The "Medium Chill" - Enjoy life instead of striving to earn more money

[FUEGO]

I wanted to share this neat article:

The medium chill | Grist

The Medium Chill - The whole point is to earn enough to enable you to enjoy life. Not exactly the same as working toward FIRE, but I am sure the sentiments in the article will resonate with many here.

That's what consumer culture forever tells us: more money/stuff/status means fewer constraints, more freedom, more choices, thus more happiness. The entire economy runs on spending and debt, and for that to work everyone needs to think they're not happy but could be happy if they just had more sh*t or a better job or a better house. Every "consumer" needs to be running on the treadmill, working toward the next thing.

 

[Nords]

Whoa-- work/life balance? I mean, life/work balance? Can we do that?!?

Consider: Why do we always remember our childhood friends? Why do so many people look back on college with fondness? Why are so many married couples nostalgic for those hardscrabble early years, with the crappy jobs and tiny apartment and borrowed baby clothes? It's because, while those environments were materially constrained (we had fewer choices), they yielded powerful relationships. We made the best of what we had, which is an intense psychosocial process that leads to deep bonds and enduring memories.

I think I remember those days (not necessarily with "fondness") because we succeeded at elevating our economic circumstances above those times and no longer have to contemplate living that way again.

Otherwise I'd be typing this from a 15x15 dorm room or a tiny apartment...

 

[Onward]

Good article that pretty much sums up my philosophy of life up until age 40 or so. Boy, was that a mistake.

Articles like this always equate more money with more stuff. The better use of more money is to create more time and more dignity--the dignity that comes from not being a rat.

$200,000 earners feel middle-class because ... they're still w*rking.

And if you really think you've found that perfect little j*b, just wait a few months.

 

[GregLee]

I wanted to share this neat article:

The medium chill | Grist

I do think it's interesting, and I see the commonality between the ratcheting down of consumer appetites discussed in the article, and the LBYM strategy so often discussed here. However, I find something peculiar about the concentration on happiness as the be-all and end-all of human existence.

 

[Amethyst]

I liked the article, but the term "medium chill" confuses me. I always thought the "big chill" referred to death.

Amethyst

 

[W2R]

From the article,

social connections are at the heart of wellbeing

It is proposed that life is more satisfying if we de-emphasize the material in favor of the social.

How about if we de-emphasize the material in favor of seeking inner peace and understanding of the universe and one's place in it? IMO these are more central to the heart of wellbeing than is socializing, at least for me.

 

[Onward]

I always thought the "big chill" referred to death.

As far as the movie goes, I always took the title to mean the characters' estrangement after college.

BTW, it's my very favorite movie!

 

[FUEGO]

I do think it's interesting, and I see the commonality between the ratcheting down of consumer appetites discussed in the article, and the LBYM strategy so often discussed here. However, I find something peculiar about the concentration on happiness as the be-all and end-all of human existence.

I didn't think the article espouses the view that the sole purpose of human existence is to concentrate on happiness. Just that one will find happiness elusive if one is caught in a materialistic nuclear arms race, in essence trying to earn more and more and work more and more in order to "buy" more happiness (or more things that produce happiness).