Why am I climbing?

If I am going to climb a mountain, am I climbing because I want to see the view from there, or because I want people to see me from there?

That is a question I want to keep asking myself. The action can look exactly the same from the outside. Inside, the reason matters.

I like Naval’s distinction between the wealth game and the status game. Wealth creation can give us more useful things and more freedom. Status puts us in a hierarchy. Someone has to be above someone else.

I know the attraction of status. I have played that game with cars and houses, and I still see a residue of it in myself. I want to be aware of what is driving me.

When I am building a product, this is another way to look at it. What does it help someone do? What becomes easier because it exists? And how much of my excitement comes from wanting people to see me as successful?

The Psychology of Money is a really good book. Morgan Housel is a good writer. Money, freedom, enough, how we look to other people: these are things I keep coming back to.

I love learning and building. I want the freedom to keep doing that. The mountain question helps me look at my own motives. What is the view I actually want?