No vegetables?
Doesn't the onion count?
I’ve had the same supper for 10 years
91–100 of 780 posts
Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years
#92This guy is a saint. To have that kind of contentment and peace is the goal of most religions. Honestly I'd like to hear more of his life, would love to talk to him.
You may enjoy this video (and others in the series) which had a similar flavor: Appalachian Man interview-Elmer, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uqwy0dPRVOw
Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years
#93So I’m the only person who’s reading this as a parody? I’m trying not to dismiss it, I understand this might be a real person’s honest thoughts and experiences. But it has a cadence, repetition, provocation and smart innocence that could be an Onion article if penned by Douglas Adams.
I recognize a lot of myself and several of my family members in the letter, but I think they’d take it the same way.
Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years
#94I've found a lot of freedom in similar decisions. Not sure I could take it to the same level, but even just having a small set of meals to eat every week makes shopping, cooking and planning around expiry dates so much easier. Clothes can be similarly hacked such that everything goes together and every combination is something you are comfortable wearing, leaving you never needing to consider what to wear. I've optimised these to the point that they take up nearly zero mental space and generate no stress. In my case, I use pre-prepared frozen meal delivery service, but I know some meal preppers who find similar freedom that way. Don't cook or order anything you won't eat at any arbitrary time, and you'll never be stuck with wasted food or indecision. And for clothes I found a small set that works for me and can be worn in any given situation (except formal, though that doesn't impact me in any way).
I see a lot of comments that seem to see all the things you miss out on in this situation. But in my mind, it frees up a lot of mental effort, time and stress. If I ever get bored I can go to a restaurant and eat something wild and it will be all the more exciting given I don't optimize for excitement or luxury in my everyday steady-state.
When Soylent came out I was super excited about this idea. Don't think about three meals a day that you normally fuss over, and instead have two predictable, quick meals and optimize to make the third one amazing. Soylent was OK, and DIY soylent offered some hope too. The third meal WAS always amazing, in a relative sense, and tasted better somehow than when I had the same thing before this diet. Unfortunately liquid diets are just not satisfying to me and so frozen meals won out.
I'd love to find other areas of my life that can be similarly optimized. I have hope for bill management services to take the annoyance out of juggling payments etc., and roboinvestors or similar automated financial services. Doing these things manually offers no excitement and no added value beyond the transitively provided service so I don't think they should take up my life.
The amount of time wasted across the whole human population on things like preparing meals, choosing outfits and managing everyday responsibilities must be huge and that is all time that could be spent doing other exciting or valuable things.
Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years
#95There is value in finding your place in life and being content with it. Yes, you might be able to change it, perhaps to conform to more traditional standards of 'success', but why bother if you're happy as you are? If we humans optimize by happiness, then we should have nothing but envy for a life like Wilf Davies leads.
I came to this realization in university - I love software, I love writing programs and solving problems, but I really don't love office work or the idea of sitting at a desk all day. I dropped out of a software engineering program to work on a factory floor, a decision I haven't regret once in five years (even if my parents would consider me a failure). The hours are good, the wage is good, benefits are good, I get…
I can relate a little bit; early on I worked a job where I basically just wiped computers and confirmed they were working, then loaded them on pallets. It was purely physical work (lift a computer, take it to a desk, connect it, power it on, boot to a CD, confirm HD was wiping, go to one that had finished, pop out CD, shut down, disconnect, carry to pallet), in a hot warehouse, but the whole time I did it I felt good.
Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years
#96Here's an interesting thought experiment – would you (and everyone else here) have the same reaction to this article if it was written by a North Korean farmer who was perfectly happy with life being in the exact same situation as this Welsh one? Would he still be "enlightened" and "content" or brainwashed, oppressed and a victim of propaganda?
Given my own take[1], I was confused as you explained your thought experiment because I think I’d trust its sincerity more from a North Korean farmer.
Edit to clarify: not because I’m dismissing the oppressive dictatorship but because I think it’s more likely a rando person farming in North Korea likely has less exposure to a larger world that might make them happy, and less motivation to justify their self-isolation with denial.
Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years
#97This is similar to Sven Yrvind's philosophy on eating at sea. >I will eat twice a day, breakfast and lunch four hours later. >... >I say, “Cows only eat grass and wolfs only eat meat” >Modern society is so boring and there is so much food that we have to be stimulated by spices and chefs and different foods to eat. At sea in a small boat its different. Life itself out there is so interesting that I do not need stimul…
Sounds like starvation rations…
Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years
#98Here's an interesting thought experiment – would you (and everyone else here) have the same reaction to this article if it was written by a North Korean farmer who was perfectly happy with life being in the exact same situation as this Welsh one? Would he still be "enlightened" and "content" or brainwashed, oppressed and a victim of propaganda?
I remember traveling around some islands with a new acquaintance on his own journey. I remember him saying, "It's amazing and romantic. Most of the folks here have never left. All they need is right here."
Fast forward a day.
"Americans are idiots because they never leave America. Most of them don't even have a passport."
Okay.
Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years
#99How incredibly small-minded. I respect people who've tried something and decided it's not for them. But to never even try a different kind of food? I suspect it's less that he's found what he likes and more that he's scared he'd find out he actually liked something else better, and has wasted those 10 years.
> How incredibly small-minded. How incredibly patronizing. Have you considered that people have different tastes? Personally, I hate eating; if I could take a pill to replace all my nutrition needs, I would in a heartbeat, even if it costs more than my current dietary expenses.
I mean soylent is pretty easy
Re: I’ve had the same supper for 10 years
#100There is value in finding your place in life and being content with it. Yes, you might be able to change it, perhaps to conform to more traditional standards of 'success', but why bother if you're happy as you are? If we humans optimize by happiness, then we should have nothing but envy for a life like Wilf Davies leads.
I came to this realization in university - I love software, I love writing programs and solving problems, but I really don't love office work or the idea of sitting at a desk all day. I dropped out of a software engineering program to work on a factory floor, a decision I haven't regret once in five years (even if my parents would consider me a failure). The hours are good, the wage is good, benefits are good, I get…
That is a fantastic life as far as I’m concerned.