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Much of the study of economics is making models. Models are just simplified versions of realities to make generlizations and predict what people are going to do or what they should do.

Supply and demand is the most fundamental model in economics. And we use it regularly in our thinking, especially as we are dealing with supply chain issues and inflation.

But we can use the concept of creating models in more aspects of our lives and incorporate that sort of thinking into everyday use.

A model can involve an agent making a decision about scarce resources. You can identify a problem that needs a solution, or maybe you need help explaining something you don’t quite understand, or maybe you have a dispute you want to resolve. You can do this with things that are happening in the world, or with business decisions, or with personal life decisions too.

And then you build a model that will help predict what people will do and why, or what they should do to optimize a certain output.

• How to use scarce resources of time and energy to set better goals (taking into account things like the planning fallacy)
• Dividing household labor and work that maximizes both enjoyment and efficiency
• Trying to model out why my children behave the way the do, and how to incentivize them to behave better
• How to make better decisions when ordering at a restaurant

(There are probably much better ideas out there than what I listed.)

Making a model out of things can be fun–but it can also help you take a step back and look at things more objectively and discover something you didn’t realize before. Sometimes we emotionally attach ourselves to an answer when it doesn’t really make sense or optimize what we really value. Models can help solve that.

And there aren’t any rules of how to do it–just try to create a graph or a table with the data and assumptions you have, and then see what the trends are.

A few years ago, I started writing notes to myself about Christmas. The season comes once a year, and I usually want to do things differently the next year, and then I forget unless I remind myself.

This year, I didn’t do as much service as I would like to in the future. I would like to give a few neighbor presents, which didn’t happen this year, and maybe visit neighbors and friends more. But I don’t want to place unnecessary guilt on myself, either. Do it out of love, not out of duty.

I made a charcuterie board and frog eye salad for lunch (and we snacked on it dinner) and it was nice. I think we liked snacking on things more than cooking a big meal. But also I should have bought less candy. We had so much sugar.

I also could give my kids less presents and they would be just fine. Sometimes I do filler presents and they are just unnecessary.

I need to remember to do graham crackers for gingerbread houses–or maybe make out own cookies, since my kids don’t like gingerbread anyway. And I also liked looking at Christmas lights and watching A Charlie Brown Christmas, and that’s about all the traditions we really need.

Making Christmas more simple and less of a big deal is just fine. Sometimes it’s a lot of pressure to make everything special. I had a kitchen renovation this December and I was just busy and distracted with all of it. So I didn’t do as much. And I think it was better that way.

When I was young, I asked for a blue teddy bear. I had seen a cute little blue teddy bear in a J.C. Penny catalog, and I wanted something like that. But on Christmas, there was a great big blue bear waiting for me. I loved it, and it became a very large part of my childhood. I named it Big Feet. A few years later, my mom managed to give my sister and I Furbys, right when they came out and were very popular. And then another year, my brother gave me a teddy bear that he had helped make (which I still have).

Shortly after I got married, I gave Dillon Inca Cola, which he remembered from his mission, and a bow string for his dad’s old recurve bow. He was quite excited for it.

We celebrate Jesus Christ and the gifts that the wise men brought. We celebrate that “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.”

So that really is the best gift we will ever receive.

Sometimes I hide what I’m thinking and feeling because I’m afraid that if I share the hard parts with people, they will worry about it too much. And they can’t do anything to fix it. And I’m better off just dealing with it myself.

But then when people share their struggles with me, it doesn’t usually feel like a burden. It helps them find relief, and it helps me too. It helps me feel connected, and not alone. I like helping in the small way I can.

Sometimes we don’t say the right things to each other. But it’s often better to say the wrong things than to not say anything at all because we’re afraid.

And so many times, our dark thoughts won’t go away properly unless we share them with someone else–we get it all out there, and realize how wrong we are, and how much we are loved, and we’re able to build each other up.

We are a lot better at being reasonable than we are at being rational.

What is being rational? It’s following logic and doing what the models tell us in our best interests. It’s being able to clearly and deeply explain what we are doing and have that based on facts and reasoning. It’s solving math problems and getting the right answer. It’s having clear goals and working towards those goals.

What is being reasonable? It’s being able use our brain, make assumptions, and make quick decisions that work. It’s using emotions, compassion, and empathy. It’s justifications that work for the moment and that seem to make some sense.

So being reasonable can actually be better than being rational. For one thing, sometimes we don’t have clear goals we are working towards. We want lots of different things all at the same time and our preferences are not always rational, and we don’t often want them to be. We want to make decisions quickly and the best that we can in the moment. And often, we want to help others and do things that don’t have a strong rational explanation behind them.

So be reasonable.

But don’t worry too much about being rational.

This is a silly question, if you think about it very hard. Of course it’s okay to be average. Most people are average. That’s the definition of average.

For some reason, our culture can tell us that we need to be special and better than average. But not everyone can be better than average, because that’s not how average works.

If I hire a contractor to come work with them, chances are that they will be average and they will do an average job.

If I got to a restaurant, chances are that it will be average and I will get average food.

And that’s okay! If we want to improve together, we don’t need to beat the average. We just need to improve what average is.

• Christmas lights
• Gingerbread houses
• Christmas music
• Acting out the nativity
• It’s a Wonderful Life
• Some version of A Christmas Carol
• A Charlie Brown Christmas
• Running through wrapping paper Christmas morning
• Writing and sending Christmas cards
• Frog eye salad

I love Spider-Man. I’ve even read Spider-Man comics. I just watched the latest Spider-Man movie–and in preparation for that, I watched all the other Spider-Man movies that came before it (except for Into the Spider Verse and Spider-Man, since I had watched those fairly recently).

Spider-Man: Great origin story. It started everything.

Spider-Man 2: This is just about perfection in a movie.

Spider-Man 3: It’s not that horrible. But it’s like the characters and plot sort of forgot who they were.

Amazing Spider-Man: This was so much better than I remembered. I loved the quiet, awkward Peter Parker and his relationship with Gwen Stacey.

Amazing Spider-Man 2: There were so many good moments in this movie–a good mix of funny and tragic and strong characters. Very underrated.

Spider-Man Homecoming: I like young Spider-Man. High tension in this, and I felt more emotionally invested. But Spider-Man was sort of stupid–but he kept trying.

Spider-Man Far From Home: Honestly, the plot is a bit off for me if I think about it for very long, but there are some really good scenes throughout and sometimes it was very funny.

Into the Spider-Verse: I always forget about this because it’s animated and doesn’t feel like it’s in the same category. But it’s really, really good.

Spider-Man No Way Home: Absolutely amazing, but only if you have watched all the previous movies and love Spider-Man. Which I do. Really good payoffs and so enjoyable.

I do have a top three:

1. Spider-Man No Way Home, not because it’s perfect, because it was so exciting. I want to watch this again. And again.
2. Spider-Man 2, because it was perfect.
3. Into the Spider Verse, because it was also perfect.

And then it gets muddled in the middle. I like parts of all of the rest of the movies a lot, but I also don’t like parts of these movies. Maybe: Spider-Man, Amazing Spider-Man, Spider-Man Homecoming, Amazing Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man Far From Home. And my least favorite is Spider-Man 3.

I spent way too much time thinking about this.

Cleaning.

We’ve been doing a kitchen remodel and for the first time in weeks, we are finally getting the house clean. Cleaner.

Cleaning itself actually can stress me out–but once I’m done, it feels like a weight has been lifted off me.

I think our surroundings affect us a lot more than we realize. If my house is in chaos, my mind is often in chaos.

So I clean up, and I feel better. I don’t like cleaning up, but I need to remind myself that the end is worth it.