Lately, I have been spending more time thinking about the connection of value to the things that matter. It is a common issue in the world, where what actually brings value to individuals and society as a whole, is generally under-rewarded, while what does very little for anyone, get rewarded very highly indeed.
Yesterday, I was talking to the neighbors over lunch and the wife was saying how much she currently loves her work, because each day she gets the very real feedback from her clients on the difference she makes. She joked how it is lucky that she has a "rich" husband, otherwise she would probably have to find something that pays more. She is a pre-natal and earl childhood care nurse and her clients are genuinely appreciative of the support she provides.
Isn't it strange, that without her rich husband (who is not rich, but is a manager of a technical department in a large corporation), she would have to give up doing what she enjoys, which is actually helping people in very real ways and likely adds to the value of a child's life for years to come? I have always found it interesting that the behaviors and activities we want to see more of in the world, go unincentivized, that they are meant to be performed from the goodness of heart, without recognizing that goodness doesn't pay bills and it is harder to help others when under financial duress.
Talking with my colleague today who has a two month old child, he was saying how when young, he always considered having children as a kind of end to his own life, as if from then on he wouldn't be focusing on improving himself too much. Yet, I think that if anything, having children brings the clarity and urgency to improve oneself, for their sake.
While everyone wants what is bet for their children and for them to be happy, not many seem to think that much about what this requires. Instead, while the factors that improve quality of life go begging for support, many concentrate on activities that provide wealth, but no value to the community itself. Most investments in this world that offer a high ROI, don't do much to improve the conditions that enable that "happy child" to exist.
Instead, it is more of an uphill battle for children, as even their parents these days do all they can to avoid work. We were talking about hobbies and I was saying that back in the days, hobbies were supportive functions for paying work - where for example back in the day, a farmer's hobbies were to improve the quality of tools and his wife would knit jumpers with pretty patterns so that people didn't freeze while they worked.
These days however, hobbies are seen as leisure activities that don't have to generate any value or bring practical support to activities that do. The time spent on leisure, is like disposable income, where the income is time. Just like how money can be used in a multitude of ways, be it to invest or to waste, so too can time. People see there downtime as not having to offer a return and while this makes sense for some portion, in a world where we have an increasing amount of disposable time to spend, wasting it on non-value-adding activity will have a large impact on potential.
Again, while sitting down in front of Netflix has some return, it suffers the law of diminishing returns the more it is done and, the opportunity cost can be very high. Not only that, if we stop taking responsibility for our own development, it means that it is left up to others, which generally means that the professional development will be directed from the workplace, which is probably geared to word benefiting the company, not the person - if there is development pathway at all.
In my opinion, we should be putting aside some portion of our disposable time to invest into generative activities. There are many ways to do this and it definitely doesn't have to earn money, but it is good to consider what adds value to us, what makes us as an individual stronger and better as a person. The reason is, that when we invest into ourselves and feel the effects of development and meaning, we also tend to feel better about ourselves and are happier in our life.
I find it a strange conflict when people want their kids to have a better life, but are unable or unwilling to improve their own. Parents should lead by example. This should also be demonstrated in the work we do too in some way, as I believe it should be hard to say that we want a better life for our children, while earning money from activities that do not facilitate that outcome. If you consider that the air we breathe, the food we eat, the opportunities available and the relationships we have all contribute to our well-being, working at things that knowingly degrade such areas is counterproductive to our cause.
Life is full of tradeoffs and while it is easy to condemn the actions of others, if we aren't ourselves acting toward the positions in life we would like to be, we are throwing stones in glass houses. While I understand that most people do need some escape from their current reality, I do think that a decent portion of our escape should be toward being where we want to be, which means investing into the journey to get there.
We each are responsible for our own lives and how we feel about them, even if we don't take the responsibility. It is easy to blame others for the world in which we live and the opportunities we have available to us, but if we aren't investing any of our own disposable time and resources into improving ourselves and things in some way, what is the chance of improvement? Leaving up to the people who will actively invest means that they direct the development, even if you don't like the direction or final destination.
I will add more to this topic later.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]