17.

When I go to Medium, it seems that the people on there can be summarizes as follows: they buy an Apple Watch, so that they can write thinkpieces about how awful its tracking is. People seem more two-faced than ever. They throw themselves in the ratrace of career-ism and commercialism, and when they realize it's making them miserable, they throw themselves into meditation or minimalism or yoga or whatever happens to be hip at the moment. (Apparently dopamine fasting is now a thing? Are people even serious anymore?) BUT (and this is the important part), they don't stop working 60 hours per week. No no no, that would mean actually changing your lifestyle. No, they pretend that the hip neo-new-agey thing they just picked up is going to solve all their problems. Meditate every day and you'll be happy! Turn off the notifications on your phone and your life will be perfect! Stop enjoying stuff and everything will work out!

This is symptom-fighting on a huge scale. Why don't people have the balls to confront their toxic lifestyle and make actual changes? Why do people only do more, and never less? Why is it always about comfort, productivity, and efficiency? What's so bad about not having a plan, not wanting a career, not earning more today than yesterday? Not every solution is technical. Not everything can be achieved by tweaking what's already there. Sometimes you need to take a machete and slash through the jungle of habits you've created for yourself. Sometimes you need to create room to breathe and reflect.

Baaaaaaaaaah this was a hugely satisfying rant. I know that I might be wrong. I know that it's not so simple as I make it sound. But sometimes (forgive me) people seem so ignorant. It's like they don't want to see. Or maybe they can't. Or maybe they're actually happy, and I should stop assuming that everyone works the way I work. But when some CFO who works ceaselessly tells you that he wishes he could be with his family more, what else to conclude than that he should stop working, switch jobs, calm the fuck down for a few days and thoroughly review his life, but that he either feels like he can't or that he doesn't want to.

I'm glad this is off my chest. Now please, message me about how the minimalist-phone-cleanse-protein-detox has changed your life and how it allows you to work 12 hours per day without collapsing in despair. I'm going to continue having no clue what I'm doing, and enjoy it.