The Weird Tax: Wright's Revenge
Price, Quality, Speed—pick any two classic merchant's wisdom that describes a Pareto frontier, where improving one dimension necessarily sacrifices another. The pattern is universal: dating (attractiveness, availability, compatibility), careers (passion, stability, compensation), even sleep schedules (productivity, social alignment, health). Call it a Trifecta.But frontiers aren't static. Wright's Law tells us costs decrease predictably with cumulative production, and warps the trade-off surface wherever human attention focuses. The millionth Toyota Corolla achieves seemingly impossible optimizations. Even before Wright's Law kicks in, natural optimums create their own gravity: humans sleep at night because biology made it efficient, then society organized around that efficiency. These advantages compound attracting investment that deepens the advantage, attracting more investment. The mainstream isn't arbitrary; it's where physics and human effort have conspired to compress trade-offs.
Near these gravity wells, you can negotiate smoothly—20% more money for 15% better quality. But venture outward and the surface turns sparse. Need an exotic tool that's fast AND cheap? That option simply may not exist. The frontier becomes islands of possibility in an ocean of "not available." Enter Wright's Revenge: mainstream choices come pre-optimized by millions of predecessors, but stepping outside introduces the hidden fourth dimension of peculiarity. You're not just choosing different; you're choosing expensive-different, slow-different, or shoddy-different. Usually all three. The herd's paths offer frequent free rides, off-roaders pay twice at every turn.
That last-gen iPhone really does deliver price, quality, and speed in ways that seem magical—if you fit the mold. But if you're weird somehow, and you probably are, sometimes you will need something different. Maybe your 6'5', or a night owl, or Allergic to nightshades. Perhaps you are poor enough that only price matters and you're forced so far down that axis you land in peculiarity anyway. These aren't choices; they're features that exile you from the paved path. The mainstream car assumes the mainstream body. The mainstream schedule assumes the mainstream life.
Deviations cascade. Live on a houseboat, and "car" stops being optimal. Different transport means different shopping, different social circles, different everything. The wealthy person rejecting the Civic triggers compound consequences: specialist mechanics, impossible parking, insurance assumptions. Every normal system breaks, and each break costs. Sometimes poverty or urgency forces you so far along one axis—only cheap, only fast—that you're driven into peculiarity against your will, paying the pioneer tax without choosing the pioneer life.
Past critical mass, you're just hemorrhaging efficiency. The mainstream represents millions of person-hours of optimization you no longer get to surf. Your weird sleep schedule means weird shopping hours means weird social life means weird career options. It compounds until you're paying pioneer prices for settler goods. Yes, occasionally someone strikes gold in the wilderness—finds that perfect niche where their peculiarities align. But mostly? You're just paying double for what everyone else gets free. Wright's Revenge is real: the universe charges compound interest on being different.