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0 pointsnonrandomstring3y ago0 comments

Interesting choice of word. Condescending implies talking down, whereas I am in fact talking up.

Poorer nations spend much more time per capita on cooking. India averages 13 hours per week. The average American male spends two and a half hours per week (20 mins per day) in "food preparation". We all have equally "busy" lives, yet our labour is distributed in different ways.

The 'first world' problems I am poking fun at (in a light way so please don't take it so much to heart) is known as "Time Poverty" [1].

My serious point is that western "oh so terribly busy" people allocate labour that preferences sitting in traffic en route a job sitting at a desk over cooking food. Cooking feels beneath us, because our time feels so valuable, in turn because we are robbed of it trying to be "productive". That is really unhealthy, mentally and biologically. It is a symptom of "affluenza" [2].

So rather than being "condescending" I am politely inviting you to descend amongst those of us with dirty hands from chopping vegetables (those weird shaped plants you mum used to ruin supper with :)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money-rich%2C_time-poor

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affluenza

0 comments

Invictus03y ago

If you're earning $100/hr as a software engineer/lawyer/whatever, it makes a lot more sense to buy a $30 doordash order than it does for a peasant in India. The comparison is so ludicrous I'm actually laughing.

LorenPechtel3y ago

This. If you make lots of dollars per hour you'll likely have a better quality of life putting in extra hours at work and hiring out much of the stuff we usually do at home.

Food is a problem, though, because restaurant food is generally skewed to tasty rather than healthy.

scarface743y ago

Why just focus on cooking? Do you give up other creature comforts that you can afford just because “people in poorer countries do”? Do you also farm or is that “beneath you”?

nonrandomstringOP3y ago

> Why just focus on cooking?

You're absolutely right. It would be silly to just focus only on cooking, much as I love it.

> Do you give up other creature comforts that you can afford

Absolutely yes. Instead of being enslaved to comfort I find that many of the things one "gives up" create vast swathes of opportunity and freedom in life. Walking instead of driving creates precious thinking time. I also find that being less 'available' by digital connectivity makes people value my time more and the more opportunity I obtain from fewer meetings - paradoxical perhaps, but it's sometimes odd how things work. Once you start "giving up" things it's amazing what riches the world offers up.

> Do you also farm or is that beneath you?

It's behind me. I lived in a village where we grew more than half our food and kept small livestock. Definitely miss that. But I was a kid, and so most of the hard work was done by my parents and neighbours. Obviously though, it set me up in life with a mindful relation with food. Never give names to the ones you're going to eat :)

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