Appreciation and the Perception of Value

August 17, 2025

Note: I actually wrote this in 2021, but apparently I never published it and it’s been sitting in my drafts this whole time, so I’m publishing it now.

With a fiat currency such as the US dollar, the value of the currency is determined by people’s perception of its value. There’s nothing physical or tangible about it. It’s all about perception.

Think about terms like “consumer confidence” or “the attention economy”. These terms hint at how perception determines the value of things. Even the word “value” indicates that we’re in subjective territory.

The word “appreciate” has a technical definition in the context of finance, distinct from the common usage of the term. In finance, appreciation occurs when the value of an asset increases over time. The opposite is depreciation, i.e. when the value of an asset decreases over time. But appreciation and depreciation are not purely external forces. When value is determined by perception, that gives us a significant degree of control over how that value changes over time.

This is interesting because it suggests that the technical, financial definition of the word “appreciation” is actually not that different from the common usage of the word as a recognition or acknowledgement of the positive value of something.

Similarly, the word “wealth” actually has the same roots as the word “health”. The word “wealth” used to simply mean “well-being” and had little to do with the possession of financial assets. The association between wealth and finance is a relatively modern notion.

This relates to the very purpose of money and financial assets in the first place. Why is money valuable? It is only a means to an end. So, what is the end that it is a means to? Generally speaking, health and well-being.

If we accept that the general purpose of wealth is to afford greater health and well-being, that opens up more options and opportunities for us to achieve that same goal without necessarily making more money.

In a very literal sense, your wealth is determined largely by your perception of it. You can’t really control how other people perceive your wealth, but you can control how you perceive it. What’s more, your wealth grows the more you appreciate it.

The practice of noticing value

If there’s a $100 bill lying on the sidewalk, but you walk right past it without noticing, then you are no better off for having walked past it. 

Likewise, if there are valuable assets already in your possession, but you are unaware of them, you may as well not have them. 

If you are under the mistaken impression that your bank account balance is $1,000 when it is actually $100,000, you will go on living your life as if you only have $1,000. You will continue to pinch pennies on groceries and feel anxious about paying rent. The extra money in your bank account does not help you if you are unaware of it.

This example may seem unrealistic, but we all do this all the time. There are countless things in our lives right now that are of immense value that we are entirely oblivious to.

Take a moment to think of a source of value in your life that you have not been paying attention to.

Maybe it’s a physical object, like socks or a refrigerator. Maybe it’s a skill or ability, like walking without assistance or reading and writing in the English language. Maybe it’s a resource, like clean water or pen and paper. Maybe it’s an idea, like a joke that makes you laugh or a memory that you enjoy. There’s an infinite number of things in our lives that we’re not paying attention to but still have immense value.

These are common examples, but there are undoubtedly examples in your own life that are unique to your specific circumstances. And those unique examples are especially important because exclusivity brings opportunity.

What does “exclusivity brings opportunity” mean?

When you have something valuable that is very common, like breathable air or opposable thumbs, it’s certainly worth appreciating, but it doesn’t give you any particular advantage in life relative to other people. It simply means that you are not at a disadvantage with respect to those things. But when you have something valuable that very few people have (including your past and future selves), that gives you a unique advantage that is especially valuable.

To understand this, consider how water towers work.

Water is valuable regardless of elevation. But water that is elevated above the ground has more potential energy than water at ground level because the difference in elevation allows gravity to create water pressure.

Having a source of value that is unique to your life circumstances is like having water at a higher elevation.

This means that you have an opportunity to leverage your unique circumstances to create even more value, including value for people who don’t share those circumstances. That’s basically the premise of trade. People trade things they have for things they don’t have. So if you have something that people value but don’t already have, they’ll be willing to trade for it.

But trade is not the only way to leverage unique circumstances. In fact, it’s not even the most important way.

What I want to emphasize in this blog post is that the act of appreciation itself increases the value of the things being appreciated. And one thing about unique circumstances is that they are generally easier to notice and appreciate than common circumstances.

For example, unique experiences like witnessing a meteor shower or seeing a live music performance are generally more attention-grabbing and memorable than everyday experiences like eating a sandwich or taking a shower. 

Even unpleasant experiences like getting injured or losing a loved one can have value as learning opportunities and priority clarification opportunities. Importantly, painful experiences provide the necessary contrast that allows enjoyable experiences to be enjoyable in the first place. (This is one of the reasons that rich people can sometimes be more miserable than people of average means. If your baseline expectations are too high, then you will experience disappointment more often than you would if your baseline expectations were lower. Hence the expression, “The key to happiness is low expectations.”)

I’ll give an example from my own life. About ten years ago, I was diagnosed with narcolepsy. For the purposes of this blog post, having narcolepsy basically means that I feel tired most of the time and have less energy than most people. This has led to difficult situations at work. In fact, the original prompt that led to my diagnosis was an uncomfortable conversation with my boss about showing up late to the office everyday. At nearly every job I’ve had in my adult life, I’ve had at least one uncomfortable conversation with my boss that could be summarized as “If your productivity doesn’t improve, we’re going to have to fire you.”

Having narcolepsy means that working harder is not a viable option for me. (I’ve tried. It leads to burnout). So, the expression “Work smarter, not harder” wasn’t just some meaningless cliché for me, it was imperative if I wanted to keep my job. With my back against a wall, I’ve had to rely on cleverness to compensate for my limited energy.

While of course narcolepsy clearly has downsides, I’ve recognized the advantage of having narcolepsy as a forcing function. It allows me to see the concept of productivity from a perspective that most people don’t have access to. It allows me to viscerally understand the importance of things like minimizing counter-productivity instead of maximizing productivity, unlocking latent value instead of creating new value, and multiplying value instead of merely adding value.

By first noticing and then choosing to appreciate this unique advantage that narcolepsy has given me, I believe I have improved my overall well-being in ways that I could not have if I had simply taken my diagnosis at face value as nothing more than a disadvantage.

Remember, in order to leverage a unique source of value, you first have to know that it’s there. You have to notice it. Like that $100 bill on the sidewalk, if you don’t notice it, it doesn’t help you. There are no flashing neon signs to alert you to these things. You have to pay attention.

So, what are some unique circumstances in your life that you can appreciate? What uncommon experiences, skills, resources, or knowledge do you have in your life that you can leverage to improve your well-being?

Appreciation is different than gratitude

I went to Catholic school growing up, and when I hear the word “gratitude”, it makes me cringe. That word conjures up images of school teachers scolding me for not being more grateful. When I hear “gratitude”, my mind thinks “guilt”.

I know I’m not the only person who has internalized that association. So I want to make a distinction between gratitude and appreciation.

Gratitude is tied to the concept of deserving or not deserving something, and thus a moral judgement about the recipient’s worthiness of the thing received. Expressing gratitude sort of implies the belief that you have been given some form of grace or favor that you do not deserve.

Appreciation, on the other hand, does not imply any moral judgement. Appreciation is merely about the recognition of value. When you appreciate something, you see its value. The word doesn’t even imply that you have received anything.

Bottom line: appreciation is about value recognition, not moral judgement.

Appreciation is different than sweet lemons

The concept of “sweet lemons” is the inverse of “sour grapes”. Sour grapes is when you can’t have something you want, so you convince yourself that you never actually wanted it. 

Sweet lemons is when you’re stuck with something that you don’t want, so you convince yourself that it’s actually what you wanted all along.

Appreciation is different than sweet lemons. Appreciation is about recognizing true value, not pretending something is more valuable than it actually is or ignoring its cost.

However, there’s a catch here. Value has an element of self-fulfilling prophecy to it. Remember, value is determined by perception. So, the distinction between “true” value and “pretend” value is fuzzy.

It really comes down to whether you are being honest with yourself or not, and that’s a subjective determination that you have to make for yourself.

Value is a verb

Appreciation and value are synonyms. To appreciate something is to value it. Appreciation is about value recognition, and recognizing something as valuable is what gives it the value that you recognize in it.

The key message here is that you have a value boosting machine inside your skull, and it’s up to you how you want to use it. Your life experience is determined by what you pay attention to, and you get to choose what you pay attention to.

Realizing this is a huge opportunity, but first you have to notice it.