SarahC comments on The True Rejection Challenge - Less Wrong

43 Post author: Alicorn 27 June 2011 07:18AM

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Comment author: Swimmer963 28 June 2011 09:00:25PM 2 points [-]

I should learn to drive and get my license.

Reasons I don't:

  1. I originally took driving lessons in grade 12, when they were competing for my time with homework, working at the pool, scholarship applications, and actual sleep. Being in control of a large, potentially dangerous vehicle, and being clumsy with slow reaction times, was already stressful for me to begin with, and I think I developed a "driving=stress" association that causes mild anxiety every time I think about it, and major anxiety when I actually get in a car.

  2. I don't live at home at the moment and have no easy access to a car to practice in. (I will be living at home in the fall.)

  3. My parents' current car is a standard transmission. When I started learning over 2 years ago, it was in an automatic transmission car. My mother and I are both dubious that I can handle the multitasking involved without becoming freaked out.

  4. Paying for lessons would involve spending money. I hate spending money.

  5. I don't think I'll ever enjoy driving unless I do it enough to overcome the anxiety, and I probably won't for various reasons. (Cars and insurance and gas are expensive, bad for the environment, I can get more exercise if I bike, etc.) So it drops on my priority list.

Comment author: [deleted] 29 June 2011 11:38:00AM 1 point [-]

Note that a driving instructor provides you with a practice car.

I don't drive much now, and I'm so clumsy that I've wondered if it's pathological... but I learned to drive over the summer I was 18, paid for my own lessons, and got my license. I would have thought I could never do it, but it's very possible.

Spending money isn't really awful, I've learned over time. Spending more than you can afford is awful. But if you have a cushion of savings that you haven't been using, and you spend it down a little for a one-time investment in your human capital, it's not actually that bad. Attaching an emotional valence to how many dollars you have in the bank gets in the way of living.