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Comment by ep103 | Hacker News Reader

"see these big houses, two pools and an spa? They think they need all this, but have no time to enjoy themselves. Me? I have everything I ever wanted."

I really needed to hear this today. I like this outlook. Thanks.

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An American tourist was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked.

Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The tourist complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The Mexican replied, "Only a little while."

The tourist then asked, "Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish?"

The Mexican said, "With this I have more than enough to support my family's needs."

The tourist then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life."

The tourist scoffed, " I can help you. You should spend more time fishing; and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat: With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor; eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You could leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles and eventually New York where you could run your ever-expanding enterprise."

The Mexican fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?"

The tourist replied, "15 to 20 years."

"But what then?" asked the Mexican.

The tourist laughed and said, "That's the best part. When the time is right you would sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."

"Millions?...Then what?"

The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."

That old man breaks his back requiring bed rest for 12 months and multiple dangerous and painful surgeries ... versus a guy who has a couple mil in the bank.

It's a good parable, but doesn't stand up to too much scrutiny.

Thankfully I live in a civilized country with socialized healthcare, so that my choices are more than "go bankrupt after surgery" or "be rich".

You're saying that if the old man worked harder, he'd be less likely to break his back? Or are you saying that if he worked harder, he'd only break his back after he made a few million?

He's saying that in real life the fisherman's job is a bit worse than presented, and the American's a bit better, due to things like healthcare, and financial planning for emergencies and retirement.

And the correct response to that is yes, its a parable, the answer isn't to become a fisherman or necessarily start your business, but to find a good middleground for yourself that keeps the point of the parable in mind.

The way I read the parable, the point is that you can do blue collar work at a humane pace, work smart and have a good life. Or you can work yourself into the ground while life pass you by.

I don't really see how "It's better to be born rich" adds much to the interpretation.

lol, the point of the parable is to remember that you work to live, not live to work. I was responding to your parent post, that was basically just harping that the parable was a bit simplified.

And yet, another extension of the story has the American go to the next fishermen, and they open up a big company together, fishing up all the fish and leaving none for the first guy, plus the supply drives the prices down and make things even worse for him.

Oh, I think they'll just go to the government and arrange to transfer the right to fish to private ownership. That way they can make a profit from leasing out the resource rights, and force the people to pay if the want to catch their own food.

The rest of the story: http://blog.bumblebeelabs.com/the-parable-of-the-fisherman/

Meanwhile, thousands of people get to eat nutritious fish instead of the stringy pork and stone-baked weeds they were eating before. The population's mean IQ increases a couple of points over the course of a generation. They experience an accompanying rise in various standards of living, from their high-school graduation rate to their average lifespan.

Eventually, the tuna are overfished and the agricultural conglomerates switch to farmed tilapia. Everybody complains loudly... but by now, nobody but a few old fishermen remember how much subsistence farming sucked.

Not quite sure what the follow up is supposed to teach ?

Is it a critic of EU/US development plans in developing countries in Africa. Come in, transform self-sustaining economies into EU/US dependent one (eg: replacing traditional crop by commercial crop complemented by food import), ruin them for profit, and then rebuild them for profit (or using public funds) ?

I took a surfing lesson in Hawaii last week from a guy who has a degree from Florida State (business, if I'm not mistaken, but I'm also not positive).

After graduating, he realized that he'd rather live in Hawaii and spend his days in the ocean than sitting at a desk. Yes, he could earn more money...but he's very happy doing what he does. He keeps in touch with friends that he graduated with, and while many of them would like to switch places with him, he says he wouldn't switch places with any.

Of course, they may be setting themselves up for a better retirement, etc. But he has realized that a simple life that makes him happy is what he wants. Good on him.

And how does he pay for housing in such an expensive location as Hawaii?

We didn't talk about it -- but teaching surfing was definitely his full-time employment. But a quick Craigslist scan finds tons of apartments for less than $1,000 a month. He said that he leads a fairly simple life.

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