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My Life in Weeks
71–80 of 272 posts
Re: My Life in Weeks
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
Quite the irony that the thread started with reminiscing about life and purpose and needing time and valuing relationships and you guys go into the "need to make more money" spiel. Here comes a secret: It will never be enough for you. It's not the money that counts. It's the ratio of income versus expenses, if anything. And if you grow one and don't stop the other one from growing in unison, then you have gained noth…
Why is parent's advice ironic? I, like probably most people, would have more time for relationships I value now if I had followed their advice. Your first sentence reads as if their advice was "earn money at the expense of relationships and well-being" and that isn't the case at all.
You can't be certain of that, though. If you had (for example) pursued work and money more ambitiously in your 20s, maybe those relationships you value now would never have formed in the first place. Maybe then-existing relationships would have suffered to the point of estrangement.
I'm lucky: I worked very hard and did decently well in the startup lottery, but I still left myself enough time to forge valuable relationships. I've witnessed people who chase higher and higher salaries but aren't that lucky, and end up using the years of their life where their mind and body are at their peak of their ability for work instead of play, and regret it.
I'm in my 40s now, and see some younger friends and acquaintances doing things like taking multi-month world trips, diving head-first into new hobbies/skills that take hundreds/thousands of hours to get good at, and I wish I'd done things like that in my 20s and 30s. In part because my responsibilities today make it difficult to do now, but also because I just don't want to do some of those things anymore, because they sound kinda exhausting at my age. But I still wish I had those experiences in my past to look back fondly upon.
I guess what I'm saying is that nothing is certain, and we can't reliably look back and say "if I'd done X 15 years ago, today I'd be able to do Y". Life just doesn't work that way. I think we should do what makes us happy whenever we have the ability to. Sure, look hard for and always be open to opportunities to take on work that could make a big change in your financial life. But be careful with those sorts of choices, because there's always opportunity cost.
Re: My Life in Weeks
#73Weeks is the most terrifying unit of time to think in. Short enough so you have a good sense of how long it feels but long enough to add up quickly.
Re: My Life in Weeks
#74Weeks is the most terrifying unit of time to think in. Short enough so you have a good sense of how long it feels but long enough to add up quickly.
And the best part of it is that there's really only about 4000 weeks for any one of us! It's an interesting metric.
Re: My Life in Weeks
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
I want to retire early and make music and games for 40 years after I turn 40. I don't want to wait until I'm 69 to retire for at most 11 years. Plus none of us know how much time we actually have. A lot of people plan to retire at 68, die on the job at 67, and your replacement is in your chair next week.
> Plus none of us know how much time we actually have Precisely because of this, you should be making music and games now. You never know if once you reach the amount of money you desire, death will knock on your door. If you are already doing it, that's great. But so many people defer the enjoyment and overwork themselves waiting for that future where they hit the number.
That's a good point, I make plenty of music, and every now and then I release a really small game. I can't imagine more than 100 people have played them, but in a strange way that's okay. It was never for other people.
Re: My Life in Weeks
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yup. My advice to young people is -- if you can't figure out what to do in life, make more $$. With enough $$ you will have a world of time to ponder what to do. I also regret that I gave up a FAANG level opportunity because my faily doesn't want me to go to another city. I would hit well over 200K TC by now -- a very comfortable salary in Canada.
On the other hand, there are opportunities that are only open to you when you're young. Squandering those opportunities by working so you can be retired at 40 or 50 isn't free. Meeting people in travel hostels would be one example. Being a young single on a beach abroad is another. Traveling in general is another. Wandering around Prague with some beers and friends you made 6 hours ago hits different at 26 than it do…
Yup, exactly. I know someone in their early 30s who just quit their job and went abroad to spend a month living on a beach learning how to surf. I'm in my mid-40s and can't fathom doing that. I could do that; have the finances and professional flexibility to support it, but the main thing is I just don't want to. The idea of living on a beach in somewhat uncomfortable conditions just doesn't appeal to me anymore. Some things I'd enjoy or tolerate 15 years ago are things that I just don't want to do today. But at the same time I'm disappointed I don't have experiences like that in my past to look back on fondly.
Don't get me wrong; my current situation is fantastic, and I'm in a much better place than I ever would have expected if you asked 25-year-old me where I'd be in nearly 20 years. But I'm still aware that there were paths I didn't take, paths that would have also made me happy.
Re: My Life in Weeks
#77Into my heart, an air that kills, from yon far country blows. What are those blue remembered hills? What spires, what farms are those? That is the land of lost content. I see it shining plain. Those happy highways, where I went, and cannot go again.
Perhaps an even more fitting Housman poem: https://poets.org/poem/loveliest-trees
Re: My Life in Weeks
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yup. My advice to young people is -- if you can't figure out what to do in life, make more $$. With enough $$ you will have a world of time to ponder what to do. I also regret that I gave up a FAANG level opportunity because my faily doesn't want me to go to another city. I would hit well over 200K TC by now -- a very comfortable salary in Canada.
It's sounds vain, but money is probably one of the most important things. At my (our ?) level it's more a luxury of early retirement, but I had a friend who could never afford to move out. Her parents were pretty bad to her to say the least. She was stuck in a pattern of dating guys, moving in with them, getting kicked out and retreating to her parents. As I told her money gives you options...
Unfortunately agreed. Money can't buy happiness, but it sure greases the wheels. Money opens up opportunities and possibilities that you just aren't going to have without it.
And not having money is a great way to suffer at least low-grade anxiety on a regular basis. Or a great way to actually be destitute.
Re: My Life in Weeks
#79So much of our life is consumed by work. Seeing your lifespan laid bare like this, there's a perverse instinct to optimize what remains. Have to be more productive, more efficient. But it's a bit like seeing you're bleeding out and deciding to optimize your blood donation schedule, isn't it?
The older I get the more I realize that the most effective and productive things I can do are not at all what seem to be productive or effective on the surface.
One of the most mentally and physically crippling things I’ve ever done was work too hard, for too long. I worked and earned more money than I thought I ever could but… All I truly got out of it was a lesson. To never do it again. I would have earned enough but also enjoyed my life had I just calmed down a bit.
I’m sure you know as well as I do, if not better. It seemed worth noting though.
Re: My Life in Weeks
#80Here’s another version of mine: https://rishikeshs.com/timeline/