The Economics Of Satisfaction

Recently, me and a friend went to one of those expensive café-bistro places. Quiet ambience, long waiting time, dim lights, smoked brisket, small portions arranged beautifully on a plate. The food was genuinely good too. The total bill came to around ₹2800 for two people.

We always talked about how as we start earning more, we should also improve our lifestyle a bit. Try nicer places, better experiences, stop optimizing every small purchase like broke engineering students.

And honestly, I can afford it now. That’s not the issue.

The funny part happened after we left. We both realized we were still hungry.

Not disappointed with the taste. Just… unsatisfied. So we ended up going to Seetadevi and ordered avil milk and chocolate shake. Loud place, people everywhere, zero aesthetics, mixer sounds louder than conversations. One avil milk cost ₹70.

And somehow, that felt complete.

I started thinking about how I’ve always had this “price to quantity ratio” mindset while buying things. In supermarkets I automatically compare weights, offers, value per rupee, all that. Somewhere deep inside, my brain still calculates satisfaction mathematically.

The brisket probably took hours to prepare. The café sold experience, ambience, exclusivity. The avil milk sold pure satisfaction.

I’m probably always going to love:

loud places oversized portions chaotic energy food that makes you physically incapable of moving afterwards

And honestly?

I think I’m okay with that.