I recently saw this Reddit post about a guy who automated his job and collected a paycheck for 6 years while doing basically no work. Sounds like a nice gig, right? Who wouldn’t want to get paid to do as little as possible?
I can see the appeal. Compared to putting in 60-70 hour weeks or working a job you hate, this is a far better situation. But, most people who idealize it probably haven’t considered the costs associated with it.
At this point, you might be thinking:
“What costs? How could getting paid to not work be a bad thing?”
Because, when you get paid to do very little, you end up giving up two of the most important things in your life—your time and your purpose. President Richard Nixon summarized it beautifully in this interview:
The unhappiest people of the world are those in the international watering places like the south coast of France, and Newport, and Palm Springs, and Palm Beach. Going to parties every night. Playing golf every afternoon, then bridge. Drinking too much. Talking too much. Thinking too little. Retired. No purpose.
As so, while I know there are those who would totally disagree with this and say, “Gee, if I could just be a millionaire that would be the most wonderful thing. If I could just not have to work everyday. If I could just be out fishing or hunting or playing golf or traveling, that would be the most wonderful life in the world.”
They don’t know life. Because what makes life mean something is purpose. A goal. The battle. The struggle. Even if you don’t win it.
Money starts to have diminishing returns towards happiness at around ~$80,000 year
Many commenters on the reddit post said our automator-in-chief “won the game.” But I disagree, I don’t think he won the game. He won the battle, but he lost the war, because after six years of doing nothing, he was fired and immediately experienced an existential crisis about his future.
Where did he go wrong? It wasn’t when he automated his job. That’s actually very smart, and I would’ve done the same.
What he did wrong was how he spent his free time after automating. Because you can spend your time doing activities that give you deep satisfaction, or you can waste it on video games & booze.
It’s not about how much time you have, but how you use it. It reminds me of this quote from On The Shortness of Life by the Stoic philosopher Seneca:
It’s not that we have a short time to live, but we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested.
The more I write about investing, the more I end up talking about time. Because everything in investing, ultimately, leads back to time. A decision you make today could have a huge impact on your future. That’s what compounding is all about—decisions and how they move through time.
Compounding also explains why you shouldn’t settle for a nice paycheck from an easy job. Because every second you spend doing something that you don’t find fulfilling is another second wasted.
Once you understand this, it completely changes how you look at the world. You’ll realize life isn’t about maximizing reward while minimizing effort. It’s about finding what you like to do, and doing it for as long as you can. Much like investing, it’s all about staying in the game.
Ben Franklin said it best:
I’ve seen men die at the age of 25, yet buried at the age of 75.
There will always be cheap dopamine and shortcuts for every occasion. Why do work when you can not work? Why build something when you could not build it? The choice seems obvious, doesn’t it?
But the easy choices come with hard consequences later. They show up where you might not expect them, & the easy way out always has hidden costs.
Are you willing to pay them?