What would you do if money were no object?

Money!

Make bad life choices!

I saw this video posted on Facebook recently, which contains a recording of British philosopher and writer Alan Watts discussing how to figure out what to do in life in order to be happy. You may have seen it too:

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/10/10/if-money-were-no-object-alan-watts/


The basic premise of the discussion is simple enough: Think about what you would most like to do if money were no object, if money didn't matter, and then do that thing. Why spend your life doing things you don't want to do in order to make money, just so you can keep on doing what you don't want to do?

Sounds obvious, maybe even profound, right? Well, I thought so at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it's actually really bad advice. Let me explain.

Bad Hypotheticals

The problem with this hypothetical is quite simple: finding happiness in life is a complex multivariable problem, a balancing of many different competing wants and needs, and ignoring any one of these may have minor value as a thought experiment, but it's dangerous to actually make life decisions on this basis.

Think about the different aspects of life that you could hypothetically ignore and how it would change what you would choose to do:

• What if money didn't matter?
• What if health and fitness didn't matter?
• What if morality didn't matter?
• What if feeling fulfilled in the long term didn't matter?
• What if friends and family didn't matter?

The problem is, all of these things, and many more, do matter. You can't just ignore one of them and think the results will be sensible. I mean, if health and fitness didn't matter, I could save about 15-20 hours a week on doing exercise and eat all manner of awesome shitty food. But would I actually go and do this? Of course not, it would be a terrible idea, or at least one that came with many undesirable consequences. My high blood pressure would get much worse, and I'd probably take about 20 years off my life. Or maybe I'd have a stroke and get to live the remainder of my life with that.

Actions and Consequences

Say you took the 'money is no object' hypothetical, and decided that you wanted to do something that almost certainly paid you poorly, but you did it anyway because it makes you happy. Now, say you also want to have children. Should those children also have to live with your decision and suffer an impoverished upbringing? We make lots of decisions in life, and many come with responsibilities and additional consequences, whether we like it or not. Ignoring these consequences and the impact they have on others, all so you can be happy, would be a rather selfish way to live your life.

Now, you might say that I'm reading into this too much, and that the hypothetical is useful as a meditative exercise, something to help gain focus. I agree completely with this, but to make this work is a two step process. First, think about what you would do if money was no object. Secondly, think if there is a way to realize that dream given that money does matter, without creating unwanted consequences. If the answer is no, then don't do it. The same could be done for all the other hypotheticals listed above. Use them as a meditative device, but if you can't find an answer that includes all of them, and any other important factors in your life, the option is a bad one and you should discard it.

Unknown Timespans

Think about what you would do if you only had one day to live. What wouldn't you do? Would you bother with eating well, would you go to work? Would you care about a long term savings plan?

What if you had a month to live? There are probably now some things that you would care about that wouldn't factor in with a single day. Meeting up with old friends, travelling to places you always wanted to go. But you probably still wouldn't care about work or health and fitness.

What if you had a year? Things like diet and exercise might start to be important again in this timespan, as would some form of income. But you probably still wouldn't be worried about your superannuation or keeping your salt and cholesterol intake low. You wouldn't care about high blood pressure or diabetes, but you'd care about getting hit by a passing car.

But in the end, we don't know how long we're going to live. Any of the above may actually be true for any of us, but most of us will have decades ahead of us. So as interesting and focusing as the above hypotheticals might be, we generally have to plan as though we will live for several decades.

However, on the flip side, we also need to balance this against any major regrets we would have if our lives were suddenly cut short. You don't want to regret shortsighted decisions if you actually live for a long time, but you also don't want to live entirely on the assumption that you've got many decades ahead, and then feel massive regret and disappointment if your life is unfortunately cut short and you miss out on all the things you planned to do 'one day'. This is all about balance, and there are no easy answers.

The same is true for money, health, morals, friends and family, and every other aspect that makes life so complicated and interesting. You can't make good decisions if you pretend that any of these things is unimportant, but you also can't make good decisions if you focused on any of them and pretended it was the most important thing either.

Hypotheticals are fun and can be mind expanding, but life is complicated, and so we shouldn't be tempted to fall for simple looking answers that try to hide all of this complexity. Sometimes I feel envy for people who are so passionate about just one thing, since life seems so simple for them. But at the same time, I feel sorry for them, as I think of all of the other amazing things they miss out on due to their intense focus and obsession. I'm not sure what the right answer is, and it's clearly going to be different for everyone, but chances are, it's going to be complicated. And that's okay.