It is not a repeat purchase. Alfred gets his college degree. Ten years later he regrets, but this isn't about him returning to college for another one, this is about Boris, ten years his junior, making the same double mistake.

Double mistake? The obvious mistake is going to college. The unobvious mistake is not checking how it worked out for people ten years older. Boris could in theory have asked Alfred. But Alfred didn't check with some-one older, and neither did Boris.

Would checking with some-one older even work? College enrollments have been rising. 50 years ago only about 4% of people went to university, and a degree really meant something. Checking with older people tells you about a world now gone.