George Hahn

Historically, it was closer to 30.

That's not just a housing story.

It's becoming a family formation story.

How do you build a good life when so many of the traditional milestones feel out of reach?

In last week's No Mercy, No Malice, narrated by yours truly, Scott explored a related idea, our growing obsession with optimization.

What gets measured gets managed, even when it's pointless to measure and manage it, and even if it harms the purpose of the organization to do so.

In other words, our mania for measurement can obscure what matters most.

Consider the popularity of health and fitness apps and the personal optimization trend those technologies enable.

To a point, the more data we collect on ourselves, the better able we may be to improve our lives.

But metrics aren't the arbiters of living well.

Nor is optimization life's end goal.

My work and life are narrowing, distilling to a few goals.

One of them is to prepare my son for others.

Many things I do don't advance that goal, and some things undermine it.

I'm a work in progress, i.e.

suboptimal.

When I'm gone, if I've accomplished this goal, my sons will have, among other things, receipts in the form of grief, proof that they loved deeply, as Nicole Avant, former U.S.

ambassador and film producer, wrote in her memoir, Think You'll Be Happy.

The boys won't remember my VO2 max.

They won't know my sleep score or my macro splits.