The Difference Between Intrinsic And Extrinsic Value

When it comes to choosing between products, it can be difficult to know what you find intrinsically valuable. If you love it, it's probably worth it, but if you really value it, it might be worth spending more money. It's up to you to decide which is which.

Extrinsic value is the price of a product. Intrinsic value is about going beyond the price of the product. Intrinsic value is about the true power of a product to engage and change someone's life. It's not about knowing the costs of a product, so much as it is about knowing what the product is really worth.

The more we engage with a product, the more we come to trust it and the more we come to understand it, the more we come to value it. So, the more we value a product, the less we will scrutinize the costs of acquiring it. These are the most powerful and valuable things that we bring to the table when it comes to products.

Intrinsic value also can be determined by the way we feel. It does not necessarily have to be a product. That's what I am going to focus on in this article.

The Concept Of Value

The concept of value is a complicated one. It's something that people argue about all the time. How do you define it? It's difficult to do so, because there's often more than one dimension to it. Apart from intrinsic and extrinsic value, there is also use-value, which is the benefit a product provides to you. You have exchange-value, which is what you could get for the product in an open market.

There is also, often times, an intangibility to it. Here I want to talk about the emotional value of something, which is how the product makes you feel. It evokes a certain response and that can be valuable in of itself. This is the sort of value, that can't be captured in simple equations.

But what really matters most, as we're concerned with it here, is subjective value. Value that people assign to a product, because they believe it will make them happy.

Examples Of Intrinsic Value

If you want to know what something is really worth, you have to look at what people will pay for it. That's what people always use as a point of reference. If you've never asked anyone what something is worth, how can you know?

The reason why people have varying opinions about the value of things is because their feelings about them are at stake. It always comes back to feelings. If something makes you feel bad, it has no value to you. If something makes you feel good, it has value. That's how value exists.

The value of something is determined by how it makes you feel.

So, here are some things that people value highly, because it causes them to feel a certain way.

• Gratitude

Gratitude is one of the most valuable things, that you can have. You point to experiences that you had, that changed your life and that's what make you grateful. Even if it's a small memory of something, that happened years ago, you can always find it in yourself to be grateful.

Gratitude is not a feeling, that can be created or manufactured. It can only be earned. It's something you can't learn how to control. Once you accept that, you can let go of the need to feel grateful in any given moment, or circumstance and you can be content.

• Happiness

Happiness is another important thing, that people value. It's sort of the moral equivalent of wealth. It can't be measured, you can't hold onto it and you can't make someone else feel it. Happiness is something, that you can only strive for and that you should never lose sight of why you're trying to do things.

• Health

Health is probably the most important aspect of our lives. Without it, everything else is meaningless. It's the absence of disease and impairment. It's the ability to do anything, that you find interesting and engage in any given activity. It's the capacity for your mind to be as creative as you want it to be. Health is the ability to learn and to grow.

• Hope

Hope is another important thing. Hope is the belief, that something desirable is going to occur. Without it, life can often seem rather hopeless. Hope is the fuel, that keeps you going. It keeps you engaged in the activities that you deem important, even when none of them are. Hope is what makes the hopeless seem less so.

• Love

Love is the final important thing. You could say, that it's the most important thing, but that would be an understatement. It's the glue, that holds everything else together. You have a responsibility to love and to be loved in return. Having love and being loved is the only viable option you have for maintaining a satisfactory existence.

When Intrinsic Value Is Better, Than Extrinsic Value

When it comes to things, that are worth having, the thing that makes it superior to something else is what makes it valuable. It's not the size of the thing, nor how rare the thing is. That has nothing to do with its value.

Instead, it's how you feel when you have it, that determines its value. If you feel good and that makes you feel even better, than that is the most valuable thing that you can have. The more you can get others to see you, to love you, to believe in you, the more valuable you are.

That's how it works when it comes to the intangible things in life. You can't quantify it, you can't put a price tag on it, but you can still come to a conclusion about its value.

It's worth noting, that people are often, even highly, motivated by their own interests. You could appeal to their self-interest and take advantage of that. The reason that people always want to feel, seem, or be something is because it validates their own importance. It makes them feel like their lives are more significant, than they actually are, which often results in them doing stupid, self-destructive things.

The better alternative is to recognize their feelings and try to talk them away. You might be able to get away with exploiting people's self-interest, but the consequences can be severe. People are often unpredictable when it comes to their emotions. You could say that their fear of lack of value is a self-imposed limitation. They might be more or less amenable to changing their behavior, depending on how you phrase things.

So, how does one go about giving value to the things that are important to others?

You start by asking them what they value. Listen to what they say without interrupting. Sometimes, that's all you need to do. Sometimes, people are so grateful for the small mercies, that they don't realize how much greater the gifts really are.

Thank you for reading.

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