

Outsourcing Life - ulysses
http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2010/02/10/outsourcing-life-unconventional-advice-for-when-youre-financially-secure/

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potatolicious
> _"To allow others, whose passion is cooking, cleaning, or assisting in
> various ways to help me — while I supported them by giving them income to do
> what they loved."_

If you really want to think about your maid, cook, chauffeur, etc this way,
sure... For the majority I'm pretty sure cleaning, cooking, and driving all
day wouldn't be top of their to-do list if they had the means.

Don't get me wrong, I outsource plenty of things in my life, but I think it's
incredibly out of touch and pretentious to think that you're doing someone a
favor, and that your maid is _really fucking passionate_ about cleaning. IMHO
when you start spouting things like this, you probably lost touch with
reality.

Like mattm commented, there's a line between outsourcing the menial things and
outsourcing things that give your life purpose. I wouldn't mind outsourcing my
laundry, but outsourcing my Facebook profile may just defeat the purpose of
using Facebook.

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DenisM
You think people can't take pride in taking a mess and making it look good? Or
you think that only writing software is a noble enough work to take pride in,
whereas those other occupations are all inferior?

It's true the many people in manual jobs do them out of need, not love. I can
also find you a lot of software engineers who _hate_ their jobs. And I can
find a maid who loves what she does - it's easy to see when one goes above and
beyond what was requested to make things _neat_ and _accurate_.

~~~
ulysses
I love working on a production line. The only reason I moved out of it was
money.

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mattm
I upvoted this article even though I don't agree with "outsourcing life." I
would rather learn and do things myself rather than pay someone else to do it
for me. Take cooking, for example. The author doesn't like to cook but if she
invested in cooking classes for 6 months, I bet she would start developing an
interest in it and then she would have that skill for the rest of her life.

If you pay someone to do work for you (and you don't know how to do it
yourself), you will have to keep paying them forever.

It will also cause you to become a one-dimensional person.

She does have a million dollar windfall, but a million isn't really enough to
last the rest of her life since she is only in her 20s.

~~~
mattchew
It is clear that she is not just sitting around on the couch watching soap
operas with the time she frees up via outsourcing. She's hustling and making
money (and presumably having fun). She can always learn to cook later if it
strikes her fancy.

The idea of outsourcing your life makes a lot of sense if you spend a lot of
time on petty outsourceable tasks and are a driven sort of person who can use
every extra minute.

A lot of us don't fit that profile, and outsourcing more of our lives would
just mean more time spent sitting on the couch or parked in front of the
computer. I'm probably better off mowing my own lawn and only watching five
episodes of Breaking Bad this week instead of six.

~~~
mattm
I understand the reasoning and she at least gives the impression that she is
busy with other things. However I've also learned that some people just like
to talk about how "busy" they are to make themselves feel more important.

Some of my best ideas or solutions to problems come to me when I'm doing
"petty, outsourceable" work like washing the dishes or making dinner.

~~~
ericabiz
Interestingly enough, I found that the ideas come either way--whether you're
outsourcing or not. So, if you want to outsource things, don't worry that the
ideas will stop coming. They just show up when you're taking a shower,
driving, or doing any number of other things.

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ohashi
I upvoted it because Erica had the best web hosting company I ever worked with
and I miss her running her service.

~~~
ericabiz
Thanks! ;)

~~~
ohashi
oh hi there :) I am going to have to drop you an email now

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gcb
as an amateur psychologist, she probably is so immersed in one face of her
life (running a business) that when she got depressed by the lack of another
(having friends) she focused back on her safe harbor (running a business) to
compensate for it. Just saying.

~~~
ericabiz
I've been having fun discovering myself as an extrovert, actually, and doing
more things like public speaking. But thanks for playing. ;) (I am the author
of this post)

~~~
gcb
Denial. First stage of self discovery.

:D

