💸 Noticing that you're buying regret
A cigarette is one of the few purchases that makes you want to quit buying it — you pay for the calm, and for the restlessness that follows.
The strange thing about cigarettes is that after paying for them, most people wish they would stop.
Before smoking, you buy one to settle down.
After smoking, you think you really have to quit.
That round trip keeps going.
With an ordinary product, satisfaction lingers after the purchase. Cigarettes offer a moment of satisfaction too. But it doesn't last. If anything, it manufactures the next craving.
What you bought brings along the reason to buy again.
You seem to be paying for calm, and you're buying the next bout of restlessness along with it.