The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption

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I spent last Sunday at Crossword book store in Kemps Corner, reading Timothy Ferris’s ‘The 4-Hour Work Week’.

Given Tim’s ‘live it up’ image, I expected it to be a book about having more; instead, it turned out to be a book about finding happiness in having less.

The basic premise of the book is that we have a choice between work and leisure. An income of $100000 a year means very different things when it requires a 60 hour work week and a 40 hour work week. At more than 60 hours a week, typical of Asia and America, it inevitably results in stress-related health disorders. At less than 40 hours a week, typical of Europe, it results in a happy work-life balance. At 4 hours a week, typical of Tim, it means nirvana.

Tim is not for or against consumption. Instead, he differentiates between three types of consumption — spending money to own things, spending money to enjoy experiences, and spending money to free up time for the experiences. Tim believes that having new experiences is the key to happiness, that owning things distracts us from the pursuits of new experiences, and that time and not money is the limiting factor in having experiences. Most of us work too long, own too many things, and enjoy too few experiences. Tim’s mantra is to work as little as possible, own as little as possible and free up all your time and money for enjoying experiences.

It’s an important distinction, one I have become aware of myself over time. Most of the items in my thirty by thirty list involve doing or experiencing things, not owning things. Not only that, almost two months into my experiment, most of my withdrawal symptoms are caused not because I’m not able to buy things but because I’m not able to have the experiences I crave for. I miss not being able to eat out on a date, or meet up with friends at a coffee shop, or watch a play or a live music concert. Most of all, I feel frustrated at not having enough time, because I waste time walking to work, or cooking, or cleaning up my house. So, as I read ‘The 4-Hour Work Week’, I was pleasantly surprised at how Tim’s writing resonated with my own thoughts.

The nice thing is that even as I crave for these familiar experiences, I have opened myself up to other hitherto unexplored experiences. I’m absolutely amazed at how much free culture is available in the city, for those who are interested. My attempts to find new ways of meeting people have resulted in interesting experiments like Saturday night movie marathons and I have learned that learning to ask can be a fulfilling experience in itself. In the end, the entire experiment itself is undoubtedly the most important experience of all, an experience that is bound to change the course of my life.

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