Resisting the Allure of Instant Gratification
My sister received a 25USD Borders gift card that she intended to use for another medical dictionary. I persuaded her to regift it to me, and I have been carrying it for weeks. I’ve been to Borders multiple times, and only the appeal of instant gratification kept me coming back. I have been wanting Richard Stevens’ Unix Network Programming, Volume 1: The Sockets Networking API for awhile. I am pretty familiar with sockets programming, having majored in computer science with a specialization in networks and distributed systems, but I am bothered by not having read such a classical text for its field. A traditional Borders store sells the book at cover price: 74.99USD. Buying the book at cover price was not very appealing. Borders.com, powered by Amazon.com, sells the book for 52.49USD, and after applying the 25USD gift card, I was able to purchase the 75USD book for 27.49USD. Averting instant gratification saved me (74.99 * 1.0825 – 52.49 =) 28.69USD!