The Real Luxuries In Life

Brad Feld was the only mentor (out of ~100 we met) during our TechStars Chicago ‘15 program who had sessions with the CEOs of the cohort and told us to take a break each day to call our significant others.

He gave us perspective when all of us were focused on hustling for demo day and raising our seed round. He reminded us that amid the hustle, there’s more to life than your startup. Thank you.

Grandchildren.

I have five, and they are amazing. Youngest is 9 months.

We have an old car goiong to the scrapyard in a couple of weeks, and today I sat in the passenger seat of it as my 13 yr old grandaughter drove it around one of our fields getting more and more confident as I encouraged her to stop, put it in reverse, and drive in the opposite direction.

From "this is too difficult" to "I want to be a rally driver" in a few dozen gear changes.

Memories like this are some of the luxuries of life. For her, for me, for her parents, and her siblings watching.

Health is obviously first, you have nothing without it. But real joy is wanting to do something, something that is important to you, and being able to. Without desire there is no joy... just a slow countdown.

Health determines the quality and quantity of time, so put that at the top above all else.

I disagree with this list. I understand it but it's not my list.

We have three little kids right, so "time" and "quiet mind" are not on the menu, and "health" is diminished since it's hard to find time to exercise.

And yet, we are very lucky to be crunched in this way. I would rather be tired and busy with the kids than relaxed without.

Maybe the word luxuries is right actually. This list isn't the "goals" or "essence" of life. It's the nice-to-have luxuries you can try to get after the basics are taken care of.

Time with my young adult children. They are all out of the house, recently, and there is nothing, and I mean NOTHING more valuable/meaningful to us than when they come home for a visit or we spend time out in the world.

It's incredible.

Time seems to be one of the most valuable luxuries. AFAIK it is not entirely clear why time seems to pass faster when one grows older. One argument is that the older brain does not form memories as intricate as in the younger brain.

Has anyone experimented with actively making more complex memories to make time pass slower? Seems like the best approach to living longer, at least in experience.

The most Hacker News thing ever is top comments haggling over the order of the list.

A clean place to live with minimal clutter opens room for time to enjoy other things. Labor Day and Memorial day are milestones for assessing your hoarding. Or you could just rely on the season change as a reminder.

Time, quiet mind, slow mornings, rest without guilt, calm and boring days - are all the same thing - escape from being busy. This assumes being busy is common, which is actually not that common for an age of 60+.

The real luxury, for any age, in general, is in not having dependencies and needs. The need to impress someone, the need to know every ugly news from around globe, the need to read everything and be knowledgeable, need to stay connected, need to be smart, the need to travel and see places, need to taste foods from around the world, need to have many friends, need to be loved by someone, and need to have more money and things.

Those are dependencies that make you weak. Lack of those means you won't be happy. Luxury is being happy without having any of those.

Rich people never mention money in such lists.

Lists like this look very different when you don't have money.

Also... Money?

Oh this is from someone retired and rich ;). Most could retire if they owned and sold this 4 letter .com used for the blog.

The real luxury is the thing you haven't got but desperately need which is different for everyone.

Agree with all , but I am not ashamed to admit that some material goods bring me immense pleasure, especially mechanical watches and vintage cars.

My friend wrote something similar recently. Here's her take as a 30-something. https://argentumaspicio806903.substack.com/p/luxuries-as-an-...

I can't do boring. I've had bouts of time with really not much to do (pre-kids) and it really starts to pick at my brain as to what am I really doing with my life.

Slow mornings and rest without guilt are very apt and specific but time and health are just general wishes.

I would add work with meaning and flow.

Also life with few... snags, all the issues that are small but extremely bothersome (knocking sound in a car, that one window that doesn't close fully, etc).

I am 60 too and I'd add to that list 'Doing the things you like'

I love letting my mind 'play' with the computer, not work, play

And I love pickleball, going to the gym, and watching movies with my wife. My life has become really simple and I enjoy it the most. Yeah, peace of mind is at the top of the list at this age

The older I am, the more I appreciate slow days over the weekend, cooking, reading, and just appreciating small things at a slow pace with my gf.

The school year, across the US used to be labor day to Memorial Day. No longer the case. My step daughter’s former district started at the beginning of August, her freshman year of college last weekend.

At least here in the states, districts because they pay teachers shit, are getting pushback to add required meetings and learning on the end of the day. Instead there are “short days” for the kids.

It’s no longer an issue for me, but seriously annoying how little k-12 are actually in school these days.

I would add there _creativity_ in the sense of creation. And joy of it.

As others have said in-thread and elsewhere: work to live, don't live for work. Yes, be professional and exceed expectations from time to time, but your in-basket will be full when you exit. Take time as the years progress to do "other things", as the physical abilities or people involved might not be there "later".

One through eight read as the list of sacrifices you make in having children. But the experiences of loving and being loved back seem at least incomplete without that.

True. Money is just an instrumental goal. I was thinking about how some have 1000x more money but not 1000x more happiness. Enjoyment doesn't scale.

I can proudly say, that I have got 11.5 of that list.

My #3 is questionable, since work is stressful. It's my bad, I know better. Working on it.

> Time, quiet mind, slow mornings, rest without guilt, calm and boring days.

Ah, I remember pre-parent life too.

In very broad strokes, it seems that Europeans on the average have much more of these things than Americans.

Are they noticeable happier?

Would be nice to hear from someone who lived both sides of the pond for a long while.

this makes me wonder, does having kids change the list of things on your list? and why?

The cynic in me thinks: most of the things on that list are most easily acquired if you have money.

Mine:

- Good health

- A calling (something I can devote my life to)

I think getting either is good enough for me.

Im only 45, but this is very true.

13. Time in nature

I wonder if the author has these things in abundance, or wants to have them.

While they sound incredible to me, I can't help but ponder that the demographic with the highest suicide rate is retired men.

0. Money (home, food, security)

I get the theme of this post. I also get the theme of DHH and Hashimoto talking about how exciting LLMs are and how much they are getting done.

I've also spent the last 10 years of my life feeding my family with my tech skills which are primarily coding, debugging and improving observability and monitoring tools and processes.

This leads to mixed feelings of both:

- this is the most exciting time to be alive and I'm building a gas town

- this is the end of my career as I know it and I better pivot hard and fast

In other words, been a bit of an interesting last six months.

time... oh time is something I long for and hunger for I am only 18 yet I feel like time moves so fast and I don't get to enjoy life day to day in a world where everything seems so fast i just want to slow day and enjoy time but yet again time is the one element in this universe that no one has control over... never the less beautifully put!

Yup, time and freedom. The true luxuries. And a subset of freedom: The freedom to work on projects that excite you with people you like.

I would replace freedom to travel with contentment / joy at home. I love my home , neighborhood and town. I used to die to travel because home had so much chaos. Now my home is beautiful , peaceful and safe so I get homesick when I travel.

> Ability to travel

I choose: ability not to travel (commute).

Venture capitalist discovers importance of time, health, relationships, sleep and travel in his 60s. News at 10.

40.

The luxuries I am grateful for:

Sleeping in as much as I need

Working on something meaningful that pushes at the edge of my self actualization

Not ever having to worry about bills

The love from my partner

Having the ability to help others selflessly

The wisdom I have gained over the last 20 years of life

The incredible people around me

If you have a family and are not already independently wealthy you will be enjoying very few of those. In my experience.

"Cats. Cats are nice."

Thank your nice

I've said it before and I'll keep saying it: indoor plumbing, and a nice clean bathroom to use it with.

That is a luxury not everyone gets even today.

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TLDR: be rich.

Good luck enjoying a slow morning without a job. So much free time, so much joy. Old people give the most ridiculous and unsolicited advice.