How Much Do You Really Earn?

There is nothing more demoralizing than a small but adequate income.
--- Edmund Wilson

How much do you make?

Chances are, you think of your annual earnings. That's not the ideal comparison.

Suppose that Callie earns $100,000 a year and Sandy earns $50,000. We'd conclude that Callie earns twice as much because we ignore an important factor: the hours worked. Suppose Callie works 80 hours a week while Sandy works 40. Then both earn the same hourly rate. Now who's ahead? Probably Sandy who has more time to enjoy life.

The idea of looking at earnings on an hourly basis came from The Four Hour Work-Week by Timothy Ferriss. The book is one of my favourites. It got me thinking about wisdom acquired years ago: the cost of anything is how much of your life you pay (e.g., money, time, health). Too often we think only of the cost in dollars.

Tax
Since our tax system is "progressive", the more we earn, the higher our tax rates. In our example, Sandy likely comes out ahead when we look at after-tax earnings per hour.

If you're paid a salary or commission, you probably don't know what you earn per hour. You may be shocked once you do a quick calculation.

I am indeed rich, since my income is superior to my expenses, and my expense is equal to my wishes. --- Edward Gibbon

Nothing hurts more than having to pay an income tax, unless it is not having to pay an income tax. --- Thomas Robert Dewar

The Low Noise Life

Everybody's talking at me.
I don't hear a word they say.
--- Harry Nilsson, Midnight Cowboy

Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying.
--- Pink Floyd, Comfortably Numb

We are what we eat. We're also what we consume with our senses. We don't let garbage accumulate in our homes. Yet we let garbage get dumped in our minds and rot there.

Our attention spans are limited. The more noise, the harder to detect a signal. We're like the SETI project looking harder and harder for intelligence but finding so little. Waking up to news radio depressed me before I got out of bed. What a way to start the day.

All the while the world is turning to noise.
Oh the more that it's surrounding us, the more that it destroys
Turn up the signal. Wipe out the noise.
--- Peter Gabriel, Signal To Noise

While "no news is good news", bad news is good ratings. If it bleeds, it leads. And hurts us.

What Can We Do?
We achieve more when we focus. We focus more when we eliminate the irrelevant. You'll find that's nearly everything. Thirteen months ago --- without telling anyone --- I

• cut out news, sports, entertainment, traffic and weather reports
  
• suspended the newspaper
• started chucking out most junk mail
  

The first few weeks were scary. How can you work with clients when you're tuned out? Not a problem. They don't want to discuss current affairs with you. There are many other topics for small talk. If pressed, it's easy enough to say that you've been busy working and ask for a synopsis.

I’m not dumb. I just have a command of thoroughly useless information.
--- Calvin of “Calvin and Hobbes”

Here's what gets through

• selected magazines: the articles and advertising give ideas
  
• audiobooks: educational (generally nonfiction)
• neighborhood newspaper: for local happenings
• social media: for what others think is important (e.g., Digg and Google News)

There are more extreme guidelines in what Timothy Ferriss calls the Low Information Diet in his book The Four Hour Work Week.

Drawbacks
You're lost during small talk because you don't know the latest about senseless violence, Stephen Harper, the US election, oil prices or, sadly, Jessica Biel. That's okay. You can listen and ask questions. Or daydream. Chances are others won't notice.

Results

It is vain to do with more what can be done with less. --- William of Occam

More than a year has passed. Here are the results: more peace of mind and more focus. Your computer runs faster and has more free memory when you stop unnecessary programs from running in the background. The same with our minds.

Links

• Too Much Information? Ignore It. (New York Times, Nov 11, 2007)
• The Low Information Diet (Syntagma)
  
• Midnight Cowboy soundtrack
  

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