The Price of Community is Inconvenience

I saw a short form video recently - okay quick side note;

As I was saying, I saw a reel recently that said the price of community is inconvenience. It's the classic lifestyle video with a narrator overlay, where the subject is taking his mountain bike through a subway, jumping on and off platforms, obviously showing the difficulties to explore when in a city. Essentially, he's saying that to find community, in his case a group of fellow mountain bikers, you need to make the effort. It will be inconvenient. You may need to walk or drive to a location to meet. Or get up early and hit the gym so you can join your friends for dinner.

You may need study later into the night, or forfeit a routine, but in return you'll receive the familiar afterglow of community and belonging. The vast majority of the time, it is more than worth it.

Now try to do some introspection, and at the risk of vulnerability, I'll do the same. Do you ever just push off invitations for the sake of avoiding the inconvenience? I do all the time. What's worse is that I often times regret it later on - ah the classic vicious cycle. Like a recent quote of the week, "In the cave you fear to enter lies the treasure you seek." You will not find community in your area of comfort, but in the unknown.

Which brings me to me next point: Life is about sacrifice.

In my day to day life I'm always thinking about tradeoffs, which is a dangerous, dangerous game. If I stay up late, I've traded my evening for a morning workout. Or, on the other side, if I've woken up early, I've traded my morning for an afternoon date, and so on and so forth. You can trade comfort for style, or trade effort now for intelligence later, and sometimes it's productive, other times debilitating knowing that you're potentially missing out.

I learned this early on.

Growing Up

My Father always laughed when we said something was "free", he'd say "Yeah, free" and then go on to explain that we've paid for it somehow. If me and my three brothers were leaving a restaurant, you bet we grabbed a handful of those red and white mints, saying their "come on dad, they're free". He'd bring us back to reality reminding us we had just paid the tab, the mints were in fact, not free.

Again, in 8th grade economics the acronym TANSTAAFL - pat yourself on the back if you knew it. For those who aren't privy, There ain't no such thing as a free lunch, the backbone of opportunity cost. In essence, even if somebody is paying your tab, you've given up your time.

Another tech related example is as follows - if you're not paying for the product (free recipe, LLM, linkedIn), you are the product. You're trading your data or privacy to view the website, app, etc.

Look we both know this isn't ground breaking stuff, but it's interesting not only to think about as you read this, but consciously in your day to day life. I like to take it a step further as well.

What you put in is what you get out

It's true in all aspects. If you're out of shape, sure some of it is genetics, but maybe you should be working out more or eating better. Like our last example, if you're lonely, maybe you haven't embraced inconvenience to find community.

It might seem harsh, but I'm sure there is more that you can be doing. I'm speaking from my own experience here so don't take offense. In fact, this is more of a philosophy I live by. If you don't like your output, up your input, if you still don't like it, you'll need to reevaluate your strategy.
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Now this goes back to the point I was making, that tradeoffs make the world go round. You can't have your cake and eat it too, you can't get your dream job without learning the skills. In fact, I'll make this absolutely evident with a point my brother and I chat about frequently.

The size of the problem solved, yields an equal sized reward

Straightforward, clean and clear.

Next time you think about why somebody makes more money than you, or gets more recognition, think about the problem they are solving. Of course, an example: A family friend from PA.
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He works his ass off, day and night, long hours. Not just this year, not last 2 years. Not the last 5 years. For the last decade or more, he's a machine. He's in residency I believe working towards a position as an orthopedic surgeon. When he finally is in the workforce, he will likely be compensated handsomely. Why? Because he's solving a pretty big fucking problem. How many people do you know can fix your hip or your wrist?

Or you could look at a smaller problem. Instacart, doordash, a hotel valet, these are not that big of problem solvers. I could park my car if I need to. But the message is that this surgeon in training is, is just that, training. For a long time he's made the trade off for his time, for future success, fulfillment, helping others, I'm not sure you'd have to ask him. But you get the point.
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So go back to the drawing board if you need to. You've made your bed, don't sleep in it. Remake it, reframe your perspective and think about your tradeoffs. Would you sacrifice your time now to learn a skill, that will help you get where you want to be?

It's all completely normal

To bounce between tradeoffs. I wrestle with many frequently including, try to start a business or get that steady experience and job. Live in Spain or move back to the US. Try to make more money, or value work life balance. Crossfit or regular lifting. TV or reading, the list foes on and on and on.

The beauty of all of this internal debate: Either path will be the right one. You either win, or you learn something, you never lose.

Sorry for the intense ending!

And to leave you with a lasting thought about tradeoffs, know that if I miss a post here or there, I've made a tradeoff. Sorry 'bout it!
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