“It Used to Be Keeping Up with the Joneses, Now It’s Keeping Up with the Kardashians”

— Various References

Envy is a dark passenger. Social media magnifies one of the most problematic human emotions, giving it an ever-present form.

Recent studies, including one from the NIH, have indicated a strong correlation between phone usage and social media with higher rates of suicidal ideation. Curated highlight reels of how everyone else is seemingly happier and living in a rosy world form a distorted mirror for the hapless person, spiraling deeper and deeper into despair.

Envy: Nothing’s Ever Enough

Take the story of Bernie Madoff, the man who out-Ponzi’d Ponzi and destroyed countless lives, including his own. Before starting his massive scam, Madoff was a pivotal figure in NASDAQ, earning over $20 million a year. Yet somehow, that wasn’t enough—compared to the ever-expanding lists of wealth and status.

Or consider Rajat Gupta, who came from the streets of Calcutta to become the first foreign-born Managing Director at McKinsey. By all accounts, Gupta achieved astounding feats in corporate America, with many zeros after his name. Yet the pursuit of one more zero became such an obsession that he risked decades of reputation and success, engaging in insider trading, which ultimately led to felony convictions.

It’s probably written into human DNA: envy can help us stay motivated and survive. But in excess, and when left unchecked, it invites misery.

The surest route to misery in life is to be driven by envy.

Mirror, mirror, on the wall…

Long-range plans almost never unfold exactly as expected, so why bother making them?

A 10-year vision opens the mind to new possibilities. A 5-year plan narrows the focus. A 2-year plan becomes more specific and actionable. The value of long-term planning is not in predicting the future with precision, but in creating a direction while continuously testing assumptions and adapting along the way.

By definition, no long-term plan survives reality unchanged. The future is uncertain, and tomorrow is never guaranteed.

So why plan at all?

Mindful Action

A meaningful long-term plan demands action in the present. It strengthens the “action muscle” by encouraging consistent progress and adaptation. The choices and actions you take today shape the opportunities available tomorrow. Even when circumstances change, those who have been moving forward are better positioned to adjust.

Better Decision-Making

Long-term planning encourages investment in future outcomes, which often leads to better decisions. When operating on a longer timeline, people naturally consider more variables, consequences, and sequences of events. This broader perspective improves judgment and reduces impulsive decision-making.

Emotional Stability

A long-term mindset promotes patience and emotional discipline. People who react primarily to short-term fluctuations often make costly mistakes—selling low, buying high, or abandoning worthwhile pursuits too early. By focusing on the bigger picture, long-term thinkers are less likely to be swayed by temporary setbacks or emotional extremes.

Investing in Relationships

Thinking long term highlights both the limits of individual effort and the value of strong relationships. It encourages cooperation over competition and reduces the temptation to act out of pettiness or short-term gain. As Adam Grant notes in Give and Take, people with a long-term perspective are less likely to burn bridges because they understand that trust, reputation, and collaboration compound over time.

The Ability to Re-Plan Quickly

Experienced planners understand that plans rarely unfold as intended. Their advantage is not that they predict the future accurately, but that they adapt quickly when circumstances change. They move from Plan A to Plan B, C, or D without losing sight of their broader objectives. In many cases, betting on capable people with strong track records proves more effective than betting on any single idea or proposal.

The Real Value of Planning

While every long-term plan is likely to change—or even fail in its original form—the process of planning remains invaluable. It builds resilience, improves decision-making, strengthens relationships, and creates the flexibility needed to navigate uncertainty.

The goal of long-term planning is not to predict the future. It is to prepare for it.

When both the stairs and elevator are available, only 2% of people choose the stairs.

That small decision reflects a larger trend: most of us default to the more comfortable path. In The Comfort Crisis, Michael Easter argues that comfort, while convenient, can slowly weaken our mental and physical resilience.

The 2% who choose the harder option are doing more than climbing stairs. They are building habits that lead to long-term growth.

Success rarely comes from one giant leap. More often, it comes from small, consistent actions repeated over time.

Thirty years ago, I signed up for summer classes and AP Physics, even though they were difficult. I was not the smartest student, but I learned to be resilient. Those extra steps taught me the value of persistence.

Now, in 2025, I am applying the same principle to a new challenge: drafting a book by writing 500 words every day.

Small steps, compounded over time, create extraordinary results.

Stop Following Your Passion—Start Walking Your Path

The meaning of life is found in the journey, not the destination. Instead of blindly following the famous “find your passion” advice from Steve Jobs, take a page from his life and walk through life’s winding paths to discover your own direction.

Jobs explored many interests—fruit diets, barefoot walking, hacking international phone systems, alternative medicine, and electronics—before discovering his true strength: his ability to inspire others through what became known as the “Reality Distortion Field.” He constantly searched for meaningful work, and that search eventually led him to success. Like him, the key is to keep moving, learning, and exploring. Your path forms through experience and interaction with the world.

Environment also plays a crucial role. A child raised in a remote village often has far fewer opportunities than one raised in a major city. Many people fail to realize how fortunate they are to grow up in stable environments with access to education, technology, and opportunity. One of the greatest things parents can provide is not only support, but also an environment where their children can grow, explore, and develop confidently.

Many successful people encourage others to “find their passion,” but the truth is that passion is often discovered through years of trial and error. Most successful entrepreneurs possess an internal drive to create, improve, or make a difference. They build habits that help them overcome obstacles and move toward their goals. For some, this drive feels natural; for others, it develops over time through action and experience.

For those who don’t wake up every morning with a burning sense of purpose, the best approach is simple: start walking. Work on what matters in the present. Build skills, take on challenges, form meaningful connections, and pursue what genuinely interests you. Success—whether material or personal—creates momentum, and that momentum often leads people toward their passion.

Writing, like everything else, is a craft. It forces you to organize complex thoughts and communicate them clearly. It is difficult, but necessary for growth and clarity. Start by creating consistently, then refine your work over time.

In the end, meaning and passion are not things you magically discover overnight—they are built along the journey. So keep walking.

The key difference between work you have to do and work you want to do is Financial Independence (FI)—having sufficient income to cover expenses without reliance on a paycheck. The fastest route to FI is a combination of managing expectations, reducing expenses, and increasing income, with the most critical factor being drive.

A 1973 experiment on the Good Samaritan thesis demonstrated that urgency dictates human behavior. Students who were in a hurry were far less likely to help a distressed stranger. Similarly, financial pressure limits choices, forcing people into reactive rather than thoughtful actions.

The Biblical Good Samaritan was likely at an FI stage—able to stop, help, and even pay for the injured man’s care. In contrast, a struggling Samaritan might have only offered a quick check-in, while a financially stressed one might have ignored the situation altogether. FI grants the freedom to make better choices, think independently, innovate, and pursue projects without financial pressure.

Historically, Renaissance-era creators and innovators were either born into FI, supported by patrons, or secured financial means before dedicating themselves to their craft. The late Charlie Munger pursued wealth as a means to achieve intellectual freedom—cutting expenses, building businesses, and instilling lifelong habits to sustain FI.

The price of FI? A focused 3–10 years of disciplined financial habits—reducing spending, increasing income, and stabilizing behaviors—in exchange for a lifetime of freedom to work on what truly matters, regardless of pay.

The modern era is defined by stacked leverage—the compounding power of labor, capital, and knowledge tech (media/code). This exponential growth formula explains why figures like Gates, Bezos, and Musk have reshaped the world.

• Labor Leverage → Building teams and corporations.

• Capital Leverage → Raising and allocating resources for scalable ventures.

• Knowledge Tech Leverage → The infinite scalability of media and code (e.g., the printing press, radio, TV, internet, AI).

Historically, Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, and JP Morgan mastered labor and capital leverage to dominate the industrial age. Today’s titans wield an even more powerful tool—knowledge tech leverage—which allows for near-zero-cost distribution of ideas, products, and automation through software and AI.

The Exponential Power of Knowledge Tech

The past 200 years of human progress have far outpaced the previous 200,000 years due to rapid technological compounding. Anyone willing to dedicate a decade to mastering knowledge tech can potentially:

• Create the next YouTube (originally a video dating site).

• Write the next Harry Potter.

• Build the next Joe Rogan Experience.

• Develop a personal media empire like Oprah.

When labor, capital, and knowledge tech are combined and compounded, society advances at an accelerating rate. The same leverage that powered Columbus’ voyage is now being applied to energy, robotics, and AI, setting humanity on a trajectory toward a Star Trek-like future.

The power of leverage today far surpasses anything in history—moving from stacking stones for pyramids to building entire digital empires and beyond.

“Time is all you have, and you may find one day that you have less than you think.” — Randy Pausch

Time is the only resource we truly own, yet it’s the one we tend to treat as if it were infinite. When I think about time, I find it helpful to frame it in probabilities. Realistically, a lifespan might stretch to around 90 years. That translates to roughly 17,000 sunrises and sunsets.

17,000 days.

The question isn’t whether that’s a lot or a little. The question is: how do you spend them?

One way to look at it is balance—perhaps splitting those days evenly. Maybe 8,500 days for work, and 8,500 for relationships, leisure, and everything else life offers. But that division assumes work is something separate from fulfillment, something to be endured rather than enjoyed.

A more compelling approach is different: dedicate those 8,500 days to work you genuinely love. Work that aligns with your values. Work that feels less like obligation and more like play. When your work becomes an extension of purpose, the boundary between “living” and “working” begins to dissolve.

“Retirement is when you stop sacrificing today for an imaginary tomorrow.” — Naval Ravikant

That idea changes everything.

After reflecting on this, I made a simple but significant shift: I turned off all work notifications. Not because I’ve stopped working, but because I’ve decided to stop engaging in work that no longer brings meaning or joy. Tasks that feel empty should move on—to others who may find opportunity and growth in them.

This decision didn’t come out of nowhere. It’s built on decades of effort—around 10,000 days already invested in building a better future. At some point, continuing to delay fulfillment becomes irrational. Time doesn’t pause. Mortality doesn’t negotiate.

If anything, this shift opens doors for others. There are still 5,000 to 10,000 days waiting for someone else to step in, to build, to grow, to create their own version of tomorrow. There’s dignity in that process—in earning success through effort and persistence.

Looking back, even the hardest, most unpleasant experiences played a role. Digging trenches for concrete blocks under the heat wasn’t glamorous, but it pushed me toward education and better opportunities. Working in a call center, getting shouted at dozens of times a day, wasn’t enjoyable either—but it sharpened my communication skills and taught me resilience under pressure.

These moments weren’t wasted time. They were investments in optionality—the ability to choose a different path later, instead of being trapped in one you dislike.

“You have to suffer, struggle, and endeavor to do hard things to really appreciate what you’ve done.” — Jensen Huang

There’s truth in that. Meaning doesn’t come from ease alone. It’s shaped through challenge, through discomfort, through effort that stretches you beyond what you thought you could handle.

So this isn’t about quitting work. It’s about redefining it.

I’ll continue to work—but on my own terms. I’ll choose projects that align with purpose, that feel meaningful, that contribute to something larger than myself.

The ancient Greco-Roman idea of life as a progression—the Student, the Warrior, the Senator, the Philosopher—offers a powerful lens. Each stage represents a different way of engaging with the world: learning, striving, leading, and reflecting.

Maybe life isn’t about picking just one role. Maybe it’s about knowing when to step into each of them.

After all, you only get around 17,000 days.

How you spend them is entirely up to you.