The Sim Model of Thinking

In the game the Sims, you get to control the life of a Simulated person. You can tell them where to go, what to do, and how to do it.

When you live your life, I like to think that there are 2 “you’s” so to speak. The first “you” is the Sim. The Sim has needs like eating, using the bathroom, showering, needing to socialize. The other “you” is you playing the video game. The person making the decisions and controlling the Sim.

Oftentimes in our lives, it feels like we have no control. We feel like the Sim being bossed around subject to forces beyond our control, always having to conform to what the player wants from us. I think the most important realization I’ve ever had is reconciling these two “me’s”. The desire of the player is oftentimes to maximize the wealth and happiness of our sim. But sometimes the player overlooks the basic needs of the Sim in order to achieve these material goals. The player pushes the Sim hard. We make them wake up early, work out, go to work, work a side gig after work, eat, rinse, repeat. But this makes our Sim unhappy. And that Sim doesn’t know why a lot of times, but they sure as hell can feel it. Once I learned that yes, I as a player of my own life want to achieve certain things but I cannot do so at the expense of the well being of my Sim, my animal, then I learned to be much happier.

There seems to be a pervasive myth that if you work hard enough that we will all soon become millionaires, perhaps even billionaires. But the reality is is that that’s just not true. The reality is that most of us will be in the middle or working class for the entirety of our lives. And that’s ok, there’s a lot of pride in being working and middle class because we are the people that actually do the work. We just can’t let our bosses, the ruling class, the elite mindset infect us in thinking that if we just worked harder we could become one of them. Because it’s not true. All that will happen is that we will further enrich those already in power, and we will crush our own souls. Work hard, but don’t do so at the expense of your happiness and well-being. Take care of #1, yourself.