You can have anything you want but you cannot have everything!
― Ray Dalio
We all have a limited amount of time left on this earth and there is simply no time to do everything that we want. We all need to prioritize and find the things that make us happy. Here I am trying to summarize my own priorities.
Experiencing things with my girlfriend sits right at the top. Seeing her smile is always amazing and I would like to have much more time to spend with her. To explore the world together, getting lost in both space and time. A few weeks vacation per year is definetly not enough.
I need more time to think and reflect. I think one of the main problems in modern life is that we do things without thinking and we do not understand what we are doing or why. I would also like time to learn about new ideas and different opinions about them. Thought experiments and discussions. Playing games.
I think I would feel better in a warmer, and more stable, climate with a slower pace of life. Sweden can be very dark and rough for a large part of the year and life is always in high gear.
I like learning about new technology. I find it fascinating with all the new technology that is introduced every year. Unfortunately most work in the technology sector is focused on old and existing technologies. In Software Development most work is closer to manufacturing than to invention and is often simply small iterative improvements on technology and fundamentals introduced many decades earlier. More efficient to learn on my own?
I have had a keen interest in photography ever since I was a small boy. There is something intriging and elusive with trying to capture that split second moment when all the different elements align. It is more difficult than people imagine and requires a lot of time and a mind open to seeing. I do not find that the amount of great pictures produced have increased greatly over the years even though the technology is dramatically improved and the amount of images have exploded. Clearly an interesting challenge.
I would like to give writing a try. I am not sure I have anything worthwhile to say but it would be interesting to find out.
All of the things I have mentioned above requires a lot of time. Probably to much for a lifetime but definetly much more than I will ever have being occupied with a regular paid job. It is also clear that it will require money, especially for travelling, so I will somehow need to separate making money from the time spent doing it. Notice also that none of these priorities mentions owning anything so buying things should be avoided. These are all consequences of my priorities.
To get what you want, you have to deserve what you want. The world is not yet a crazy enough place to reward a whole bunch of undeserving people.
– Charlie Munger
What are your priorities? Are you spending your time to achieve them?
“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.”
“I don’t much care where –”
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland