Breaking free of the rat race

[SiegfriedSchtauffen]

World Wars were quite long ago, how are they related to our topic today?

 

[Mole]

World Wars were quite long ago, how are they related to our topic today?

You mentioned you had difficulty finding cracks of reality in history. And so you should, as they are quite rare. They are like the tides -

There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

- Brutus.

 

[SiegfriedSchtauffen]

Well, I prefer focusing on the present and the future. I strictly avoid nostalgia let it be about positive or negative past events because somehow they pointlessly make me feel bad about the present and the future that is bad. For me this thing is so serious that I keep no pictures of my past (except those on my cards). I think focusing on the present and future (problems) is the winner strategy. If I was constantly focusing and thinking about the worst years of my life then it would poison my present and the future as well. Doing that for a few years only made me more and more depressed, it totally didn't worth doing.

 

[Avocado]

Well, I prefer focusing on the present and the future. I strictly avoid nostalgia let it be about positive or negative past events because somehow they pointlessly make me feel bad about the present and the future that is bad. For me this thing is so serious that I keep no pictures of my past (except those on my cards). I think focusing on the present and future (problems) is the winner strategy. If I was constantly focusing and thinking about the worst years of my life then it would poison my present and the future as well. Doing that for a few years only made me more and more depressed, it totally didn't worth doing.

True. I could apply this to my health problems, as well. Of all of my dozens of ailments, really only my adhd, arthritis, and pinched nerves are permanent and wouldn't be helped by exercising...and even then, I hear I could at least lessen my joint pain at least a little if I could just commit and exercise regularly. Regularly is the key, as I get busy and don't stick to a schedule

 

[kyuuei]

I'm sorry to say but this one is just complete bullshit, this is a typical example of a lie people usually tell themselves. If I walked up to a person and offered him to choose between a latte or financial freedom (as a gift) I think no one would choose the latte. On the other hand if they had to make efforts to reach one of them then the result would be almost the opposite. A financially free man can have a latte anytime, someone who isn't free can have a latte when his/her boss allows that.

Social studies say this isn't quite accurate at all... people will choose instant gratification (aka the latte) over long term gratification. Over and over again.

But. It isn't just the effort--people put in effort all the time.. but after expending that effort, putting MORE effort into it (aka saving that money from working hard) doesn't feel as good as rewarding one's self for the effort already exerted (like getting a latte after 3 12 hour shifts). People choose lattes because they feel good now... And sometimes, that's totally necessary to do. I'm not knocking it entirely. But it's a choice. And it's the total accumulation of those choices that leans one way (towards the rat race) or the other (towards your own personal goals, whatever those may be). Sometimes peoples' goals are to get a job, and a house, and a family, and retire. If that's the case.. it isn't really a rat race for them. If that's what they truly want. But for those who don't want that, and are playing that game anyways... yeah, it's up to them to change their decision making.

I think no one likes the rat race. Leaving it is very difficult since you have to act against a huge set of (social) expectations. Leaving the rat race requires a mindset that makes you very-very different than most of the people in the rat race. It requires huge efforts and taking a lot of risks. In my opinion most people are simply trapped between the feeling bad about being a "slave" but being unable to take the risks necessary to leave it and meanwhile they spend decades lying themselves something nice to make the situation more bearable (this is what some people call "mediocre life").

Yes. Exactly... They do all of that. But... that isn't the rat race's fault. The rat race is a force. If you grow up on the beach, and get hit by a lot of storms... either you have to accept that you're in a stormy side of the world, or you have to eventually get up and move somehow. But if you CAN'T move, being angry at weather won't fix anything. It does literally nothing. You can't blame weather for you being there in the first place. Similarly.. people blame the rat race for their slots in life. It doesn't work that way. Yeah, it DOES require a different mentality.. it requires a lot of thinking outside the box, taking risks, doing things differently.. but that's what it takes. Not willing to do that? I won't think less of you.. but I also don't want to sit through a bunch of excuses which are just that. Excuses. At the end of the day, if you're stopping yourself, it's an excuse.

Selling your time for money at cheap rates is bad business in general. I definitely agree with that. Using your time as an asset is much more productive.

 

[SiegfriedSchtauffen]

The experiment with the chocolate and silver bars are interesting but in my opinion it wasn't driven by short term gratification. It was rather driven by disinterest, lack of knowledge and perhaps a degree of distrust (given the weird situation with a stranger). Both chocolate and silver are known to have low value even if the silver bar costs more but people here probably didn't know the exact difference. However they knew that non of these would have any significant impact on their lives - for this reason I think people didn't bother too much and they've simply chosen something they were more familiar with to finish this "weird game". I think this experiment would have been more interesting by asking people about the reason for their choice even if they wouldn't always be able to tell the reasons but at least they should stop thinking a bit about the situation.

The choice with the latte and the financial freedom is much more different. People know and feel the huge difference but reaching one of them is easy while the other one seems to be unreachable and they simply stop thinking about reaching that goal (because for some stupid reason most people think that they have to become billionaire for that). Selling one's life for cheap is a serious mistake and a little bit of research (like asking "how much money do I need to be free for a week/month/year with a good standard of life and how can I earn that in the most efficient way?") reveals quickly that it is much easier to free up significant amount of time from the rat race without being a millionaire. Once you managed to free up some of your time (lets say you have a few free months/year) it becomes even easier to learn/try other things to free up even more not to mention that life is much more interesting this way. There are many options between being a total slave and absolutely free. There are a lot of options with which one doesn't have to spend a whole life with slavery.

For some reason most people fail to realize even the most obvious things, like the fact that they sell most of their lives for next to nothing. Most people never think about this and don't realize the significance of the previous statement. Those thoughts should be followed by doing simple math about a life that is better than the current one. You don't have to be a millionaire but after freeing up some of your time you have much higher chances to become one if you want that.