24 Comments
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Scott Clarke's avatar

"Call me a nerd and try to steal my lunch money..."

LOL! Great line!

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Charlie Lentine's avatar

Glad you liked it, Scott!

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Brooke Hatchett's avatar

I love to optimize some processes, like making my household run more efficiently...but I have a line. Like, if doing that sucks all the joy out of my life 😂

Side note: Have you ever read Ecclesiastes?

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Charlie Lentine's avatar

No I have not. What is it?

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Brooke Hatchett's avatar

Ecclesiastes is one of the wisdom books of the Bible, and based on your post, I bet it would really resonate with you. It was written by King Solomon, who's widely considered the wisest of men by Christianity. He had everything--riches, women, whatever he wanted--and yet he says everything is meaningless. Of course, that's not the conclusion of the book, just as it's not the conclusion of your post. Really, it's the epitome of the existential rant.

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Charlie Lentine's avatar

Sounds good, I'll check it out! Thanks!

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Brooke Hatchett's avatar

You're very welcome! Let me know if you get a chance to look at it. It's where we get the phrase, "There's nothing new under the sun." It's brilliant and beautiful.

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Noah Ballard's avatar

Great post!!! Just when I was thinking of relaxing... you encouraged me to take a break 🤣. Thanks Charlie! Keep up the good posts 💪

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Charlie Lentine's avatar

You know this Noah, I won’t ever let you relax. In fact, right now you should be writing!

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Noah Ballard's avatar

😲 Oh no!

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© David's avatar

Cooking is very fun for a lot of people. I would say 90% of people do not cook full meals every day...that's what leftovers and In n Out Burger are for.

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Charlie Lentine's avatar

In n Out Burger is legendary, and even Alex Hormozi can't convince me otherwise.

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© David's avatar

He sounds like the kind of guy who would like the ol' in n out 😁

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jaxyn's avatar

the fact that this provides more wisdom than whole tomes written by old men who think they lived right...

love this, charlie. dunno why i wasn't subscribed to you yet, but i am now. your posts are things i didn't know i needed, so thank you :)

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Charlie Lentine's avatar

Thanks Jack, you have no idea what that means to me!

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Tilly's avatar

There's this guy on YouTube, an Irishman. He has the clearest view of productivity I've encountered. He tells it straight, that 'fun' is a need and when you neglect a need that need will undermine all your other efforts. There is no point pursuing a life without fun, it doesn't work. Dr David Maloney. Scott Adams has an interesting approach, that if you gameify tasks they can be fun. So he got through school by seeing his completed assignments as 'leveling up'. Dr Maloney would likely take a dim view of this particular reframe though, because the ulterior motive to achieve something makes it not genuine heartfelt spontaneous fun.

Don't stuff ambition and wealth into your shadow though, there's nothing inherently wrong with these things and it is so much easier to have fun when you have money. Trust me. That guy promoting hustle, who is he telling? It's him. He's rationalising his distaste for cooking by making it a virtue. You don't have to do that. It is allowable to simply not enjoy cooking or to admit that when you spend time cooking you feel guilty you aren't doing something else that meets your dominant need for safety through wealth. When you state your identity (especially publicly) you make it harder to see yourself as you really are. Sun Tzu would not approve.

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Charlie Lentine's avatar

'Fun' is absolutely a need in my opinion. But if people like making money better than cooking, who am I to stop them. Thanks for reading, Tilly!

And you're right, Sun Tzu would not approve.

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DIANA ADMIRE's avatar

You only get one life, so don’t spend it living like someone else. ....brillant

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Paulina's avatar

‘make some friends and have some fun’ this is it really. Living in joy and contentment 🤍

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Lawrence D. UD's avatar

Life, is no dress rehearsal. Life is beautiful different combination.

I won't call it a rubiks cube but I will say it's a beautiful complex combination that we shouldn't bother to crack open.

Let's keep living than existing.

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Charlie Lentine's avatar

Love it! Don't just exist, live. Thanks for reading, Lawrence!

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Lawrence D. UD's avatar

You're welcome, Charles. Keep feeding our eyes with quality read.

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Kent Peterson's avatar

I don't know who Alex Hormozi is, but he sounds like an idiot.

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Charlie Lentine's avatar

I like most of what he says, but this one was wildly off base. Thanks for reading, Kent!

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