🚴 Breakaway Thoughts

Earn the Complexity

"Earn the complexity" - [[Simon Eskildesen]] on the Geek Narrator podcast.

The basic idea here is that someone who is just getting into gravel biking doesn't need a bike that was purpose-built for the Great Mountain Divide. It is too much bike for them. If you have a tool that is way over-specced for your current skill level there are several downsides

1. You never get to experience constraints
2. You over-spend relative to your needs. Even worse, consumable tools (like a bike) depreciate to the point that you might never use these features

Some counterpoints:

1. It can also be expensive to always buy/learn a new tool every time you earn the complexity