[rimantas]

A quote from my favorite book:

  "Good morning," said the little prince.
  "Good morning," said the merchant.

  This was a merchant who sold pills that had been invented
  to quench thirst. You need only swallow one pill a week,
  and you would feel no need of anything to drink.

  "Why are you selling those?" asked the little prince.

  "Because they save a tremendous amount of time," said the
  merchant. "Computations have been made by experts. With
  these pills, you save fifty-three minutes in every week."

  "And what do I do with those fifty-three minutes?"

  "Anything you like..."

  "As for me," said the little prince to himself, "if I had
  fifty-three minutes to spend as I liked, I should walk at
  my leisure toward a spring of fresh water."

"The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Chapter XIII

[RyanMcGreal]

Possibly related:

> Homer's Uncle Ulysses and Aunt Agnes have a very up and coming lunch room over in Centerburg, just across from the court house on the town square. Uncle Ulysses is a man with advanced ideas and a weakness for labor saving devices. He equipped the lunch room with automatic toasters, automatic coffee maker,' automatic dish washer, and an automatic doughnut maker. All just the latest thing in labor saving devices. Aunt Agnes would throw up her hands and sigh every time Uncle Ulysses bought a new labor saving device. Sometimes she became unkindly disposed toward him for days and days. She was of the opinion that Uncle Ulysses just frittered away his spare time over at the barber shop with the sheriff and thee boys, so, what was the good of a labor saving device that gave you more time to fritter?

Robert McClosky, The Donuts of Homer Price

[JacobAldridge]

This is a little longer than I'd normally post, but it's relevant and I use it to make the point often.

An American tourist was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked.

Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The tourist complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The Mexican replied, "Only a little while."

The tourist then asked, "Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish?"

The Mexican said, "With this I have more than enough to support my family's needs."

The tourist then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life."

The tourist scoffed, " I can help you. You should spend more time fishing; and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat: With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor; eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You could leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles and eventually New York where you could run your ever-expanding enterprise."

The Mexican fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?"

The tourist replied, "15 to 20 years."

"But what then?" asked the Mexican.

The tourist laughed and said, "That's the best part. When the time is right you would sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."

"Millions?...Then what?"

The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."