Thought stream 20170214

This morning, I listened to a Tim Ferriss podcast with Mr. Money Mustache, and it may have been my most paused episode due to writing down things to read or do. Apparently, I have a similarly skewed brain as Tim, MMM, and Elon Musk when it comes to the frustration of knowing that the world is busted and needs some fixing in a lot of areas.

MMM seems to steer away from consumerism by measuring his level of pleasure per experience or item and maximizing where he’s getting it from. If something doesn’t take away a pain or provide a true delight, then it’s not worth it. Tim is a lot more interested in experiencing new things that bring him pleasure–we both enjoy input and learning. Tim collects experiences and uses things as needed just like MMM. The difference is that MMM gains most of his pleasure from the tribe life (time around the fire with friends and family), where Tim gets it while adventuring. As I listen to Tim and read his books though, I see him moving toward a village too.

Is this the natural progression? We strive first for “success” only to find that the things don’t matter so much as the experiences, and only after experiencing so many incredible things, discover that what we really want is relationships? Does that mean we should skip to the relationships and memories together? Or do we need the journey? I think the journey is worth it.

When people ask me what I do for fun, I still say that I collect hobbies. In this way, I relate to Tim (though in a much smaller degree). I have so many sticks in the fire because that’s where I learn the most and experience the most, and for this part of my life, I think that’s ok.

So where to next? I have a bunch of hobbies and experiences waiting to take stage. I really need to re-evaluate the filler activities I do and pull some into the limelight.