Some people love a good grumble. They hate the way things are. The choices they have. The life they're forced to lead, by circumstances out of their control.
I say, leave defeatists to fight over crumbs. Your only goal in life should be to escape any need to perform mindless labour purpose intentionality.
There's a peculiar breed of online nihilist who has made peace with powerlessness. They've convinced themselves that systemic forces are so overwhelming that individual agency is an illusion. They mock aspiration as naivety, dismiss entrepreneurship as exploitation, and treat any attempt at self-improvement as evidence of false consciousness.
They're wrong. And insufferable to boot.
You can take control of your life at any moment you choose. You can act with intentionality. You can do things, make things, carve out a life for yourself. Misery is not your birthright.
But there's an equally problematic response on the opposite end: the get-rich-quick hustlers who believe the only path freedom through relentless grinding and wealth accumulation. They've mistaken means for ends, treating money as the ultimate goal rather than what it actually is: a tool for purchasing optionality.
Both extremes miss the point.
The real goal isn't to avoid all work – it's to escape work that diminishes you. Instead of chasing infinite wealth, build enough competence and resources that you can choose how to spend your days.
Leisure is a noble aspiration. But it's worth noting that aspiring ONLY to leisure at age 23 is no more useful than being a hustlebro. Both approaches guarantee a prolonged state of uselessness. One through inaction, the other through misdirected action.
The path forward requires a more nuanced understanding: Start by doing work that builds skills. Use those skills to create the thing you actually want—whether that's financial freedom, creative autonomy, or simply the ability to say no to things that don't serve you.
Be strategic with your early years so your later years can be intentional – even if things don't look the way you dreamed at first.
Along the way, carve out time for what matters. Not someday, but today. That time only exists for those who seek it earnestly and work to create it. If you don't actively protect space for reflection, for relationships, for pursuits that feed your soul, the world will consume every available moment.
You'll either become a braindead pessimist convinced that nothing can change, or a corporate automaton who has forgotten why change was worth pursuing in the first place.
The Romans had a concept called "otium": the productive use of free time for contemplation, creativity, and personal development. It was distinguished from "negotium": the busyness of commercial and political life. They understood that both were necessary, but otium was what made life worth living.
Modern life has forgotten this distinction. We've created a false binary where you're either grinding constantly or you've given up entirely. But the real achievement is building a life where you can move fluidly between periods of focused effort and intentional rest.
Your agency is real. Use it.
