This is a very attractive and catchy word for many. Many advertisers use
this to attract public to their wares.
What is free? Anything being given at zero price. Can anything of use be given like that.
Think for a minute.
The answer can be no and yes.
No for most of the material things, for which it takes resources to produce. One can give a material thing for free, for some one for some purpose. One may afford to do that. But one cannot give things of cost, free continuously.
Thus one needs to be careful when one is promised to get something (of cost) free. There can be few such good offers, people/firms offer, to increase their market share or their reputation. Due to the sparse nature of such good offers one needs to judge each case by its merits.
One variant of this is offering something at low cost when something else is bought. Though this appears attractive at the first instance, one needs to analyse whether the thing being offered at lower cost is really of use to oneself.
After this, one may get a doubt whether anything is really free. There are few things which are really free.
Relationships and the accompanying good / bad feelings. Say parental love, Family relations etc.They appear free and are very valuable. Issue with these is that one understands value of these only when one loses them. Many talk fondly about the value of father’s guidance and mother’s love after they are gone. Are they free? Apparently yes. But one needs to work for retaining them. If the trust in this relationship is broken, rebuilding is very difficult.
With the advent of internet and other communication tools (books to start with), knowledge became cheaper and cheaper. One can spread his knowledge using these tools far and wide. However, advice from each one is based on their experience or world view. The same may not hold good as a panacea. The advice can be biased or not actionable in many case. But is free or cheap. But as in other cases, money value is not the only price to determine if something is costly or free. If someone takes a free advice and incur great costs, because of that, is that free input useful.
One has to think about this while opting for something (specially knowledge) free.
Coming to ideas, every one who thinks can get ideas to improve things that are existing. For example, when I am working on a process for long, I understand the intricacies of the same and can thing of ideas to improve the process. These are free to the one who get them and one can monetize them, based on one’s capacity.
Thus there is nothing free but for one’s ideas. All other things which look free apparently, may have some hidden costs attached and one has to understand the implications of a free good.
This is a thought process generated when I saw a Free add in the newspaper today morning.
Please comment your views.
What is free? Anything being given at zero price. Can anything of use be given like that.
Think for a minute.
The answer can be no and yes.
No for most of the material things, for which it takes resources to produce. One can give a material thing for free, for some one for some purpose. One may afford to do that. But one cannot give things of cost, free continuously.
Thus one needs to be careful when one is promised to get something (of cost) free. There can be few such good offers, people/firms offer, to increase their market share or their reputation. Due to the sparse nature of such good offers one needs to judge each case by its merits.
One variant of this is offering something at low cost when something else is bought. Though this appears attractive at the first instance, one needs to analyse whether the thing being offered at lower cost is really of use to oneself.
After this, one may get a doubt whether anything is really free. There are few things which are really free.
1.
Relationships
2.
Knowledge
3.
Ideas
Relationships and the accompanying good / bad feelings. Say parental love, Family relations etc.They appear free and are very valuable. Issue with these is that one understands value of these only when one loses them. Many talk fondly about the value of father’s guidance and mother’s love after they are gone. Are they free? Apparently yes. But one needs to work for retaining them. If the trust in this relationship is broken, rebuilding is very difficult.
With the advent of internet and other communication tools (books to start with), knowledge became cheaper and cheaper. One can spread his knowledge using these tools far and wide. However, advice from each one is based on their experience or world view. The same may not hold good as a panacea. The advice can be biased or not actionable in many case. But is free or cheap. But as in other cases, money value is not the only price to determine if something is costly or free. If someone takes a free advice and incur great costs, because of that, is that free input useful.
One has to think about this while opting for something (specially knowledge) free.
Coming to ideas, every one who thinks can get ideas to improve things that are existing. For example, when I am working on a process for long, I understand the intricacies of the same and can thing of ideas to improve the process. These are free to the one who get them and one can monetize them, based on one’s capacity.
Thus there is nothing free but for one’s ideas. All other things which look free apparently, may have some hidden costs attached and one has to understand the implications of a free good.
This is a thought process generated when I saw a Free add in the newspaper today morning.
Please comment your views.
Very good article.
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