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The Ski Rental Problem

lesves.github.io

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Re: The Ski Rental Problem

#71

Post by paulryanrogers »

andai wrote: post #61
svachalek wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I once read somewhere that you should date at least... 6? people and leave before it gets too serious, before settling down with anyone. It seemed to imply there was math involved but it didn't explain. I think it must be the same statistics here, with some estimate of how many people you could meet and burn through without getting too old. I think people just don't really work this way but otherwise it…

I've seen stats that correlated number of previous partners with divorce risk. But I always wondered if that was a correlation rather than causation (i.e. both of those factors sharing underlying causes). An obvious example is that a person from a culture where sex before marriage is unacceptable is also from a culture where divorce is frowned upon.

Someone from Uzbekistan told me that a girl can only date one man, and must marry him or her reputation is ruined forever. So when her now-husband wanted to date her, he had to take care to avoid making it official before they were sure to marry.

The US has a lot of subcultures, so I too doubt the usefulness of such studies.

Then again, for some leaving the subculture they know carries a very high social cost. Hopefully new generations will break some of these barbarous traditions.

Re: The Ski Rental Problem

#72

Post by david422 »

massung wrote: post #15

This feels very similar to the “radio” or “restaurant” problem: You’re driving down the street trying to decide which restaurant to stop at (or scanning through the radio trying to decide which song to stop on). If you stop at the first, there’s a good chance something better is ahead. But if you wait too long then you risk getting stuck with something you don’t really like (the problem assumes you can’t go back). If…

> I have the same issue every year with a ride on lawn mower. Do I just pay someone weekly or buy one outright and do it myself? In this case I loathe mowing,

I bought mine, ran great for 4 years, then ran into a bunch of trouble, which made me recognize the other hidden cost of ownership is simply just maintenance. A very expensive mower just sitting there, nearest potential repair shop far away, no idea how I'd even get it there let alone the cost. And if I decide I don't want it, I've got to pay to get rid of it now too.

Luckily I was able to watch a bunch of youtube videos and order myself some parts to get it up and running again, but definitely sunk quite a bit of time and energy into it.

Re: The Ski Rental Problem

#75

Post by stirfish »

newsclues wrote: post #63
thrawa8387336 wrote: post #17

Rent until you know what you want to buy. Done

This is what I recommend to people who are interested in a new expensive hobby. Try it before you buy it, make sure you love it and get an idea of what you like and plan your investment from there.

For tools, I buy the cheapest one. If (when) it fails, I replace it with one that is better along the metric that the original failed in.

For hobbies, they say "buy once, cry once", but there are so many ways to be unhappy! I won't limit myself! I say buy all, cry all, and learn all the different ways to cry. I don't ski, but for the analogy, I'd try short ones, long ones, cross country ones, racing ones, red ones, blue ones, etc and then only buy really nice ones once I understand exactly what the nice ones do that the others don't. There's a good chance that I'll learn I like skis more than I like skiing, and that's okay.

Re: The Ski Rental Problem

#76

Post by geokon »

lisbbb wrote: post #13

Oh man, I had no idea that the decision of whether to rent or buy skis required calculus to solve. I just figured that if you ski more than say, 3 times a season, it's probably better to own your own gear for reasons unrelated to the entry cost, but more to do with comfort, tuning, quality, and so on. Anyone who has rented skis knows that the rental fleets are trashed.

its been a while since i was serious about skiing. but my impression was that when it comes to comfort, the most important factor was getting good boots

Renting skiis is okay. lets you try out a lot of different kinds. They all ride different

Re: The Ski Rental Problem

#77

Post by yojo »

andai wrote: post #64
xandrius wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buy second-hand and worst case resell. Best of both worlds.

This kind of blew my mind when I realized that if you buy second hand and resell, you can own a product (often for years) for net zero dollars. I was also delighted when I realized that instead of going through the hassle and cost of moving everything across the country, I could just sell it and buy roughly the same thing in the new place... again for net zero dollars! Teleportation!

This assumes your time is free. The used market has tons of friction.

I try to buy higher quality things, used if possible, and sell when I’m done with them. But this is primarily for ecological reasons. The complete cycle can be pretty annoying/time-consuming to the point that it’s probably economically a small loss.

Buy-side can take a lot of trawling FB/Craigslist to find an item that hasn’t been thrashed. Plus coordinating pickup time/location. This usually requires driving somewhere I wasn’t planning on going.

Sell-side you have to deal with all the flakes and ghosts, not to mention the people who will show up hours late. Giving away the thing instead seems to counterintuitively make the flake problem even worse.

Re: The Ski Rental Problem

#78

Post by rr808 »

bee_rider wrote: post #20
comrade1234 wrote: post #2

Do like many people in Switzerland and just rent skis for the full season. That way you get a new pair every year. You should own your own custom-fitted boots though.

When people in the US think of rental skis, we think of weekend rentals that are usually not very specialized and pretty beat up. What you describe here sounds more like leasing a car vs renting one—technically a lease is a rental, but practically it is a bit closer to owning the thing.

Here in NY region seasonal rentals are pretty common too. Esp for kids who will upsize every year or two.

Re: The Ski Rental Problem

#79

Post by tomr75 »

svachalek wrote: post #55
massung wrote: post #15

This feels very similar to the “radio” or “restaurant” problem: You’re driving down the street trying to decide which restaurant to stop at (or scanning through the radio trying to decide which song to stop on). If you stop at the first, there’s a good chance something better is ahead. But if you wait too long then you risk getting stuck with something you don’t really like (the problem assumes you can’t go back). If…

Interesting. I once read somewhere that you should date at least... 6? people and leave before it gets too serious, before settling down with anyone. It seemed to imply there was math involved but it didn't explain. I think it must be the same statistics here, with some estimate of how many people you could meet and burn through without getting too old. I think people just don't really work this way but otherwise it…

it depends on how many people you expect to date in your lifetime though

these days with dating apps can prob date way more than 18..

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