No Thanks to $650 Million

No Thanks to $650 Million.

This sounds made up, but it’s a real thought.

Real in action? We’ll almost certainly never know.

I think I’d turn down the $650 million Powerball.

It’s a nice number — not the gaudy $1 billion that gets everyone worked up every now and then.

But I don’t think it would make me any happier, which is what I’m "optimizing" for these days.

Optimizing for happiness might sound selfish, but once you realize the things that bring true joy are mostly altruistic — raising kids, helping your neighbors, creating something that makes people smile — it starts to feel like the opposite of selfish.

A Michelin-star meal is great, but it’s not that great if you don’t have someone you care about to share it with.

There’s this saying I thought I invented once: “These are the good ol’ days.”

I said it during a King of Pops Field Day behind The Masquerade back in 2013. It felt profound at the time. I went home feeling pretty good about myself — like I’d stumbled onto something original and true.

A quick internet search later, and I found hundreds of cross-stitched pillows with those exact words on them. Apparently Kevin from The Office said it too.

So yeah, maybe not original.