Having more tools greatly increases the space of potential plans you can consider. So by default you should be getting more tools. Having too few tools tightly constrains your options, and often impacts the kinds of plans you consider in the first place.

Years ago I thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail, and every piece of gear mattered. I had a lot of things when I first started out that seem very foolish to me now, things I wouldn't consider bringing again. For each piece of gear, I had to carry every gram of it 2200 miles, and so each gram had to earn its weight. I tossed or gave away almost everything that I wasn't using every single day by the end of the second week. The only exceptions were some band-aids and similar items to prevent the worst outcomes. When I fell and split open my knee, I used toilet paper to pack the wound, and some duct tape to secure it. It worked great while I continued to hobble along. Every piece of gear had to pay for its weight, and part of that was finding creative uses for the pieces I did have, to cover more functions. [...]

The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.

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First published:
April 16th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/opXWijs73rqhr7ohS/if-you-ve-never-bought-a-tool-you-didn-t-need-you-re-not

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.