And as always, thanks for your blog, of course. It continues to reiterate much needed message and helps keep the proper perspective on the important subject.

http://pages.infinit.net/garrick/jokes/prisonwork.html

Second, thanks for the article on solitude and leadership. It’s the single best thing I’ve read in weeks.

Third, thanks for continuing to share your vision in such an candid manner.

We all live in “The Matrix”, it is just realizing that you can use it for your own ideals and dreams. We all participate in The Matrix daily – drink a soda, grind store bought coffee, drive a car you did not build…etc. The level of involvement determines your dependency on the continual operation and propagation of The Matrix.

Some people are blessed to operate outside The Matrix – until they learn of it. Kids in rural China, the Aborigines, Eskimo’s, native americans in the past, etc etc etc.

There is no stopping the Matrix, only lessening it’s influence on you and increasing your influence on it. Most people tend to like being plugged into The Matrix.

As an aside from the what if everyone did it – we would develop right back to where ancient Greece was, where we have thinkers, artisans, etc. Eventually Sparta grows too – history repeats itself.

Meanwhile, keep on pusing people to realize that working to support consumerism, particularly if it is unconscioulsy adopted, is slavery. Some might find that harsh. Or the solutions that you propose to be too ascetic. But your comparison to the Spartans is apt. It would be far better to strive for arete (excellence) and techne (skill) than to be the sort of bland, soft bureaucrat decried by Deresiewicz, no matter how many comforts the marketplace offers.

I was one of the college students that got sucked in to the graduate, get married, buy a house cycle without really knowing or understanding what I signed up for long-term. (I guess I did know, maybe what I mean is that I wasn’t aware there was an alternative.) By now I could have had that first house paid off and who knows what else. It is frustrating, but at least I’m in control of my destiny now and understand where my time and money is going. Realizing that by 35 is still better than 90% of people I bet.

The pressure of society and marketing is tremendous. Even with parents as role models, young minds are extremely susceptible to peer influence and marketing. When they are young it is easy enough to opt out of the material bandwagon, but as they grow older and earn their own income they make their own choices. I think for many of us it took a bit of living before we were able to opt out of traditional spending/living habits.

It’s kind of like tic tac toe. The only way to win is not to play.

Which is essentially the foundation of my own wealth generation. I want passive cash flow to pay for my expenses. And that’s pretty much it.

I hang with a mostly older crowd, many of whom are already retired, so I now fit in with them more than I did before. Those my age and others still in the working world may or may not be able to relate to my being retired. What they do like is finding it easier to schedule things with me, especially midweek now that every evening seems like a Saturday!

I do admit, however, that I find it tougher to relate to THEM, those people in the full-time working world. Office politics, boss-employee relations, commutes, coworkers…..none of that interests me whole lot any more, not that I mind it LOL!