Experiences

I found this article on experiences linked from one of my favorite blogs, kottke.org.

The article talks a lot about how we're moving more towards experience-based fulfillment than fulfillment through luxury goods. For instance, someone who might have once bought a porsche might now decide to go and hike the Inca trail or explore Thailand. What I liked most was the ending bit:

There’s this emerging idea of ourselves as projects — we are no longer labelled by our education or gender, or born into a social situation that we then play out for the rest of our lives. We can do new things, pick up new skills, learn a new language. Because we’re living longer, we have more time to think about who we really want to be. We are all asking ourselves, ‘How can I get more out of my life?’”

While it might seem slightly hokey, I like the idea. I've always been gung-ho about orienting myself around experiences, from the little coffee shop visits they mention to hopefully more traveling. Having been to a prep school where I saw plenty of rich older people with lots of stuff who weren't especially happy, it gives me a certain satisfaction to see a reorientation around things that I consider much more tangible. Plus, what's cooler than having project: you?