I am still thinking about it, and I think this is a placeholder for thoughts that are yet to be developed, but …
I read a very under-whelming book about trying to value our time more; I don’t recommend it. Long story short: don’t spend too much time or waste too much effort saving money and organize your day in a disciplined manner (de-fragmented) so that you are doing what you value most. If you are able to do that, psychology research tells us that, on average, you are likely to be happier. #done #yourwelcome
There is also an interview here, that (frankly) condenses the gist of her book into something palatable and equally digestible.
This is the notion that I have been wrapping my mind around recently: I have to earn time off from work. Until last year, they called it “earned time off”. That means that the default expectation of my life’s time is “work” and if I don’t love my work, I have to earn the time from my workplace that I can then invest in my own happiness. In this manner my opportunity for fulfillment and meaningfulness is earned by engaging and working in the marketplace alone.
That is morose. A child is born into this world with only so many seconds, minutes, hours, days, and years to live and the expectation is that they are to hand-over that precious time to a cultural economy that later sells it back to them?
I know that there is a whole bunch of economic theory and philosophy here that I am ignorant of and maybe I will explore it, but probably not.
I don’t think I have the time.