☀️ Welcome to the 23rd Louis’ Learnings ☀️
This week, I discuss my thoughts on meaningful leisure.
Last edition, I wrote a short musing on achievement called the 1 Day Principle.
Thanks so much for reading! Enjoy 🥳
Some Life Updates
Entering my last week of college (cool)
My first podcast appearance got published (thanks, Danny!)
The Wrong Way To Play
If you want to achieve meaningful leisure, do the opposite of mainstream society. If that advice is not self-evident, read on.
A wise poet once proclaimed:
There's a hundred and four days of summer vacation
'Til school comes along just to end it
So the annual problem for our generation
Is finding a good way to spend it
I lied. That’s not poetry. That’s the theme song to Phineas and Ferb. Despite its origins from a kid’s show, the lyrics summarize the problem well.
We don’t know what to do with our free time.
Instead of emulating Phineas and Ferb’s adventures, we waste time watching them. Passive and lazy, we fill spare time with excess consumption of mind-numbing drugs and entertainment.
Of course, I have no issue with periodic indulgences. It can be extremely fun to have a few drinks, enjoy legal herbs, look at memes, watch movies, play video games, or digitally experience our friend’s lives.
The problem is when passive consumption is our only form of leisure.
For decades, critics have chastised society for this laziness. Almost a century ago, Bertrand Russell lamented “The pleasures of urban populations have become mainly passive: seeing cinemas, watching football matches, listening to the radio, and so on” (Russell, 10).
Tragically, things have only become worse because of a phenomenon I call effortless abundance.
Besides books or radio, on-demand consumption was non-existent in the recent past. A football game ended. A pack of cigarettes ran out. A TV show aired once per week. Purchases had to be made at the store. Things were finite. It was dramatically harder to satisfy cravings for more.
Now, however, access to infinity has become effortless.
A Juul can be smoked anytime, anywhere. An entire TV series can be watched at once. A sports fan can watch the innumerable highlight reels from YouTube forever. The scrolling social feeds of Tik Tok and Instagram are bottomless. ECommerce is available 24/7 and delivery is near-instant. Because of convenience, addictiveness, and limitlessness, these habits consume people’s entire leisure lives.
The only value from these consumption patterns is a temporary high, but no long-term benefits accrue. As a result, we feel empty.
Digital consumption is particularly bad. “In a culture where screens replace craft… people lose the outlet for self-worth established through unambiguous demonstrations of skill.” (Newport, 180).
Our brains are filled with useless jokes. Our houses with useless items. Our bodies with harmful toxins. This is no way to live.
This is not new. Consumption-driven lifestyles are an ancient problem stemming from underdeveloped self-awareness. Roman dramatist Seneca explains “for we are plunged by our blind desires into ventures which will harm us, but certainly will never satisfy us; for if we could be satisfied with anything, we should have been satisfied long ago...” (Seneca, 20).
According to the cliche Einsteinian definition, most people are insane. Despite years of (uncontemplated) personal history, we expect another 5 minutes on TikTok, 5 purchases on amazon, 5 beers, or 5 Cheetos to satisfy our bottomless desires.
Rather than make us feel whole, these habits contribute to a soul-level emptiness.
Bertrand Russell described the tragedy of a passive leisure class in his time: “The class might produce one Darwin, but against him had to be set tens of thousands of country gentlemen who never thought of anything more intelligent than fox-hunting and punishing poachers” (Russell, 10). In a social class with abundant time and resources, most will squander their opportunities. As few as one in 10,000 will use the time to go to the library or study barnacles.
In today’s terms, few draw from the massive educational reserves of the internet, and most choose entertainment. For every one Vitalik Buterin, there are tens of thousands “who never thought of anything more intelligent than” Call of Duty, March Madness, or The Office.
How do we fix that?
Tim Ferriss is famous for asking “What if I did the opposite?” For leisure, this is an incredibly helpful technique. So, let’s do the opposite.
The antidote to the passive leisure trap is active leisure.
Instead of watching YouTube videos, create them. Instead of watching sports, play them. Instead of playing video games, code them. Instead of scrolling through photos of people having fun, go do fun things.
It is a switch from team consumer to team producer. It is a switch from the spectator to the man in the arena. The literature supports this approach as well.
Bertrand Russell advocates using leisure time to explore knowledge and exercise passion. In his idealized leisure class “...every person possessed of scientific curiosity will be able to indulge it, and every painter will be able to paint” (Russell, 11).
In Digital Minimalism, Cal Newport romanticizes the virtuosity of craftsmanship. Cal explains “When you use craft to leave the virtual world of the screen and instead begin to work in more complex ways with the physical world around you, you’re living truer to your primal potential.” (Newport, 179). Cal elaborates, “To make a fine table out of a pile of wood boards is an act of craft, as is knitting a sweater from a skein of yarn or renovating a bathroom without the help of contractors” (Newport, 177).
Tim Ferriss developed his theory of meaningful leisure in The Four Hour Workweek: “... there are two components that are fundamental: continual learning and service.” (Ferriss, 307). Providing further detail, Ferriss suggests a focus “on language acquisition and one kinesthetic skill.” (Ferriss, 307).
While a flawless definition of leisure is elusive, Ferriss, Russell, and Newport agree on some fundamentals. A combination of deliberately improving both mental and physical skills and being of service to humanity is superior to passive consumption.
To binge or to build. How will you spend your free time?
Hyperlinks To Various Things
My Podcast Updates 🎧
LK #64 with Mona El Isa from Enzyme.Finance: Democratizing hedge funds.
LK #63 with Heather Monahan: Developing confidence through authenticity.
Danny Miranda #95 with Louis and Kyle: Danny interviews us!
LK Content Coming Soon 📅
Self-storage investor, AJ Osborn
Steph Smith from Trends (newsletter from The Hustle)
Serial entrepreneur and former Miss Nevada USA Lisa Song Sutton
Bodybuilder and performance coach Akaash Pardesi
Quick Clicks
(1) 📚 Good Listen 📚 : Awareness by Anthony De Mello
Wow. Amazing meditations on happiness, success, and what it means to be awake.
(2) 🌍 Interesting Project 🌍 : Sprint Accountability Community
Internet communities are awesome. This group asks for $40 to work with extreme intensity on your most important work. Great way to meet people and make progress.
That’s all for this week
As always, I’d love to hear from you.
What you’ve been up to? What you’ve been learning?
You can reply directly to this email 😃
Have an awesome week,
Louis
Photo of the week - Graduation photo
The first time I put on a button-up shirt this year. (I formally graduate in one week).
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References
Ferriss, Timothy. The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich. Vermilion, 2008.
Newport, Cal. Digital Minimalism. Penguin Books Ltd, 2020.
Russell, Bertrand. In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays. Routledge, 2020.
Seneca. Letters From a Stoic: the Ancient Classic. John Wiley, 2021.
A post highlighting the works and thoughts of Ferriss, Newport & Bertrand is one I'm going to pay attention to. Great essay, Louis. Leaving the identity of a passive consumer to one of an active producer is something I'm making a conscious attempt to pursue. Thanks for the added inspiration.
Honestly - I sang the Phineas and Ferb part. Love that you tied that in!