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Don't Waste the Good Days

seths.blog

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Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#71

Post by tayo42 »

basedgod wrote: post #68
ryandrake wrote: post #41

I feel like there is wisdom in "Make hay while the sun shines." When you're young and unencumbered by responsibility and family, when your cognitive abilities are at their peak, when your energy is endless, when your body is strong and healthy, when your knees work, and your fingers can type without arthritis: that's the optimal time to work and earn. Min-max that salary and stay healthy. Due to compounding interest,…

yes let's spend our 20s and 30s hoarding money and never doing anything fun, then when we're older and tied down with spouses and kids and aging parents we have a gigantic pile of money we can use to go on slightly "better" vacations one week a year I don't think there's a single dying person on the planet that wishes they experienced life less in favour of making stacks.

yeah i feel this way already, at 31, starting to really feel options closing, and realizing how insignificant a lot of decisions were in the end I wish I did more with my 20s some how (not like i had a lot of money to do much with anyway)

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#72

Post by sopooneo »

ryandrake wrote: post #41

I feel like there is wisdom in "Make hay while the sun shines." When you're young and unencumbered by responsibility and family, when your cognitive abilities are at their peak, when your energy is endless, when your body is strong and healthy, when your knees work, and your fingers can type without arthritis: that's the optimal time to work and earn. Min-max that salary and stay healthy. Due to compounding interest,…

There is some truth to what you say, but memories of my aimless twenties literally sustain me now.

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#73

Post by gooeykabuki »

ryandrake wrote: post #41

I feel like there is wisdom in "Make hay while the sun shines." When you're young and unencumbered by responsibility and family, when your cognitive abilities are at their peak, when your energy is endless, when your body is strong and healthy, when your knees work, and your fingers can type without arthritis: that's the optimal time to work and earn. Min-max that salary and stay healthy. Due to compounding interest,…

Well stated, Ryan! Contrarian but sane and very good advice.

The propensity to deal with bullshit, crap that doesn't matter including other people's mission (e.g. startup founders), the internalization of the limited time we have makes the early professional/working years so much more valuable and hence something to maximize.

It's a different path but that pays off handsomely if things work out half as well.

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#74

Post by xyzzyz »

tayo42 wrote: post #71
basedgod wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes let's spend our 20s and 30s hoarding money and never doing anything fun, then when we're older and tied down with spouses and kids and aging parents we have a gigantic pile of money we can use to go on slightly "better" vacations one week a year I don't think there's a single dying person on the planet that wishes they experienced life less in favour of making stacks.

yeah i feel this way already, at 31, starting to really feel options closing, and realizing how insignificant a lot of decisions were in the end I wish I did more with my 20s some how (not like i had a lot of money to do much with anyway)

When you’re young, you have time and energy, but you have no money.

Then, you have money and energy, but no time to enjoy these.

Finally, you retire, and have money and time, but the energy is gone.

Such is life.

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#75

Post by carpanddoem »

ryandrake wrote: post #41

I feel like there is wisdom in "Make hay while the sun shines." When you're young and unencumbered by responsibility and family, when your cognitive abilities are at their peak, when your energy is endless, when your body is strong and healthy, when your knees work, and your fingers can type without arthritis: that's the optimal time to work and earn. Min-max that salary and stay healthy. Due to compounding interest,…

That's all well and good, but there's always the chance that I'll get T-boned by a drunk driver or run over by a bus tomorrow.

There's probably a happy medium; virtue finds and chooses the mean, right?

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#76

Post by Barrin92 »

manachar wrote: post #6
stareblinkstare wrote: post #2

Ah, so this is what privilege and luxury of time looks like. Thanks Seth - I'm sure the 99% will heed your wisdom to go surfing.

Reframe this critique: This should be the point of civilization and society. We should be working to free everyone to be able to go surfing when able. I dislike that some people get to be "privileged" enough to be able to do so as much as the next guy, but I also dislike when people act like it's wrong to aspire to this. The problem isn't that this is bad advice; the problem is that our civilization currently prevent…

The point of society shouldn't be that everyone is so hedonistic the highlight in their day is surfing. If you're a mother or a father, if you have a church to go to, if you have relatives, if you're part of a political organization or a community you can't just make your own schedule.

This isn't bad, it means that you're an adult. If everyone lived this Peter Pan lifestyle we wouldn't have anything you'd call a civilization, we'd just have a bunch of grown up kids.

A community consists of interdependent people, it's not just a room full of individuals. Defining freedom in opposition to responsibility is an adolescents idea of freedom. That's a valid perspective in youth, not when it's time to be a person others can rely on.

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#78

Post by bluedevil2k »

gchamonlive wrote: post #50

Friendly reminder that being able to pack up and take a sabbatical year off is still privilege. If you can't just get up and leave to enjoy your good days, don't blame yourself. Most people can't.

> is still privilege

The guy worked hard and earned his year off, don’t dismiss it by calling it privilege. He has the skills and intelligence and hard working habits to earn the year off, this is not privilege. Successful people aren’t successful because of privilege, that’s just a label for an excuse by those who aren’t successful. You get what you earn in life.

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#79

Post by balls187 »

amznbyebyebye wrote: post #25

People look at me like I’m insane when I tell them I’m packing up and taking a year off. I’ve f’in had enough. And that’s me, the wife and our two kids- not quite school age. No I haven’t FIREd. No I’m probably passing up a raise and a promo (or maybe not). Super linear growth requires super linear decision making. You either follow the sheeple or decide enough is enough and make some drastic change. Im not getting t…

Why Penang?

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#80

Post by kovek »

derekp7 wrote: post #56
nightowl_games wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd have played fewer video games, traveled less, and relaxed on the beach less. This seems totally opposite of what old people say on their death bed. You sound so obsessed with money here. My guess is your probably very wealthy relative to the average peer and your too naive to realize it. You have to keep telling yourself this philosophy to justify not wind surfing in Bali. You think your gonna wind surf when yo…

The truth is, no matter what path you take in life, you can find yourself wishing that you took a different path.

Just as you can find meaning in the path you took. See how people will be happy even after missing some opportunities - https://youtu.be/4q1dgn_C0AU?t=1001 . It depends on our prefrontal cortex!
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