This falls into the category of too good (and too challenging!) not to share. It’s from Sahil Bloom’s Friday, November 3, 2023, email. I reproduce the relevant portion in its entirety:

Reminder on the dangers of lifestyle creep: The Diderot Effect

Denis Diderot was an 18th century French philosopher and writer who gained a reputation as a deep thinker in elite circles.

Despite his intellectual prestige, Diderot found himself unable to pay the necessary dowry when his daughter was to be married.

Fortunately, his work had won him many fans, including, as it turns out, Catherine the Great, the Empress of Russia at the time. Hearing of his financial struggle, she offered to buy his library and solicit his services as her personal librarian, for which she would pay him handsomely.

Shortly after this turn of good financial fortune, Denis Diderot came to own a fancy new scarlet robe.

Diderot liked what the fancy robe appeared to confer on him, but felt the remainder of his possessions no longer stood up to the beauty and prestige of this new one. How could he be expected to dress in such a robe but then sit in such a shabby chair, walk in such tattered shoes, or write at such a spartan desk?

In quick succession, he purchased a new leather chair, shoes, and an elaborate wooden desk, all of which seemed a suitable match for his scarlet robe—or, perhaps more importantly, a suitable match for the type of person who wears such a fancy scarlet robe.

The chain reaction of purchases—where one begets many more—have become known as the Diderot Effect. [Link insertion mine]

The new robe had created a new identity, one that Denis Diderot became attached to the image of, and one that he became enveloped in further signaling to the world.

In an essay later in life, which he appropriately entitled, Regrets for My Old Dressing Gown, Diderot lamented, “I was the absolute master of my old robe. I have become the slave of the new one.”

The Diderot Effect is most damning when it surrounds status signaling purchases that are more about showing your position to others than improving yourself.

There are cases where it can work in your favor:

• Purchase a new gym membership
• Identify as a healthier person
• Encouraged to cement that identity with better food, fitness, and recovery purchases

As Diderot concluded, “Let my example teach you a lesson. Poverty has its freedoms; opulence has its obstacles.”

Awareness is the key: Where are you allowing the Diderot Effect to control your behavior? – Sahil Bloom, November 3, 2023

As always, Jesus was ahead of the curve on this one:

And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Luke 12.15, ESV)