Mr. Money Mustache

In Digital Minimalism, Cal Newport quotes Mr. Money Mustache — the blogger Pete Adeney — at length as a model of high-quality leisure. Adeney’s philosophy, in his own words: “I never understood the joy of watching other people play sports… don’t care about what the celebrities and politicians are doing… Instead of all this, I seem to get satisfaction only from making stuff. Or maybe a better description would be solving problems and making improvements.” Newport uses him to argue that handiness and making/fixing things are richer sources of leisure than passive consumption, while noting Adeney has “near endless time for such pursuits.” The wiki page for the book draws the bridge explicitly: Adeney’s making-over-consuming ethic parallels the Financial Independence (FIRE) community’s value-first reasoning and ties to Frugality.

Context: “Mr. Money Mustache” is the pen name of Pete Adeney, a Canadian-born blogger who retired in his early 30s and became a prominent voice in the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement through his eponymous blog.

Where this appears

• Digital Minimalism — quoted at length as a model of making/fixing-as-leisure; bridges to Financial Independence and Frugality.