The reason is that humans adapt quickly: this is called “Hedonic adaptation” or “Hedonic Treadmill”. The same pattern was recurring: people who joined FIRE Movement wanted to have enough money to quit their day job, send their boss to hell, then travel the world for some time… but then the boredom and dissatisfaction returned. The Hedonic Treadmill and the FIRE movement. I read many books, blog posts, articles, from people who escaped the rat race, but… unexpectedly…I found a specific tendency: each of these “FIRE people” once they have achieved Financial Freedom, suddenly experienced a sense of great annoyance, dissatisfaction and incompleteness in their life. So I decided to embrace the fundamental ideas and principles of the movement. The more I deepened the philosophical, ethical, and practical aspects of the Fire Movement, though, the more surprising results I found. Working 45 hours a week in your office for 40 years doing the same horrible job, from my point of view, is a subtle form of inhuman torture. Never work again and live off your investment.Save and invest aggressively your money ( Index fund/ REITs/ Rental Property ).The fundamental ideas at the base of this movement are really simple: When I heard of the FIRE Movement and Early Retirement for the first time I was very skeptical.

Stoicism suggests the Negative visualization exercise.The Hedonic Tredmill and the FIRE movement. At least for me, this drives the treadmill too.īuddhism suggests noticing Unsatisfactoriness and letting it pass, rather than identifying with it, or with feelings of grasping. Even wonderful things have elements of disappointment in them if you look closely enough.

Yes, I hosted a great dinner party, but it’s a shame that my asparagus dish was flawed in a particular way, that this person didn’t seem particularly engaged in the discussion, that this other person never replied to my invitation, etc. Hedonic adaptation is certainly one element of what’s going on in here, but I also notice subtle feelings of Unsatisfactoriness driving the action.

It’s certainly been pervasive in my experience, and it seems fairly universal. Often, the next thing requires even more resources, time, status, etc-and so this phenomenon prevents you from ever happily “living within your means.” It also reduces optionality, since now reducing your means would make the next rarified object of desire impossible. Those things you wanted so badly become normal, no longer something worthy of special aspiration, and now you simply find yourself wanting the next thing. You find yourself wanting something so much-a new computer, a partner, a house, more intellectual freedom, more friends, etc-and then once you have them, the goalposts immediately shift.

Hedonic treadmill