Stop wasting your time and watch a cat video!
Simplifying everything allows for the greatest progression many times. Let’s simplify the world economy…
Corporations buy time (employees), mark it up and sell the time back to you (time saving devices), or they sell you drugs (dopamine), which is what you’d do with your time.
You’re spending money on either:
1) Dopamine from 2 means – a) things (a nice sofa) or b) experiences (Hulu subscription),
2) Increase the amount of time you have for that dopamine (a dishwasher, a lawn mower). I think saving time is becoming a bigger market than the things you ultimately use your time up with (either things or experiences).
People squander time, just like money. But people are wrong when they say what’s wasted time. They say you’re wasting time reading fiction and watching cat videos. But down deep, that’s all there is. So, someone needs to say it,
The meaning of life is…cat videos.
If you’re getting your dopamine from watching funny TV shows, that’s as good as life gets. If that feels meaningless to you and you need to save the world to feel good, you better get saving. The problem is just like a real drug addict, you need more to get the same high. So sitting on the beach drinking margaritas doesn’t give you the same ‘fix’ as the first week of drinking.
A good example of squandering your time is spending 4 hours at work so you could afford to QuickPass Toll lane that will save you only 2 hours of time. You traded your time for a -50% Time ROI. In contrast, paying $200 a month for health insurance so you can be saved from cancer and extend your life 15 years is a massively profitable Time ROI.
Wasted time is either: a) time not spent feeling good or b) time not invested in things to increase your free time.
I mention time is a currency in another article about people wanting more time and forgetting why they wanted more time to begin with. Why’s this happen? When people work 1 hour, they’re gambling that with the money earned they’ll get more than 1 hour back or have the funds to use it for dopamine via stuff / experiences. Gambling feels good and is highly addictive.
Workaholics get cash to later be traded for time or stuff. He’s gambles that his 1 hour of labor now gets him 2 hours later (“If I work 80 hour weeks for 3 years, invest all my money, I can retire and have time for the next 20 years!”). Not all gamblers are workaholics, but all workaholics are gamblers. Note: If you get dopamine from your work, you get called “passionate” (not a workaholic).
Since gambling is a dopamine causing experience, people can find themselves always desperate for more time for no other purpose other than to gamble for more time.
