to his readers on March 13, 2024. The original piece can be viewed here.
In this letter, Scantron reflects on the notion that no person ever said, “I wish I had less fun, and grinded 24/7 instead.” Rather, we are here to “fart around.”
I saw a tweet recently where presumably a guy asked his friend to go Dune 2 with him and some other friends. His friend replied, “I can't; I am world building atm (at the moment).”
First off, I am unsure what world building is. Second off, how does world building stop you from seeing Dune 2 or how does anything truly stop you from hanging with some friends? This wasn’t about world building in video games, either. Life isn’t that serious.
Building the world. Image Courtesy of Self Publishing School.
World building sounds a bit audacious, but if I had to guess, world building also probably involves money. The world revolves around money. But the pursuit of money isn’t everything. It can deceive you into thinking you enjoy something and it can convince you into letting the days pass you by.
That is not how it should be. Life is meant to be fun. We are here to fart around.
Early in my career, I really struggled with doing close to nothing on the weekends. I struggled to relax. I was young, naive, and fresh out of college. I thought weekends should be spent one of two ways:
Grinding away - Going to the gym, working on a side project, reading books, running long distances, etc. It wasn’t working per se but more of how are you bettering yourself outside of work. It was not relaxing and sitting in front of your TV and watching football all day. We only have so much time on this earth, it better not be wasted on a couch.
Fun, crazy, exotic experiences - Tailgate an SEC football game, go to the beach, bar hopping all night long, etc. The weekend was the time to let loose and when you came into the office on Monday you better have something cool to share.
Except, I was dead wrong. The more I got into my career, the more I realized a lot of the time people have on the weekends was with people they love, doing simple things, and relaxing. It was not about having the best weekend or grinding the hardest. It was about enjoying the small stuff and sometimes, simply relaxing and doing unproductive things that make you happy.
Farting around was not easy for me because it comes with a connotation of just moving carelessly through life and not having a care in the world. Except, sometimes you need times and weekends like this. I should constantly want to better myself but I should not think I constantly must be doing something to better myself. There is an important distinction there. You are allowed to have fun and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Ironically, the way to the most money is by doing something that allows you to relax and rest before going full steam ahead again.
In working out and growing muscle, the formula is work + rest = improvement. You have to break the muscle down to be able to build it back up. You can’t just constantly work the muscle or the muscle will never grow. Our mind is no different. Our mind is a muscle. You have to do meaningful work in life but to do meaningful work, you also have to let your mind rest. It is full steam ahead but full steam ahead all the time will drive you right into the ground.
Paul Graham talks about the need to take care of the body in his essay How to Do Great Work,
“Ultimately morale is physical. You think with your body, so it's important to take care of it. That means exercising regularly, eating and sleeping well, and avoiding the more dangerous kinds of drugs. Running and walking are particularly good forms of exercise because they're good for thinking.”
Exercising, sleeping, and eating well are all important. Not to mention, spending time with those you care about. If you do none of these things, it is incredibly hard to be happy when you are lonely, unhealthy, and tired. Work and money are not everything and thinking they are is a sure way to lose.
To do great work, it is important to have enthusiasm that surrounds it. It is important to pay close attention to your morale. Morale compounds. Enthusiasm helps you do good work, which improves your attitude and helps you to do even better work. Being enthusiastic is worth at least 25 IQ points.
Not to mention, the people you surround yourself with have a huge effect on your morale. Hopefully, they energize you. Don’t always deprioritize them for the pursuit of more money or the pursuit of bettering your career because, in reality, they probably make you better at what you do. They push you to be a better version of yourself. Sure, there are moments when it might be necessary to prioritize work or money but safe to say, that seeing them may even help you in the pursuit of more money and the pursuit of bettering your career all while helping you not burn yourself out. You are allowed to hang out with people. You are allowed to have mindless disruptions.
We are led to believe the fewest disruptions lead to the best work which in turn leads to the most money. We can always live a life where we are optimizing for the fewest disruptions. But sometimes those disruptions are necessary. Our world has been continually optimized for convenience to minimize those disruptions. Everything is literally at the tip of our fingers. Everything is optimized for comfort. It is a comfort crisis.
I can get my groceries delivered for free but I never do. It is a disruption in my day to go to the grocery store but I always find myself walking through that front door and never getting delivery. Don’t worry there are other monetary benefits such as extra fuel points to my free delivery package. I am not just paying for free delivery for no reason but that is beside the point. What keeps me coming back to the store is sometimes you run into people you haven’t seen in ages. Sometimes you just get to drive with your windows down on your way there and enjoy the nice day. Sometimes it is just nice to leave your desk and interact with people after a long day of work from home. All of this happens because you go to the store. Sometimes, for no other reason than needing a bag of granola, you can’t quit. Sure, it is already the third trip to the grocery this week but sometimes it doesn’t have to make sense and you take advantage of the luxury of being able to fart around.
Not everything has to make monetary sense. The world tries to demand us to do it for the money. Why don’t we pay a $5 fee to save time, gas, and money on groceries? Why don’t we save for our 401k instead of taking the trip we have always wanted? Why don’t we chase the high-status jobs? Why don’t we seek to be in the highest-paying careers?
It makes me think of this quote from Naval,
“The great ones don’t do it for money or fame or power.
Or to build an institution, or to help others, or to save the world.
Like a child tinkering, they create for its own sake.
Free of the burden of ambition.
Deaf to the demands of the world.”
Children love to play. With playing, comes time spent doing things out of curiosity and doing things for fun. Doing things that might just not make sense. Maybe just farting around. Show me a person doing great things and you will see a kid playing. Kids can play for hours on end and not get bored because there is no ulterior motive there to influence them. It is just for the love of the game, the love of the task, and the love to just play. Not for money. Not for fame.
We don’t have to obsess over money. The real great ones just fall in love with the process and figure the rest, money included, will fall in line later. All the people who spent days sleeping on the floor to chase a dream, clearly didn’t have money as the top priority or they wouldn’t be broke chasing a dream.
Life is like a terminal illness. When the time comes, you won’t care about all the time you spent obsessing over money, what you are building, or your projects. I used to think life was all about grinding or having the best time possible that everyone would be jealous of, but it is not. Then I began to change my mind and I think Anna Quindlen said it perfectly in a commencement speech,
“The exam comes at the very end. No man ever said on his deathbed I wish I had spent more time at the office. I found one of my best teachers on the boardwalk at Coney Island maybe 15 years ago. It was December, and I was doing a story about how the homeless survive in the winter months.
He and I sat on the edge of the wooden supports, dangling our feet over the side, and he told me about his schedule; panhandling the boulevard when the summer crowds were gone, sleeping in a church when the temperature went below freezing, hiding from the police amidst the Tilt a Whirl and the Cyclone and some of the other seasonal rides. But he told me that most of the time he stayed on the boardwalk, facing the water, just the way we were sitting now even when it got cold and he had to wear his newspapers after he read them.
And I asked him why. Why didn't he go to one of the shelters? Why didn't he check himself into the hospital for detox? And he just stared out at the ocean and said, "Look at the view, young lady. Look at the view."
And every day, in some little way, I try to do what he said. I try to look at the view. And that's the last thing I have to tell you today, words of wisdom from a man with not a dime in his pocket, no place to go, nowhere to be. Look at the view. You'll never be disappointed.”
If you are forever concerned about what the big picture may bring, the next deal to be made or the next partnership to close, you will never notice the little things and never enjoy the view. Humans are meant to get out and experience the world. Humans are meant to fart around, to laugh, and to enjoy the view. Humans are not meant to have everything be about money, to be about grinding 24/7, or to be about building something with the fewest disruptions. Even if you are building the world, that can wait too. You don’t want to miss the view.
Appreciate you reading.
-Scantron
Further Resources:
If you liked this letter by Ryan, you likely will enjoy this letter written by Kolin, where he writes a letter to himself from the future:
If you would like to voice record your wealth letter, you can do that easily by clicking here (your voice recording will then be sent to me directly, and I will transcribe it into written format for your review before publishing).
I always appreciate any feedback, ideas for letters, or just to chat!
Thank you for having this piece be a part of The Wealth Letters anthology Ryan!!!