Medieval kings would envy you

Seeing our lives through the eyes of our ancestors

“Royal Couple Mourning for their Dead Daughter” by Karl Friedrich Lessing, 1830.

No one thinks of themselves as rich when there’s always someone richer. I live in one of the highest-income regions of the wealthiest state in the wealthiest country in the world. I know people who have started successful companies, who live in the nation’s most expensive ZIP code, who are CEOs.

My home — which I share with 10 other people — cost $2 million; I’ve been in houses that probably cost 10 times that.

Our society makes it remarkably easy to fantasize about what you would do if you had $100,000 more, or $1 million more, or $10 million. Maybe then my kitchen would look like the ones on Instagram; maybe then my kids would play in the idyllic yard for which landscapers will quote me more money than the average American makes in a year.

I have never quite had the nerve to ask a billionaire whether, when you have that much money, you finally feel content. It wouldn’t surprise me if you don’t.

Humans are very sensitive to the wealth of the people around us, the people to whom we compare ourselves. Our life satisfaction often depends more on how rich our neighbors are than how rich we are. This suggests a very straightforward life hack for eternal happiness — change your comparison group.

I would not recommend moving to a poor country where you can hire dozens of employees for practically nothing. Instead, I try — once a year or so, perhaps around Thanksgiving — to surround myself with the thoughts of all the people who have ever lived.

Almost every single human who has ever lived was very poor.

With them accompanying me, I walk through my house and try to see it through their eyes. Here is my tea cupboard, stuffed to the brim with packets and boxes that prevent the drawer from closing properly. I count 27 varieties of tea. I cringe at the 20 boxes of Celestial Seasonings Mandarin Orange Spice that piled up because of an Amazon subscription I forgot to cancel.

I accumulated more tea by accident than most people ever drank in their lives. I should probably give some away so that the drawer will close.

Medieval kings would envy me.