The Man & the Myth

A century ago, entrepreneurs sought to pass themselves off as parasites: they adopted the style and manner of the titled, rentier class. Today the parasites claim to be entrepreneurs.

- "Mitt Romney and the myth of self-created millionaires", The Guardian, George Monbiot.

I love this article for pointing to the mythologies that flourish in a culture, and how those same mythologies -- however steeped in truth, or not -- are used fervently to defend a society whose values have completely 180'ed.

The stories we tell ourselves don't just help us get through the day; they justify our political positions as well as our worldviews. It's one of the reasons why the latter can be so hard to change.

I also want to clarify by saying I do believe in self-created millionnaires, although I don't think they consider themselves self-creations: for every Mitt, there are too few Warren Buffetts, Bill Gates and Richard Bransons. But these people don't preach the same story Mitt's espoused in his candidacy; we ought to ask ourselves why.

Unthinking the American Dream

A place that used to be home.

This week I contributed an article to MyBankTracker.com, which asked me to recount the torrid* tale of my financial life before and after France, a task that proved surprisingly very hard and felt almost embarrassingly personal. (Then again, until recently I was one of those people who felt that your character could be judged by your FICO score.)

The article was published this morning and is called "Unthinking the American Dream." Here's an excerpt.

Over the course of my short working life, a lot of money has come and gone. Most of it came and went in the U.S. I spent much of that time believing my value as a human was tied to my ability to consistently turn some money into more. I concede that this was largely driven by my own obsession for untold riches, but that’s also the dream we’re sold. Under the shadow of Silicon Valley, where I grew up, it’s a noble enough reason to neglect your family and friends: people who don’t support you aren’t really constructive elements, are they? And if you do it right, you’re putting in three years of endless work in exchange for 60+ years of leisure, aren’t you? 

In another country you don’t just learn a new value system, you learn new dreams: live within your means, do work you care about and still make time for the people that matter. To be able to find balance in work and life ought to be a definition of success, because it’s surprisingly difficult. Things come and go, ambitions change: I realized I wanted a life that resembled a rich, carefully-constructed tapestry, not a bar graph.

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*Okay, it's not like I was a pirate on the high seas or anything.

MAKE TRUCKER JACKETS, NOT WAR

I give you The Evolution of the Levi's Trucker Jacket, part of its Ready to Work campaign.



A slow starter but pretty, especially if you're into that self-effacing folksy indie aesthetic that was cool back when it meant all those things, and is occasionally still cool when it still does/passes for it.

Not that I mind in this case. The ambiance and the Levi's brand leaves the lingering burnt-cherrywood smell of American mythology. We're a young country but on a quest for legends to remember where we come from; what better look and feel? (And what better medium than Levi's?)