Work, Sabbatical, Robbing, Lifestyle, Laughter
Some great reads from the internet this week
The idea that hard work is a virtue and idleness a vice, along with many other norms that underwrite the modern economy, can be traced back to the agricultural revolution some 10,000 years ago. The practical demands of making a living from the soil upended the existing equation between effort and reward. Hunter-gatherers had relished immediate rewards—slaughter an animal, chow down right away. Farmers, on the other hand, developed “delayed return economies.” They invested their labor in the land for the promise of a reward in the future. This, of course, is the basis of our economy today.
For too long, society has viewed the time of retirement as when one can unapologetically discover their interests. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to discover myself at 65 with the false notion that I’m finally able to live the life I imagined. What kind of dispiriting world would it be that after spending years chipping away, you climbed the ladder only to reach the “peak” with an achy back and arthritic hands?
Rob a bank
As always, the best way to rob a bank is to own a bank.
Second best way is to find a really big bank to buy up all the crap loans you originate, and that’s where Credit Suisse comes in. After the GAM debacle in early 2019, there was zero question that the loans Greensill had been selling to Credit Suisse for years were just as stinky as the loans they had sold to GAM. And yet Credit Suisse did … nothing. Actually, that’s not fair. They purchased MORE of the securitized loans from Greensill than ever before. They marketed their funds HARDER than ever before.
Lifestyle creep
Imagine that you just received a raise at work and now you want to go out and celebrate. After all, you’ve worked hard and you deserve something nice, right? Maybe you want a new luxury car? A better place to live? Or, maybe, you just want to dine out more often?
No matter what you decide to do with your newfound cash, you’ve just fallen victim to lifestyle creep. Lifestyle creep is when someone increases their spending after experiencing an increase in income. So that new raise quickly becomes a fancy new object or an expensive new habit, and it’s gone.
Most of us think of laughter as a spontaneous reaction to something funny, but that’s not always the case. Just think about babies – they don’t need jokes to laugh, and neither do we. Humour can certainly make us laugh, and laughing can make things humorous. But based on my own research and others’, it’s clear that they can occur separately too – and laughter without humour can still make you feel happy. The upshot is that we don’t need to wait for something funny to happen before we can experience the benefits of laughter.
Thanks for reading through. Be safe. Cheers!
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