Slack
Earlier this year, I rejected a good-but-not-great job opportunity for the first time in recent memory. I was scared. What if I couldn’t find anything better? What if that startup did really well? Then, I forgot about it and went on to get a better gig months later.
3 weeks ago, my car was stolen in SF. Beyond the initial shock, I don’t feel too bad about the incident. The only thing I miss are a pair of very comfy shorts. Yes, since I was surfing when it all happened, they literally stole the shirt off of my back.
I love feeling this way about things and about life, but it feels so vague that I can only capture it by writing it down. After some pondering, I realized that what I have is slack.
In project management, slack is defined as the amount of time a task can be delayed before the whole project is delayed.
In life, slack affords exploration, choice, and values.
When people discuss privilege, what they often mean is slack. I graduated college without student loans, which allowed me to take on a series of non-obvious jobs until I finally discovered what I love to do. Had I been burdened with loans, I would have started my career in finance or consulting, and missed out on a pivotal $12 / hr internship in San Francisco.
Choices made in the absence of slack is suffocating, forcing you to make bad, inefficient trades. During said internship in SF, I couldn’t afford expensive groceries, so I ate a lot of curried lentils over rice (classic carb on carb), and traded health for a balanced budget (though not for taste since lentils are delicious). It’s still so freeing to be able to buy whatever I want at Whole Foods.
Only by exploring different options and making deliberate, unforced choices can one develop a value system. No one faults the beggar for not caring more about climate change. Thus, slack frees you to be who you want to be, not who you are constrained to be.
It’s tempting to think that slack only comes from money, but I know plenty of high-income people who don’t have any slack. To paraphrase Mike Tyson — everyone has a plan until they get a mortgage.
Slack must be cultivated. The average person has very little slack, which is why we celebrate the whistleblowers, career changers, and entrepreneurs, all sacrificing in ways we cannot. Most things in life tightens and constrains, so we aptly label people who ignore those rules as slackers.
In these challenging times, I hope you can find more slack in your life. You deserve it.