# Working, Buying, Selling, Doing By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2024-01-16 Life is an endless cycle of working, buying, selling, and doing. This list could be reduced as working, for most people, is just a form of selling (that is, selling oneself). All the activities are a form of doing, so the list could be reduced to one thing. Even as the list of four things, humans seem to spend most of their time engaged in a cycle of working to buy things and do things. Maybe work makes one happy. Maybe it doesn’t. Maybe buying things makes one happy. Maybe it doesn’t. Maybe doing things makes one happy. Maybe it doesn’t. Whether it does or doesn’t, people seem to perpetuate the cycle. The choices of not perpetuating the cycle are bleak. What is one to do? Many seem to not think about it, going through the cycle repeatedly. Some go through the cycle repeatedly, dreaming that things will be better when they retire. Looking at retired people, in the aggregate, doesn’t suggest it is. Many retired people seem to suffer from a combination of disconnectedness and uselessness. People derive fulfillment from being productive and needed. The cycle of working, buying, selling, and doing does not seem beneficial to humans. Outright stopping it doesn’t either. Neither does finishing one’s cycles through retirement. It looks like a rigged game if there are no winning strategies. Maybe the best one can do is find joy in the absurdity and try to reduce the stress and burden for oneself and others. #### Related Items [[Work]] [[Cycles]] [[Process]] [[Retirement]] [[Joy]] [[Absurd]]