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by spyckie2 2743 days ago
There's a couple opinions I have on this.

The first is if you really want to pursue this ideal, you can look for arbitrage opportunities. This means spending a lot of time taking multiple opportunities and selecting the ones that have the least amount of effort to reward, and doing this many times over your lifetime.

The second (and this is an opinion that you may not like) is that optimizing for no responsibilities is something you should reconsider as the goal in life.

From my experience, taking on responsibilities is a key character trait of people who can create strong communities, build organizations, care for others, and develop their environment around them. Taking responsibility is also not an innate talent, but one that you learn... by taking responsibility.

A life of avoiding responsibility closes off some paths that are really interesting to take, especially as you mature and people aren't always getting on your nerves so much. First is that responsible people receive a lot of resources in the form of trust, money, loyalty, etc, because others know they can handle these resources responsibly. Second is that the attitude and drive to positively affect the world around you is developed alongside responsibility, and separating the two, while doable, is much more challenging. Third is that the alternative to escaping responsibility is building up your skill in handling responsibility, which is very doable (in 2 areas, mainly - delivering on the things expected of you, and managing what is expected of you). If you resolve to have such an attitude, 5-6 years down the road you'll be equipped to take on larger than life challenges you never dreamed you could handle.

The essence of building something is taking responsibility, and this applies to your side projects as well if you want your side projects to be used by the rest of the world. Handling pressure is a skill that you have the pay the price to learn but is very much worth it.

Just my 2c. Had a friend whose whole family was introverts and wanted to run away from society. The grandfather was very lonely at the end of his life because of his decision to go hermit, it made my friend realize that he didn't want that to be his end.

My own youth was a life of no pressure/no responsibility just finding ways to make myself feel happy. I consider them my zombie days - not really alive, just trying to fill base needs. Nowadays I have too much responsibility, but the stress and difficulty are offset by the rewards in so many ways beyond just feeling happy - you have real control to make your life the way you want it, and you develop more and more capability over time.

2 comments

Keep in mind that some people genuinely don't have that much room to grow. If you're not too bright (say IQ below 90) and are physically weak/prone to exhaustion, you're not going to go far, no matter how much you try. In such way, trying to minimize your effort seems like the correct strategy, as even the minimized variant of life will be a burden for you.

OTOH, if you're a machine (like many people on this forum are), then minimizing effort and responsiblity for the sake of an easy life can lead to regrets later in life.

"especially as you mature and people aren't always getting on your nerves so much"

I found that as I got older, people got on my nerves more! The first few times people did something annoying, it was like, "whatever". After the 100th time, it was like "here we go again", and I was getting ready to explode. The only thing I found that helped was avoiding such people, and when you're forced to rub shoulders with them due to work constraints, it can lead to a lot of stress.

I found as I get older people get on my nerves less.

When the “here we go again” bit comes, there’s a few ways to react:

If you can’t really control the output, then predict it. I see how far ahead I can predict (including their questions and answers) and laugh when I’m right.

Predict then outcome and preempt it with a joke or even better a conclusion that was 3 steps ahead. People will think you’re a wizard.

If you don’t like the people then Troll hard. Bait them to reveal their ignorance in the most embarrassing way possible. Just for the fun of it.

I’ve found the experience that comes with getting older is an enormous source of entertainment