When there is a discount on offer and you know nothing about the product you want to buy, you need to step up. A decision has to be made quickly, but it cannot be made lightly. This is my story of one such decision. I hope it helps you in your time of need.

7th February, 2022

After months of blaming my sloppy form during Pamela Reif's intense ab workouts on my neolithic wired bluetooth earphones—whose endless stuffing in and out of sports bras is evidence enough of their burden on civilization and the need for the earpods segment—I decided it was time to stop being stingy and invest in a pair myself.

Immediately I typed 'bose soundsport' into Amazon's overburdened grey search bar. My eyes lit up at the Rs 13,760 number next to a scratched out Rs 18,990 — a limited time deal. Upon going to the detail page, however, excitement turned into consternation as I noticed I had only 1h 34m to order if I wanted to claim the discount.

I entered research mode.

Having always thought that I'd have made it in life if I could thoughtlessly buy earphones that cost tens of thousands of rupees, I was willing to suffer the illusion that I had, in fact, made it in life (if only to scour the materialistic world for new benchmarks of ‘making it in life’ in an hour).

I’d use a new, coveted (by me) job opportunity as an excuse. I wasn’t sure how to connect potentially better workouts with improved job performance, but such important matters would have to wait until after the purchase.

I had only 1h 12m left.

<aside> 💡 For ages, marketers have targeted consumers at new life stages. At such inflection points, ranging from personal milestones (e.g. graduating or getting married) to cultural moments (e.g. a global pandemic), consumers are filled with insecurity and/or the desire to do better in life’s new chapter.

</aside>

Deciding how to decide