You can't cook-at-home/buy-in-bulk your way out of debt or into house ownership, but I just did the math, and if my coworkers weren't buying takeout for lunch every day, they could afford hobbies.
Gotta love the ridiculous costs of living, amirite? I've never liked takeout/going out to eat, I enjoy cooking, and I have the resources to make food for every meal (even if sometimes that means "canned soup" or "reheat yesterday's dinner), so it's a no-brainer for me, but yeah, it's fucked that this is just. Normal now. $15 will get you an entree around here, and not a good one.
See, I'm fully convinced that a rich inner world is not something you're born with or something you can only develop in childhood; I truly believe that it's something you can build as an adult, by having positive interactions with a wide variety of people, developing new skills and hobbies, going to places that are different from your normal haunts, and appreciating a diverse array of creative and technical endeavors. My coworkers COULD develop a rich inner world and find things other than the latest celebrity gossip and sexist stereotypes to discuss at lunch. They WON'T because scrolling social media and watching reality TV is easy and gets them instant dopamine in a way that "struggling through the learning curve of a new skill" and "puzzling at what a book's themes are" don't, but they COULD.
Yeah, like. I'm a dangerously bad cook, I'd like to be able to get premade food so I can stop giving myself food poisoning and hot oil burns when I'm in a rush... at the moment that's completely untenable, though.
Oh, you're absolutely right, but there's a whole genre of person who I don't think is willing to even think about it. Why develop a rich inner world and do anything fun at all when instead, as you said, they could talk shit about strangers on TV and do the same four dull things they've done since the age of 15?
If it's any consolation, I was ALSO a dangerously bad cook at your age (as in, gave myself food poisoning many times, still have a bunch of oil and knife scars, could not cook anything more complex than underdone pasta), and years later, I'm pretty damn good at it, so it does get better with age and practice.
Oh yeah, they could, and they would be so much happier and more functional if they did, but they won't. On the one hand, this is tragic and I feel bad that they're stuck in a deeply fucked state, on the other, I never fucking want to hear a sentence that starts with "so I saw this thing online" and ends with a misogynist stereotype again, nor am I even remotely thrilled about being typecast as a "useless gay girlie" when I am 0/3 of these things, so. If they're not going to get their shit together they could at least spew their social media and reality TV diarrhea at someone who likes rolling in dung piles.
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See, I'm fully convinced that a rich inner world is not something you're born with or something you can only develop in childhood; I truly believe that it's something you can build as an adult, by having positive interactions with a wide variety of people, developing new skills and hobbies, going to places that are different from your normal haunts, and appreciating a diverse array of creative and technical endeavors. My coworkers COULD develop a rich inner world and find things other than the latest celebrity gossip and sexist stereotypes to discuss at lunch. They WON'T because scrolling social media and watching reality TV is easy and gets them instant dopamine in a way that "struggling through the learning curve of a new skill" and "puzzling at what a book's themes are" don't, but they COULD.
From:
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Oh, you're absolutely right, but there's a whole genre of person who I don't think is willing to even think about it. Why develop a rich inner world and do anything fun at all when instead, as you said, they could talk shit about strangers on TV and do the same four dull things they've done since the age of 15?
From:
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Oh yeah, they could, and they would be so much happier and more functional if they did, but they won't. On the one hand, this is tragic and I feel bad that they're stuck in a deeply fucked state, on the other, I never fucking want to hear a sentence that starts with "so I saw this thing online" and ends with a misogynist stereotype again, nor am I even remotely thrilled about being typecast as a "useless gay girlie" when I am 0/3 of these things, so. If they're not going to get their shit together they could at least spew their social media and reality TV diarrhea at someone who likes rolling in dung piles.