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Sunday 13 December 2015

Time and tradeoffs

I'm gonna talk about time and priorities without making it into whizzy-whazzy red wine-infused attempts at philosophy. Best of luck with that.

The last few weeks I've spent basically exchanging time for $24/h (after which the government claims a fair bit and I'm left with way less). Factoring in time for travelling there, the cost of bus fares, food/lunch and time required to relax and calm down from 10hs of carrying heavy boxes, the real number is probably something like half that.

Since I'm too tired to do anything but cooking and sleeping when I get home, I have basically wasted four weeks in order to pay my rent and add a few zeros on my bank account. Yes, yes I managed to do some travelling and rock hopping on my days off, but overall not so much interesting things - and I have this very same feeling I had right after exams, that the opportunity cost of living can be quite large.

Annoying optimisation problem: I need time to travel, but I also need money to travel - which can only be bought by selling time. Either way, time to do what I want can only be gained be losing/wasting time doing something else.

So, realizing the scarcity of time and my frustration about not having enough of it, there's an inconsistency in how I allocate time. I want more (to be able to read, go to the gym, hang out with friends or hit the beach), but I spent half an hour making my breakfast and a good hour plus making dinner last night. Ok, I love cooking - but more than these other things? Would my life really be so much worse off if I had instant noodles instead and freed up time for the gym?

Not sure. Anyway, on request I give a snapshot of yesterday's food - my favourite dish: delicious things on a plate. To inspire y'all to spend more time in the kitchen. For some reason. Peace out.



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