Ch 6: Pursuit of happiness (re: work, wealth & success) 2 of 4

A discussion of Chapter 6 of my book "Hunting, Gathering, & Videogames" - http://www.amazon.com/Hunting-Gathering-Videogames-Allen-Gates/dp/1601450443/...

A chapter-by-chapter summary of "Hunting, Gathering, & Videogames" (and thus an overview of the entire video series):

PART I: WHY DO WE HAVE TO WORK?

Chapter One
*Hunting, Gathering, & Videogames* gives a historical overview of why we've always had to "go to work," tracing the common link between the workday of the prehistoric hunter and gatherer, the first millennium B.C. farmer, the first century A.D. pottery-maker, the nineteenth century assembly line worker, and today's videogame programmer.

Chapter Two
*Surgery & Dental Floss* spells out the complications of bartering, and explains why communities with multiple goods and services always end up using some form of money (be it beads or dollar bills) to solve their trading problems.

Chapter Three
*Penguins & Peacocks* is about why the changes in our workday--the transition from hunting and gathering to the ages of agriculture, industry, and information--took place, even though some aspects of these changes were for the worse. It looks at the parallel between the history of our workday and the way evolution works in nature: how change is driven by the demands of the immediate environment, not by concerns for future repercussions.

PART II: WORK, WEALTH, & HAPPINESS

Chapter Four
*Emperors & Emptiness* gives an overview of three drawbacks of our modern work system: the alienation, the perception of deprivation that can come from being in a society overflowing with goods and services, and the way our increased number of career options has opened up a large window for failure--particularly when we tie our occupation to our identity.

Chapter Five
*More vs. Enough* offers an alternative to the unattainable American financial goal of "more is better" by outlining a flexible but precise definition of how much income is "enough." Level 1: enough to pay for all your daily, monthly, and yearly expenses. Level 2: enough beyond Level 1 to pay off your debts (e.g., credit cards, college loans) Level 3: build and maintain a reserve fund equal to about six months of living expenses Level 4: enough to make steady investments for large future expenses (e.g., a down payment on a house, retirement, and children's college tuitions)

Chapter Six
*Measuring Success* contrasts our culture's guideline for happiness--the wealth, status, and identity we derive from our careers--with a guideline that instead aims for a balance of our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual dimensions.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Happiness
• work
• wealth
• success
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• career
• family
• balance
• ToddAllenGates
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• Covey
• money

[ToddAllenGates]

> I still don't understand the meaning of "spiritual" these days.

I usually reserve its use only for religious contexts: in connection with what people think they know about "the divine" (or, if you prefer, people's "willful ignorance"). Outside of that context, it's used so loosely that it's almost meaningless. I refer to the "spiritual dimension" in this book because I couldn't find a better word, but it took a three-paragraph endnote to explain what I meant.

[RyunSharp]

I still don't understand the meaning of "spiritual" these days. The word itself has been thrown around alot, that it must have multiple meanings.

[ToddAllenGates]

2 of 2:

As for defining "spiritual," I was fairly broad: music, art, nature, literature ... and yes, when I included "religion," I *could* have gone on a rant about it being just delusion and wishful thinking: but I felt that would have been too off-topic ... and besides, that's what my other author channel is for!

> I look at porn and play videogames for my source of willful ignorance.

Depending on how loosely one defines "spiritual," I suppose that counts!

[ToddAllenGates]

1 of 2:

> Religion? ... So i guess you mean that willful ignorance in moderation can be good for your mental health.

Haha ... well, my *main* point was that we have four main dimensions--the physical, social, mental, and "spiritual"--to our lives that we have to balance with each other, rather than just the two that are emphasized by our materialistic culture: the excesses of the "physical" (impressive material accumulations) and the excesses of the social (impressive status).

[RyunSharp]

Religion?

So i guess you mean that willful ignorance in moderation can be good for your mental health.

I look at porn and play videogames for my source of willful ignorance.