4 ms·

If you value your freedom this strongly, then it's time to make bold choices regarding the rate at which you save money. Since there is such a huge gap between

by Bakary 7y ago

If you value your freedom this strongly, then it's time to make bold choices regarding the rate at which you save money. Since there is such a huge gap between people who hold a lot of material status and the rest, why even play the game at all?

djrobstep 7y ago
Most people like not being homeless and not starving, I guess?
- Bakary 7y ago
  This is a false dichotomy. I'm not advocating for living in the woods, but just taking a hard look at the choices you make everyday and how much actual utility and satisfaction you get from them. Are those expensive clothes and cars worth it to you? Maybe they are. But you have to compare them to the months or years of labor you could avoid if you saved that money instead, or perhaps even invested it. Perhaps our world is extremely proficient at generating insane amounts of envy, but that doesn't mean you are completely powerless to respond in a life-affirming way.
  - ianai 7y ago
    Ultimately your way asks people to change their innate behavior.
    - Bakary 7y ago
      Sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy to me. I seriously doubt that there is an innate barrier against regulating your consumption at least a little bit. If you blame external factors exclusively then you will obviously never change anything about your life and never discover what was inevitable and what wasn't. You can try your best and still fail, but what you can't do is pretend that you don't have a choice presented to you from the outset.
- dang 7y ago
  "Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Edit: while I have you—could you please stop posting snarky and/or unsubstantive comments to HN? You've done it a lot, unfortunately, and we've had to ask you multiple times already. Continuing this way eventually gets your account banned. I don't want to ban you, so it would be good if you'd fix this. We're trying for a different sort of internet discussion here, as the site guidelines should make clear if you review them.

by Bakary 7y ago

djrobstep 7y ago

Most people like not being homeless and not starving, I guess?

Bakary 7y ago
This is a false dichotomy. I'm not advocating for living in the woods, but just taking a hard look at the choices you make everyday and how much actual utility and satisfaction you get from them. Are those expensive clothes and cars worth it to you? Maybe they are. But you have to compare them to the months or years of labor you could avoid if you saved that money instead, or perhaps even invested it. Perhaps our world is extremely proficient at generating insane amounts of envy, but that doesn't mean you are completely powerless to respond in a life-affirming way.
- ianai 7y ago
  Ultimately your way asks people to change their innate behavior.
  - Bakary 7y ago
    Sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy to me. I seriously doubt that there is an innate barrier against regulating your consumption at least a little bit. If you blame external factors exclusively then you will obviously never change anything about your life and never discover what was inevitable and what wasn't. You can try your best and still fail, but what you can't do is pretend that you don't have a choice presented to you from the outset.
dang 7y ago
"Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Edit: while I have you—could you please stop posting snarky and/or unsubstantive comments to HN? You've done it a lot, unfortunately, and we've had to ask you multiple times already. Continuing this way eventually gets your account banned. I don't want to ban you, so it would be good if you'd fix this. We're trying for a different sort of internet discussion here, as the site guidelines should make clear if you review them.