“I would prefer not to.”

A rule I set out for myself when I was young has kept me happy into old age.

Avoid the trap of cars, commuting and corporations

In December of 1990 I was on the highway driving back to Seattle from a temporary office job in a god-forsaken suburb. It was pitch black dark at 5 PM.

At that moment I realized that I was going to go out of my way to not waste even one more second of my life commuting in a gas-guzzling vehicle to a situation that was not accessible by public transportation or bike.

Mission accomplished. For example, I can count the number of times that I have been to the soulless corporate Seattle suburb of Bellevue on two hands. I spent ten years without a car. I survived by hustling for freelance work (thank you Apple Inc.! and your magical work-from-home devices) and gigging in restaurants while avoiding the temptation of selling out to evil entities who wanted potential wage slaves like me to toil in their cubicle prisons. Today I commute to work by bike and soon that job will become a mostly work from home situation.

As a person of privilege gifted with a mind able to see above the trap of the rat race, I was able to avoid wasting my days in a slog of fossil fuel consumption, constant driving and existential office drudgery. So many of us are not so lucky.

—Alex

See also:

Bartleby, The Scrivener
A STORY OF WALL-STREET.
by Herman Melville

Bartleby, The Scrivener first appeared in Putnam’s Monthly in 1853.