27,394 Days

Mod note: Blast from the Past - "Best of Eddie". This one was originally posted in Dec. 2011.


Christopher Hitchens:
"I know what's coming. I know no one beats these odds and it's a matter of getting used to that and growing up and realizing that you're expelled from your mother's uterus as if shot from a cannon towards a barn door studded with old nail files and rusty hooks. It's a matter of how you use up the intervening time in an intelligent and ironic way."

27,394 days, give or take a couple leap years. 27,394 days. That's the average life expectancy of an American male today. Some get a little more time, many get far less. I suspect I'll fall into the latter category, and I've already spent 15,585 of my days. So odds are I've got about 11,800 days left to live. Or less. Probably less.

We usually don't give much thought to how we spend our time. All of us come in to this world with some time. Some get a hundred years and some don't last a week, but on average we've got 27,394 days on account the day we're born. Then we start spending that time. And make no mistake: we spend it.

By the time you're old enough to vote, you've spent 6,574 days. You want to drink a beer legally in the Land of the Free? That'll cost you another 1,100 days. Before the average college grad holds that precious lambskin, he's down 8,400 days. On the day most people have been taught life begins, they've already got less than 19,000 days left.

By now you're probably wondering why I'm putting you through this rather morose thought exercise. Or maybe your mind is already rebelling, which is the natural reaction to contemplating our own mortality. You might even be telling yourself that it doesn't apply to you; longevity runs in your family, you don't drink or smoke, you exercise like a maniac. Well, let's explore that for a moment.

We all know on some subconcious level that we could get hit by a bus and die tommorow. We tend not to focus on random occurrences like that because we're generally powerless to prevent them, so they don't merit our concern. But many of us have convinced ourselves that we'll live to be a million. My wife's grandmother died a couple weeks ago at 97, so long life is a reality for a decent number of people.

Just what happens if you beat the odds, then? After age 75, your quality of life deteriorates at a breakneck pace. We can all point to older folks who are active and vivacious, and we can point to them because they're the outliers. The vast majority of octogenarians exist in a nightmarish maelstrom of chronic illness, adult diapers, and nursing home personnel who view them as nothing more than a source of income (well, them and the pain meds the nurses short them so they can be sold on the street).

Screw that. I'll take the undercarriage of a city bus any day of the week.

So how do you spend your time? If you're over the age of 15, you spend an average of 2.7 hours per day watching TV. That's 41 days a year you'll never get back. In finance, the number is probably even higher because of all the CNBC we watch. Over the course of the average lifespan, that's 2,500 days in front of the tube. 2,500 days out of your 27,394. And that doesn't even account for all the TV you watched before you were 15.

What about cruising the net and playing video games? I don't even want to think about how many precious days I've given up to lolcats and other stupid bullshit. How many of you have sacrificed months or even years of your life on the altar of World of Warcraft? It's scary.

Here's something to think about that might salve the hurt a little bit: it doesn't take much to be successful in this life. I'm not talking about private jets and pounding out supermodels, I'm talking about baseline success. If you've got 27,394 days and you manage to spend at least 13,698 of them (one more than half) with a roof over your head, clothes on your back, and a full belly, then you're the big winner. Because a lot of people can't throw up numbers like that.

The barn door is looming larger for me each day. I'm fairly certain the trajectory of my extra-uterine cannon shot reached its apogee years ago, and while the barn door still feels like it's a ways off, I can now see the reflection off some of the more jagged pieces of glass and the glint off the tips of a few of the larger meat hooks. Relatively speaking, it won't be long now.

We all have turning points in our life. Like Day 5,791 when I buried a friend my age for the first time. Or Day 6,617 when I graduated high school, and Day 6,618 when I left home forever. Day 7,961 when I surrendered to the darkness. Day 9,372 when I destroyed my career and fled the country. Day 11,016 when I hit my walkaway number and left Wall Street forever. Day 11,834 when a bunch of terrorist assholes flew planes into the twin towers and set my life on its current trajectory. Day 11,945 when I met the love of my life. Day 13,251 when I lost my newborn son because the birth mother we'd supported throughout her pregnancy decided to sell him to a higher bidder. Or 25 days later when a hurricane destroyed my city. Day 13,954 when my dad died. Day 14,249 when my adopted sons hit American soil for the first time. Day 14,390 when my first post went up on WSO.

How will you spend your time? How will you make it count? Which will be the days that define who you are? By the time you read this I'll be on Day 15,586 and there's an outside chance I'll meet Minka Kelly tonight (we're going to be in the same place at the same time). If it happens, I might just plant one on her to make this day another one for the books.

Don't waste it, guys. Please don't. You've got an expiration date. You can either man up and accept it, and let it liberate you to do great things, or you can put your head in the sand like the rest of the lemmings and lead a life of quiet desperation until the clock runs out.

As for me, I'm gonna hit that barn door at full speed with a drink in my hand and a grin from ear to ear. Nobody gets out of this alive.

 
TheKing:
Working jobs that we hate so we can buy shit that we don't need.
Hahah so true!

Great point Braverman, I always tell myself this when everyone else calls me crazy for pursuing goals in life different from the status quo.

Speed has never killed anyone, suddenly becoming stationary... That's what gets you. -Jeremy Clarkson
 
Best Response

And the irony is that those 27,000 days represent a grain of sand on the beach of eternity. Yes, the Our Town/ Death of a Salesman message is very important, but there are things that are much more important.

Death is the great singularity of our lives. It's the point at which the material, temporal world ends and eternity begins. IMHO, it takes a lot of faith to believe that life is all about money and materials and that's it- a heckuvalot more faith than it takes to believe that something inexplicable happened in Judea 2000 years ago- or at the very least, that beer is proof that God exists and wants us to be happy.

New York is a very secular city and banking is a very secular profession, but I have to ask the question when the subject comes up- what do you choose to put your faith in? What do you believe is going to clean up the messes in the world and in our lives? I have made my peace with my answer. I hope everyone else has done the same with theirs'.

Working jobs that we hate so we can buy shit that we don't need.
You forgot the last part... to impress people we don't even care about.

TheKing, you may just come around to my thrifty ways. Maybe I will see you grabbing a sandwich the next time I get dinner at Subway.

 
IlliniProgrammer:
Death is the great singularity of our lives. It's the point at which the material, temporal world ends and eternity begins. IMHO, it takes a lot of faith to believe that life is all about money and materials and that's it- a heckuvalot more faith than it takes to believe that something inexplicable happened in Judea 2000 years ago- or at the very least, that beer is proof that God exists and wants us to be happy.

IP,

I carefully avoid religious discussions on WSO, and I'm going to do my best here as well. But this line of reasoning strikes me as irresponsible risk management. What I mean by that is that I've known literally hundreds of people who have frittered their lives away because they were convinced of some nebulous reward in the afterlife. It seems to me that proper risk management would dictate a concentration on the temporal and material (because it's verifiable and quantifiable), and to let the chips fall where they may should there actually be something else after this.

I'm doing my best to tread lightly here, but the notion of something after this life where I inherit a whole new set of expectations I need to somehow live up to is quite frankly exhausting to me. I'm really kinda looking forward to the rest.

 
Banker88:
Really wish this site had a "favorite" button to save posts like these. Well written.
Click the scroll looking thing and it adds it to your bookmarks. Done and done.
If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 
I carefully avoid religious discussions on WSO, and I'm going to do my best here as well. But this line of reasoning strikes me as irresponsible risk management. What I mean by that is that I've known literally hundreds of people who have frittered their lives away because they were convinced of some nebulous reward in the afterlife. It seems to me that proper risk management would dictate a concentration on the temporal and material (because it's verifiable and quantifiable), and to let the chips fall where they may should there actually be something else after this.
Well, I think there's plenty of good, clean, fun to be had in life. I am not against letting the chips fall as they may, but when you wake up at 2 AM in the morning and have the burning question- what have I been doing with my life and where am I going- you've got a solid answer and can go straight back to sleep. Is it worth it? I don't know. I guess we will have to find out.
 
IlliniProgrammer:
I am not against letting the chips fall as they may, but when you wake up at 2 AM in the morning and have the burning question- what have I been doing with my life and where am I going- you've got a solid answer and can go straight back to sleep.

This way of thinking presupposes that's there's no inner peace without a belief in eternal life (essentially a commutation of your death sentence). That's simply not the case. A pine box in the ground is a perfectly respectable answer to the "where am I going?" question, and I daresay one with a good deal more supporting evidence.

 

Hah, with Iowa cropland hitting $10K/acre, I'm not sure I'm buying anymore either. We're clearly in bubble mode. That said, land abutting the northern parts of the Great Lakes- north of Manitowoc and the upper reaches of lower Michigan and the UP- unsuitable for grain but good for orchards- is staying pretty cheap on a per-acre basis. Buy some land, plant the apple, cherry, and maybe black walnut trees today, and they'll be ready in 15 years. There's also some pretty awesome diving up in the straits of Mackinac.

NO, I am not opening up a beet-farm and getting into the agritourism scene. I'll leave that to the Schrutes.

 

+1

Funny, I was thinking about this before going to bed last night. Actually expiring does not bother me as much as watching my loved one go before me. As you mention constant reminder of "memento mori" is important because we seldom forget. Death is a good motivating factor and Jobs summed up supremely well in his Stanford Commencement Speech.

Now, from a completely selfish viewpoint. I'd rather die young in a heavy bike accident/erotic asphyxiation or any other heroic/romantic way rather than dying in old age from fucking pelvis trauma. The sentimentalist in me wants to have grand kids and yada yada but who the fuck knows?

EB, just to reiterate the quote you used in Man Week from Hunter Thompson "Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in one pretty and well preserved piece, but to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, worn out and defiantly shouting 'GERONIMO' " !!!

If people only knew what a gift this sucker is but living well is an art sir, its fucking art

 

Even before reading this interesting and informative post from my main man, EB, i've always been one to count my life here on earth in terms of days and not years. Having lived over 12, 410 days myself, I can honeslty look back and say:

                        Time well spent here on planet Earth, and looking to spend the rest wisely.

But I have an even more thought provactive piece to add to this post later on.

"Kept feeding him dollars 'till it all started to make cents."
 

Edmundo, if you don't mind me asking, what was your "Walk Away" number? And was that number for a single man or taking into account starting a family? If it's too personal don't worry about it. Just trying to get an idea if other people's "numbers" are in line with my own thinking.

My name is Nicky, but you can call me Dre.
 
aempirei:
Edmundo, if you don't mind me asking, what was your "Walk Away" number? And was that number for a single man or taking into account starting a family? If it's too personal don't worry about it. Just trying to get an idea if other people's "numbers" are in line with my own thinking.
http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/whats-your-number-as-said-in-wall…
If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 

Eddie, I think is some good, thought-provoking writing. And it is extremely timely: today a small plane crashed in northern NJ killing two Greenhill executives

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/12/20/greenhill-says-2-executives-died…

This happened just a few miles away from where I was working this morning. It's an amazing tragedy, and should be a morbid reminder not to take our time for granted.

 

Words fall short - Very good post Eddie. Bravo !

"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one...just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had." 'The Great Gatsby' - F. Scott Fitzgerald
 

This is really deep; thanks for sharing. I guess my one question is about things like TV and video games. I probably average no more than 3 hours a week for TV and about 4 hours of video games per week (if I have time). But at the same time, I try to watch TV shows that make me reflect about myself or my life, and I try to play video games with others, as a form of a competitive past time. Is this necessarily bad, or a waste of time?

 

This is incredible. I'm on day 7,768, stressing about an internship so I can break into IBanking for FT recruiting in the upcoming months. Really made me stop and evaluate where I am and where I am going for the past few hours.

The fight club references in this thread are spot on.

  8.7.3
 

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