24th
Top Thoughts of 2011
8) I went surfing with an economist this morning. He had just attended a friend’s funeral. This friend of his died very young and had had a promising life ahead of him. The economist remarked that many of the people who were at the funeral were high-powered big-achiever types with loads of potential, but many of them had decided to take jobs at big corporations where they made lots of money but mostly did obedient grunt work that was unlikely to meaningfully change the world in the way they might have expected to when they were graduating high school. I said that many people just want to fall in love and have their basic material needs met and it’s hard to blame even very gifted people for wanting to do that in the easiest way possible. He didn’t disagree but still said he was surprised.
