☕ saturday mornings - May 21, 2022
important decisions, dangerous desires & golden handcuffs
Hi from Vienna!
Happy Saturday morning. Best time of the week, in my opinion. I hope you’re having a lovely start to your weekend.
It's been one year since the first edition of "saturday mornings" with 51 editions! The newsletter has changed a lot (see edition #1).
I’ve learned and grown a lot over the past year and tried my best to share lessons and ideas that have helped me or improved my thinking with you.
To my readers (yes, that's you) thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for supporting me in doing work I find meaningful. Thank you for helping me learn. Thank you for giving me your most valuable asset ― your attention. I promise to do my best each week to give you a positive return on it.
I have some big plans for this newsletter. Once I get back from my trip, I want to ratchet up the value delivered to you in each edition.
My commitment to my readers is to keep getting better. Thank you for sticking with me.
(I’m not sentimental, I swear).
What I’ve been up to:
I spent four days in Salzburg, with a few day trips into Southern Germany. I've found touring the Austrian Alps is reminiscent of the scenery in Alberta (proud Canadian moment).
I headed to a small scenic mining town in Austria called Hallstatt, with 16th-century Alpine houses and winding alleyways home to cafes and shops, where I spent two days enjoying the sights and hiking a few mountains.
Yesterday, I left Hallstatt for Vienna the final destination of my trip.
Below is your edition of “saturday mornings”, a weekly recap of the coolest things I’ve been pondering and exploring this week.
Thanks for being here. Even after 1 year. It means the world to me. 🙂
Total read time (all) = 3 minutes
✍️ Quote I’m pondering:
“The most important decision you make is to be in a good mood.” ― Voltaire
✍️ Quote I’ve unpacked:
"Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want." ― Naval Ravikant
I've thought about this idea a lot. But, I didn't understand it until a few days ago.
I want to explain why our desires make us unhappy.
A desire is created when there is something you want to change. You wish something in your life is different than it currently is. "I want to make more money", "I wish I was happier", "I'd like to be in better shape".
When we have a desire we create a gap between where we are and where we want to be. By saying you wish you were happier, it implies, in this moment, you're not that happy.
A desire will cause unease until you change what you want to change. It nags at you.
You struggle to embrace the present moment and the reality of what is, and the way it is. You wish things were different. It's hard to be present when our mind tells us “I need to do this. I want that. This has to change.”
You feel something is missing in your life: the change you want to make.
As a result, you suffer.
But, happiness is the state when you feel nothing is missing. Happiness is not suffering.
Desires pull your mind out of the present. Your thoughts ceaselessly run to the future to plan, or cast back to the past to analyze.
Happiness occurs when your mind is present.
Therefore, our desires make us unhappy.
Happiness is the absence of desire. When you’re at peace with life, and the way it is.
“The fewer desires I can have” Naval Ravikant notes, “the more I can accept the current state of things, the less my mind is moving, because the mind really exists in motion toward the future or the past. The more present I am, the happier and more content I will be.”
💡 Idea I’m exploring: The Hidden Wealth Curve
We've all heard that income doesn't have much of an impact on happiness.
Once we make enough to meet our basic needs (~$75,000 annually) happiness does not increase with income.
However, there's a hidden part of the happiness curve no one talks about.
The happiness curve doesn't stay flat forever. Once income increases past an extreme level, happiness begins to decrease.
In excess, money subtracts from happiness. Just ask Scrooge McDuck.
Why? Extreme wealth creates three things that tend to destroy happiness: Complexity, Paranoia, and Immense Responsibility.
1/ The more things you own, the more complexity you add to your life.
More things to manage, make payments for, and take care of. More things can break, get damaged, or get stolen.
At times, I feel overwhelmed keeping my room in order. Never mind multiple properties, fancy cars, and luxury yachts.
Your brain's capacity to handle complexity remains constant, but the complexity in your life skyrockets. A great formula to create overwhelming stress and anxiety.
Money is valuable to the extent it provides freedom. Freedom is the ultimate luxury. But, money in extreme amounts destroys your freedom.
"I also have in mind that seemingly wealthy, but most terribly impoverished class of all," Henry David Thoreau writes, "who have accumulated dross, but know not how to use it, or get rid of it, and thus have forged their own golden or silver fetters."
2/ With insane amounts of money, you become paranoid.
Rich people characteristically develop a deathly fear of losing their wealth. Fear of loss is stronger than desire for gain.
They begin to worry others are using them for their money. Tony Robbins says "your quality of life is determined by the quality of your relationships." With wealth, you never know what people's true intentions are. New and old friends alike. Suspect and suspicion alone are enough to ruin relationships.
3/ You constantly worry about how to best use your money.
If you want to create a positive impact with your wealth, the weight and duty of responsibly allocating your money becomes a burden. It constantly eats up your attention. Like a high-maintenance partner, your money devours the rest of your life.
"You don’t want to have a billion dollars," Kevin Kelly writes. "You really don’t."
That’s all for this week’s edition of “saturday mornings”.
If you have any feedback, I’d love to hear from you.
Reply to this email, leave a comment, or find me on Twitter @tommy_dixon_
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Have a fantastic weekend.
Much love to you and yours,
Tommy
Wow! One year! Congratulations, Tommy. Good moods, desire, happiness, wealth accumulation are such huge topics. I’m not sure there is a one size fits all solution here. Desire can have a positive influence on your life, if you desire positive things, like being in a good mood. One can live simply with wealth if one desires to, if for you money satisfies simple desires. Staying in the present, yes, that is likely the most challenging desire, but also one that is worth pursuing, one that can add to your happiness. Love the challenging topics you pursue, Tommy. Thanks for sharing your ideas and perspectives.