should we not be exporting so as to earn money that can mop up the country’s reserves or prevent us from running into debt?

His warning raises lots of questions on the reader’s mind. I believe there is an underlying untold story to that warning.

THE UNTOLD STORY OR THE REAL WARNING

One of the untold stories is what some writers call the farming problem. Due to the nature of market demand for agricultural products, increasing output of these at a rapid rate might end up reducing the total revenue for the industry or farmers as a whole. This is a fact of the industry and there is nothing anyone can do about it. If our cassava is sought for abroad, we have no option but to increase output and wish these problem does not befall our farmers. On the other hand, I have come to realize that when people kick against a process that should be natural, then they are acting out of experience based on what might have happened in the past or from fear of a past event.

We have lots of experience from the past that should make IITA or Adunoye afraid of opening up the cassava industry to the prying eyes of experts from abroad (e.g biotechnology). One of them is the Oil industry. Because the country was afraid foreigners would take over Nigerian Oil, government embarked on a lame indigenization program. Yet, the major players in the industry are still multinationals and our indigenous companies are still struggling along. We can also draw an example from the fate of southern African countries. In a bid to inexorably expand output, they opened up their land to foreign investment and ended up losing it.

I think that should be the fear that might be lurking at the back of Adunoye’s head. Exporting our cassava would mean increasing output in that sector and if the demand is very high, we might have to depend on science and technology for improved and mechanized farming methods, including investment from abroad. Nigerians are not adept in biotechnology but western companies or multinationals are. Opening up the cassava industry to them might result in our going the way of the oil industry or of Southern African countries who are forced to go on GM (genetically modified) foods and food aids.

That might be the real fear behind Adunoye’s warning.

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NAFDAC MIGHT HAVE EARNED ROUND ONE BUT THE FIGHT MIGHT NOT EVEN END.

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The consistent and dogged bad press through the public awareness efforts of the National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) is paying off. Drug counterfeiters have risen their hands in defeat and moved to the rural areas. Fine and good, but unfortunately, this is just round one. Remember that the dynamics of the urban and rural areas are of two opposite divides.

HARD WON FIGHT

What would one expect with the likes of Dr. Akunyili standing behind NAFDAC for many years before she left? NAFDAC’s consistent campaign has clothed drug counterfeiting and buying of fake drugs with such bad press that people have started opting for legal, over-the-counter drugs and this movement to rural areas is not only because the people are acting positively to NAFDAC’s efforts, these campaigns have also made the cost of selling fake drugs higher than recognized drugs. NAFDAC has achieved a laudable success over the years. Yet, one should realize that by moving to the rural areas, these drug counterfeiters can still come back to the cities because at the cities you can find people who are more receptive to NAFDAC’s message than at the rural areas because they are more enlightened, educated and have access to better health facilities and information.

These factors could weaken NAFDAC’s fight as she shifts the fight to the rural areas.

SUPERSTITION AND FEAR VS EDUCATION AND ENLIGHTENMENT

images like this are the stuff rural areas feed upon. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Two factors might work against NAFDAC if she thinks she can fight with the same way as she has won at the rural areas.

One of them is that the rural areas are less educated than the urban areas and they still are the custodians of our traditions and customs which traditions and customs will always be against western education and enlightenment. NAFDAC will be spreading its message to a whole new set of ears who do not understand cityspeak.

Another mitigating factor is that whereas there is a standard to how one can broadcast and deliver messages to educated people as a body, there is no known documented and workable way in which NAFDAC can deliver its messages to the rural areas as one body. Each village or clan have accepted customs and traditions that one should say unfortunately is laden with superstitions that were created by the support and encouragement of herbal doctors. These are to the benefit of fake drug sellers who promise all sorts of cure for even a simple drug as paracetamol. The dynamics of the rural areas makes her work harder.

Only time will tell how the fight will end, but surely, if they are not defeated, these drug counterfeiters will bid their time to return to the cities when NAFDAC loses steam or loses sense of direction. On these latter, I can place my bets.

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SOMETIMES ONE BELIEVES OUR PUBLIC OFFICIALS SHOULD BE TAKING COURSES IN PUBLIC SPEAKING AND COMMUNICATION

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Sometimes, when you read the speeches of our public officials, you wish they should be taking courses or lectures in public speaking and communication. While reading some articles on the online edition of The Daily Times of Nigeria, I thought the words of Folorunso Oginni, the Chairman of The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), does not augur well for millions of Nigerians who desire to portray a positive image of the country.

Words coated with much innuendos.

A snippet: “Nigeria has not recorded much investment in the oil sector because there is no law governing operations of the country’s petroleum industry.” In other words, what he means is that, if there is a law governing operations of the country’s petroleum industry, then Nigeria will record much investment in the oil sector.

Some of the consequences of those words are that: The operations of the country’s petroleum industry are carried out within an illegal framework. An illegal framework signifies lawlessness and with lawlessness, the Government would be raising dust because power has been taken from her.

What he must have meant.

No one likes to be a foreteller but I believe I understand what he wanted to say. What Folorunso Oginni must have meant is that the laws in force in the Oil industry possess so many loopholes that it encourages illegality which would scare foreign investors. Therefore, what he needs or wants are reforms of those laws.

Do failing oil companies cause crime?

The second snippet: “Most of the oil servicing companies we have here are not working and because they are not working, they have laid off their staff and this has increased the crime rate in the country.” Even though the casual reader would be interested in issues such as this, why are those companies not working? Is it because they cannot compete or they cannot break even? Also, do they need subsidies from the Government to survive or do we allow them to die? What are the consequences? Let’s stick to what I didn’t like about those statements.

Folorunso is insinuating here, and distastefully, that when workers are laid off from work, the only option left is to take to crime. I am unemployed for several years, but criminality has never been considered as an option for a source of revenue. Has it been for you? It tends to breach the limits of taste and careful speech.

What he does not realize.

Folorunso Oginni should realize, as I must believe he does, that although the unemployment rate in the country is very high (about 23%) but there are so many law abiding Nigerians walking the streets. That even if indigenous companies in the country cannot compete in the industry, the system has a way of absorbing these staff that have been laid off into other industries. Point of correction!

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IF I HAD KNOWN, I WOULD HAVE LEFT HIM AND THE DEVIL WITH THE TEN NAIRA.

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A restaurant attendant, Bright Effiong, for killing his customer, Chibuike Onyekachi, over an argument of a difference of ten naira (N10) in his bill, will have to face a one-count charge of murder. The restaurant where he is employed will probably be under lock and key while he awaits May 5, the day of his trial.

Misplaced priorities, when confused for poverty and ignorance, can be costly. Bright Effiong has learnt this the hard way.

What could make two young men fight over a difference of ten naira (N10)? If none of them could be indifferent to the difference, then nothing but biting poverty. But poverty or ignorance is no justification for one man to take the life of another.

As he sits in prison for the murder of Chibuike Onyekachi, Effiong will be moaning his loss of liberty and possibly life for going so far as to take another life. But unfortunately for him, he had all the opportunity in the world to have prevented this sorry state of affairs.

Like Judas, regrets cannot bring back the clock.

Credit: Almeida Junior on Wikimedia Commons

First of all, there is no justification for violence, especially murderous violence. Violence is very costly to everyone concerned. No nation in history has ever gone to war without making use of every window of opportunity for peaceful resolution.

The window was open for Effiong but he did not use it.

He could have decided that if the difference of ten naira was so capital to the running of his restaurant, he would have allowed the devil be and split it between him and Onyekachi. Where both men were staunch in their belief that they were right, then the probability was that 50-50, one was right and the other was wrong and they could have agreed to share the loss for a settlement of five naira (N5) each.

On the other hand, if that sharing formula was calling for too much, then Effiong should have considered the time and public relations cost, vis-à-vis other restaurants at Ijeshatedo where this took place, of engaging in a lengthy quarrel with Onyekachi when other customers were watching, and eventually to a fight. The highest reward he would have gained from this monumental loss was only ten naira (N10). As people say, ignorance is a disease, and crass ignorance should be a deeply entrenched syndrome.

All I can say is that, since the window of peace was wide open for him, then where he chose the “pieces” option, then he will have to sit down in the dark pits of the prison and await his fate come May 5.

Never forget the essentials. No matter the amount involved, always remember that peace is an option which opportunity cost is very low when you count the loss in time, people, trust, faith, loyalty, money etc. So, make for peace and pursue it.

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THE USE OF UNAUTHORISED FREQUENCIES BY THE BANKS AT BENIN WILL CONTINUE UNLESS NCC KNOWS HOW TO MEASURE THE BENEFITS.

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It was reported by Daily Times that the Benin branch of Ecobank was penalized for unauthorized use of frequencies of megahertz (Mhz) band but the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) noticed that Ecobank is not the only bank engaging in this illegal practice. Every other bank does it.

Even bad good business is costly for everyone.

Everyone suffers when nobody wants to do the right thing. That is why the cost of using cyberspace would increase by this activity. The banks know this as much as you and I. Because the benefits of this practice far outweighs any cost, which the simple eye cannot even see by the way, then no one would complain.

It has been argued several times that we all need the services of the Government. When you realize that its activities serve to sanitize the markets and enables competition and entrepreneurship to flourish, that is when you will be willing to cooperate with Government policies.

Although sometimes Government does the wrong things; like every mortal does. Government is run by mortals like you and I.

As for private firms, they are in the business of maximizing profits. Social costs and benefits or morality are their tools when it would help them make more money. So isEcobank, and every other bank. If she is penalized by the NCC for unauthorized use of frequencies in cyberspace, she would not count the social costs she has imposed on others which called for this penalty but, what would she lose if she stops doing this?

If what Ecobank stands to gain is above the penalty, then I bet you, she will continue to invade cyberspace at Benin branch unauthorized.

How much penalty is enough for this case?

That is why NCC knows she has to calculate how much penalty is enough to stop this practice. If she can, it would a loss to engage in it.cbn revokes 47 licenses.That is the problem of every regulator, not only that of NCC. They do not have enough information to act to make defaulters face the true costs of their actions. Even if it is in the best interest of everyone for NCC to know this, nobody is prepared to risk its company secrets to allow some regulator go through its books without being watched.

So where the penalty can never be enough, all the banks will continue this practice. NCC should be content with public warnings and occasional penalties and fines.

The end result of all this, where it pays to be bad, is that we suffer for things we would have avoided, like Ecobank’s neighbor finding that sometimes her frequencies are jammed or clogged. It might lose him money, trust, or customer loyalty, but since no one can calculate how much, it is up to anyone’s guess.

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WHEN SOME FAT YEARS COME AFTER SO MUCH LEAN YEARS, WOULD YOU SUDDENLY GROW FAT OR STILL STAY LEAN? PART 2

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a general example of perfect elasticity. Credit: commons.wikimedia.org

During the day, I tried to look at the network service provider’s side of the brouhaha, wondering why they should want to bless me with so much bonus data?

I BELIEVE THEY WANT TO INFLUENCE THE CHOICES I MAKE

Every company wants you to choose its product when faced with myriad others. So does my network service provider. Because the income we all earn is not likely to be increased soonest, any profit making company wants you to believe that if it increases its price, it wouldn’t make even a little hole in your pocket.

But it would for this particular product: access to the internet based on a data plan. If they increased the price of the service, even by a naira, I’d go onto Google to search for the prices of competing products. They are aplenty here in Lagos. If so many customers do the same thing, then it would create a big hole in the profit basket of that company.

So they’d rather not think of increasing the price of the service. Rather, by blessing me with a huge data bonus, they want me to increase my spending such that if and when the price increases, (inflation is a given in life just as air for breathing is), I’d never notice. Why? Because I was over-satisfied and no other company can provide such.

Satisfied I was. Would they succeed? I thought they were succeeding. I had to watch it. If I played to their game and increased my spending, then I’d create a dependency on the bonus data that would become parasitic if long running.

I’d rather not fall into dependency when so many other substitutes are around the corner.

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE UNIQUE

I was at Trade Fair this week and someone told me he could surf the internet for free. I snorted. The price of the internet access was enough for my pocket. It was not free but I was content that I would not have to wonder if free came with a proxy or a dubious VPN network.

In a world where mobile Internet was becoming commonplace, quote or unquote me, I thought I would queue up for them, plus the bonus data, mind you, any day and anytime.

And ironically, if you’d ask me I’d have replied: “Yes, if they gave higher bonus data, I’d have preferred it, and could have used it, even if there was the trap of dependency around the corner.”

LIFE IS NOT AS SIMPLE THOUGH

Well, even if they wanted me to believe that if there was a little disturbance in the economy and they had to increase the price a little I wouldn’t mind, two or three months later, I might begin to notice. I’d rather they do not. I thought they would win the game if they increased my bonus data up to a point where if there were economic disturbances, my spending would neither increase nor decrease. Then, life would be simple for me.

But at what point is that? When I was supposed never to be satisfied? Waiting for when I might be asked to answer some survey questions: “Just a minute, please”, the next time I log onto my account?

Back to Part 1.

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CASHLESS OR CASHLITE: HOW MUCH WILL WE LOSE IF TO SOLVE A NAGGING PROBLEM WE DISTORT THE MARKET IN QUESTIONABLE WAYS.

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Those who are conversant with the news from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) know that one major headache it has is that there are too much cash in the hands of the public. I keep wondering how the CBN intends solving that generational problem.

The recent move to indirectly tax the rich by placing limits on cash withdrawals might result in unforeseen effects for the government that were not predicted.

THE TASTE OF THE PUDDING IS…

The demand for cash will not increase inexorably if substitutes exist. If we compare the opportunity cost of the touted substitutes with that of cash, which will be higher, for transactional and debt payment purposes? Laughable!

I do not see POSes all over satellite town where I live. ATM usage is increasing but should I have to walk to a bank every time I want to collect money, when I was doing that with cash? Where are the ecommerce websites? Even if you want to pay for services and products abroad, some banks still ask for domiciliary account.

Rather than place a hidden tax on cash, would it not be better the CBN carries out this experiment on themselves, with banks and other financial institutions rather than the non-banking public?

How? It should start a process of curtailing or rationing the amount of cash every bank and branch can release to the public. Above that limit, any customer would be made to realize that, “there are substitutes out there, why not use them?” Rather than force customers to bear the burden, we want the banks and the CBN to show they are sincere in its assertion that the substitutes are cheaper and easier.

If cash are rationed such that substitutes seem cheaper, would we see a queue behind ATM machines? That is the test. Would my mobile money account reflect my new bank balances, where I am forced to use them because “cash is not enough at the counter?” That is the test of the exercise. As people say, the taste of the pudding is in the eating.

Take away the cost from the customer and bear the cost, mighty CBN, so that the better bank will win and the loser banks will be at your doorsteps for carrying out a program that crippled its business.

FREEDOM TO CHOOSE IS CENTRAL TO THE SUCCESS OF A CAPITALIST ECONOMIC SYSTEM

If the Government and CBN fail to realize that freedom to choose is key to the success of a capitalist economic system, then it is playing a game which secondary effects we might never know until we are back to level zero. By taxing them from the word go, the people are not free to choose what payment method they want – cash or the touted substitutes.

Placing a limit on withdrawals affects no other sector but the public consuming sectors. Why not the banking sector?

Placing a price on withdrawals affects no other sector but the public consuming sectors. Why not the banking sector?

I wonder why the CBN should not bear the responsibility and burden for a program it wants and dearly seeks to solve; why throw it onto the public. Because she is afraid it might fail?

Fear thee not, CBN. Phase out the long drawn talk about cashless or cash-lite, give us substitutes and make them cheaper than cash. We’ve had enough burdens for one quarter.

Note before: I have not read the CBN document on cashless and think it is a waste of time. Six months from now, I might download it for reading.

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ANNA LOVES HENRY, HENRY LOVES ANNA.DESTINATION NEXT: THE ALTAR, RIGHT? LIFE IS NOT AS SIMPLE AS THAT.

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On a hot sunny day, the sky suddenly turns dark, very dark, as if storm clouds were approaching. What would you conclude? It’s going to rain. Often, we are disappointed when the rain doesn’t come. I have a friend who when he goes to his shop in the morning and finds water at the front of his shop goes instantly for a copy of his bible, because bad people are after his business all over again. “They have started doing incantations against my life,” he would argue. Fortunately for him, he still makes money at his business.

Often and on, when two things happen together, people believe and wrongly too, that the one causes the other.

Take love and marriage for example. When I was young and innocent, and stupid, I used to think that if two people love themselves, then the next step would be the altar. Does love cause marriages? Only the innocent would agree heartily to that. So many other factors cause marriages: money, self-interest, public acclaim or what we call fame, traditional family relationship and so on and so forth.

When one hangs his booths with the correlation is causation camp, he tends to believe in all sorts of superstition and is weighed down with fear, guilt and nervousness. A friend from Agbor told me that children should not be allowed to eat eggs when they are young because it teaches them to be thieves. Why? “Time and again, our elders have found that children, especially those from well to do homes, who are brought up on eggs, tend to take to stealing. It doesn’t happen once, not twice, but many times,” he retorted.

I did not have any data right then to throw his claims away, but I thought he was trying to say my parents should stop me from having eggs when we take tea and bread for breakfast? And then, I was still young. Just in JSS2. There was no way I could unstick him from his belief.

Because I had a bad dream this night and lost my work the next morning, it does not mean the witches who are after my life have begun gaining the upper hand? Nope. I always remember this advice: do not dwell on the bad events of your life, think of what you can make out of your bad experiences.

On the other hand, when two things go together, one can cause the other. Love sometimes causes marriage. Or when you have a good product with the right price, you are surely going to sell more than your competitors.

The caveat is: looking for correlation in everything and sticking to a fictitious, superstitious belief that when we find a correlation, then we have a key, a formula, for some problem that is looking for a solution.

Life is not as simple as that.

Like I used to remind myself: even the devil doesn’t put all his eggs in one basket.

content here.

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WHY SHOULD I PAY SO MUCH TO REACTIVATE A PHONE WHEN SIM CARDS ARE SO CHEAP?

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I was pondering this question when I lost the password to my mailbox. I had cheaper options, like opening a new box, getting a new SIM card for two hundred etc.
I decided to pay one thousand naira (N1, 000.00) to reactivate the sim card and also reactivate the phone. My mailbox was tied to the phone line.

It was all about trade-offs. We all bear something painful, like some cost, in order to enjoy a benefit, or some given pleasure.

Every year thousands of teenagers pay good money to sit for JAMB/UTME exams. Why should they? Because the gains of a university education far outweighs the gains of ignorance, of fear and superstition.

Look at it from another point of view. The more we enjoy meals that are rich in calories and sugars, the higher our risk of being obese, or even suffering diabetes. In a secondary fashion, we have to increase our exercise regime and increase our expenditures on exercise equipment and time for exercise.

A fool counts only the benefits and profits of any venture. There is an equal action or force that tends to be a drag on the benefits. We tend to call it costs, and when there are much of them, we have the option of creating a list and prioritizing them.

Take two parties who are haggling. The seller tends to set a high price, while the buyer expects a low price. It takes a balancing act, a-back-and-forth kind of exercise, before both parties agree to make the transaction possible, or not possible.

Every day, we tradeoff one gain for another loss. Why are you reading this blog? Why did you spend good money to be on the internet? That money could have been used for something else.

So I do not feel I was foolish to have paid a thousand naira in order to reactivate my email. Afterall, the mailbox is tied to a blog, an analytics dashboard and a blog monetization application. I might never be able to quantify these online applications, but I think they are worth one thousand naira.

So, I made a profit.

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