December 26, 2021
Would You Rather
My 8yo daughter ran into the living room tonight to challenge me to an impromptu game of Would You Rather.
She dove right in with:
“Would you rather be locked in a dog crate overnight or only be able to take one step per minute for a whole day?”
LOL WUT?
I should probably check her YouTube history...
Anyways, I said:
“Neither.”
Her:
“Hey! That’s cheating!”
Me:
“I know, but... what if you gave me two good options to choose from instead of two bad ones?”
She was intrigued by this idea but needed clarification...
She asked:
“Like what?”
So I said the first thing that came to mind:
“Like... would you rather be rich or happy?”
She paused for a long time pondering this.
A smile slowly crept across her face.
Her expression continued to evolve into what only can be described as a grimace.
Finally, she burst out in frustration:
“AAAARGGHHH! I’ll probably think about this for my entire life!!!”
LOL!
Here’s the thing...
Like all good Would You Rather questions, “rich vs happy” is a false dichotomy.
It’s two different sliding scales:
- Rich vs broke
- Happy vs miserable
All four combinations are possible:
- You can be rich and happy
- You can be rich and miserable
- You can be broke and happy
- You can be broke and miserable
While there is surely some interplay between these two variables at the extremes, they are largely independent.
Personally, as long as my kids figure out the “happy” axis, I don’t really care that much about where they land on the “rich” one.
Yours,
—J