My dad has changed the way I differentiate between cheap and expensive. And affordability.

Roughly 4 years ago when after I finished my senior high school, he bought me a (roughly) RM 4300 laptop. I was so excited.

Time passes and I started wondering why did my dad bought such expensive thing for a young boy like I was. Roughly a year ago, I asked him. "Why did you bought me that laptop? Wasn't it so expensive for us?"

He smiled a little and explained that he believed I will create value from it more than its cost.

Well, it did. The value it produced so far has exceeded its cost. If I were to buy the same laptop from the material value it produced, I would get 7 units at least.

From then on, I see cheap and expensive differently. For instance, I thought that my tuition fee is so expensive. Turns out it's actually cheap.

Do you think how much it costs me to get consultation with people whose experiences in industry are years? How much it costs me to practice my skills without getting blamed? How much it costs me to be in environment where people are very forgiving? How much it costs me to be with people who simply say "he's just learning" when I did a mistake? Nothing, it was all included in the tuition fee.

That's it. I'm the one who decide if a thing is cheap, or expensive. If I couldn't create value from attending college, I'll consider the tuition fee as expensive.

So, no matter how affordable it is, I'll consider a thing expensive if I can't create value from it. And no matter how hard it is to afford, I'll consider it cheap if the value I can create is more than its cost.

You know, there are a lot of expensive things, but very affordable.