Jason Goldman on sliding-scale obstacles

Goldtoe Lemon.Nut: The 170-day Weekend

Goldman’s back from taking a few months off, and shares a nugget that I like a lot:

When you have fewer responsibilities, those you do have take on a disproportionately larger weight. I found that no matter how little I actually had to worry about, I’d find some task or obligation that would become the “one big thing” nagging at me from void. Sometimes this one big thing would be laundry. The point is that you can always identify one obstacle in your life that, if removed, would make everything better (an annoying co-worker, a bad debt, a rash). Turns out this probably isn’t true at all.

Amen, brother, and cf: 83 Problems.

[ via Nelson Minar’s Linkblog ]