Morgan Housel

And I think you have to push back on that a little bit.

If somebody says, I don't feel like I'm doing as well as I wanted and I should, I think that always demands empathy.

If somebody says, people used to be doing better than we are today, that's a factual statement that can and should be fact-checked.

That is an apples to apples comparison that you can look at.

And I think most of the time you would look at that.

You would come to some conclusion that when people make a statement like people in the 1950s were better off than we are now, it's usually not true.

But that does not preclude the feeling that you have today of I'm not doing as well as I thought I should and I'm living paycheck to paycheck.

Because I think more often what happens there is that the expectations over generations have increased.

So in the 1950s, a 700 square foot house with no garage was amazing.

It felt like a palace.

And by today's standards, it's more along the lines of, I need a 1900 square foot house and I better have air conditioning and a garage, et cetera, et cetera.

That's not to call people spoiled or whatnot.

It's just the acknowledgement that expectations increase over time.

And I think now some people will hear that and be like, no, there was actually a time when I thought I would have more than I do now.

So I think that exists too.

But for a lot of people, I'd even say maybe the majority, there was at least something going on in your life right now that you used to aspire to and probably told yourself that you would be so happy if you had that thing one day.

Yeah.

I've said this a million times.

I write for an audience of one, which is myself.

I write books that I think are interesting about topics that I'm interested in, in a voice and telling stories that I think is interesting for me.