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comment by coffeesp00ns
coffeesp00ns  ·  3075 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: My Favourite "Three Kinds of People in the World" Quotations. What Are Yours?

I like the second one a lot, but it also makes me sad because there are many people who would love to live the second kind of life that are unable to by reason of circumstance, and must put aside their passion and work to live.

there's not exactly much I can do about it, but it makes me sad anyways.





user-inactivated  ·  3075 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I was in a class in grad school recently called The Woman Manager which ended up being about how women get stuck in mid-level management and how the gender gap is tragic etc.

When we started going around the class, I realized that everyone around me had already made the decision to live to work, and I have been staunchly against that since 2012 when I got out of the military. When they talked about themselves everything was job this and then family. When they talked about their families it was almost perfunctory rather than pride. Their dreams were of better jobs and more responsibility. That's what they dream of. More work. Can you imagine? I dream of retiring tomorrow and building a log cabin on land I own. I dream of buying so much art I run out of space. What the hell happened to these people?

When I talk about myself I breeze over the job I get paid for and talk about what I fund. I volunteer with a group that builds trails in Missouri. I work on artistic projects and I write. Who gives a shit that I run Excel spreadsheets really well? I don't and it pays well. I work to live. It's pretty easy to tell the two people apart.

OftenBen  ·  3075 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Can you imagine? I dream of retiring tomorrow and building a log cabin on land I own.

Me too, lets start a club. Only very mildly joking about that. My career is interesting, and I plan on doing lots of good for a fair few people over the course of it. But it really is just the best way I can think of to fund my dreams of living on the side of a mountain somewhere.

user-inactivated  ·  3075 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Have you read the Foxfire books? They were a project that a high school history class did in the 70s which asked all the older people in the area about their rural childhood. This place was still pretty rural so in reality what they got was how the hell the world used to work before modern technology made it what it is today. The first book covers "Hog Dressing, Log Cabin Building, Mountain Crafts and Foods, Planting by the Signs, Snake Lore, Hunting Tales, Faith Healing, Moonshining, and Other Affairs of Plain Living". It is the instruction manual for restarting society. Combine with the Open Source Ecology Project and you got a stew going baby.

OftenBen  ·  3075 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Well I know what I'm doing this winter.

Thanks for the resources!

user-inactivated  ·  3075 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I'm gonna retire asap and go on cargo cruises, you're both welcome to tag along.

coffeesp00ns  ·  3075 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I'm currently working to live. I have other interests, and hobbies, etc, but I'd rather be working a job that I can dedicate my life to.

The trick is to keep having hobbies and other interests. Like you, one must have Passion for something. there are so many people who become singularly focused on their job that it stifles their creativity, their ability to connect dots in new ways and innovate. There was a really interesting Ideas Podcast on creativity a while back, and the thing I really got out of it was that You need to know your topic inside and out, learn everything around it, tangential relations, etc. - The go do something else so that your brain can make connections.

lil  ·  3075 days ago  ·  link  ·  

sp00ns, yellowoftops interesting thoughtful discussion... love this.