Why can't we have nice things

I was scrolling through Substack this morning and stopped.

The Lion of Lucerne…

Have you seen this thing? I hadn’t even heard of it.

It’s a Swiss memorial built in the 1820s for folks lost in the French Revolution. Wikipedia can give you the full scoop if you are interested in the background.

But geeze… Just the picture of this sucker stopped me cold.

It’s just tragically beautiful.

I can’t do it justice, so here’s Mark Twain:

The Lion lies in his lair in the perpendicular face of a low cliff…for he is carved from the living rock of the cliff. His size is colossal, his attitude is noble. His head is bowed, the broken spear is sticking in his shoulder, his protecting paw rests upon the lilies of France. Vines hang down the cliff and wave in the wind, and a clear stream trickles from above and empties into a pond at the base, and in the smooth surface of the pond the lion is mirrored, among the water-lilies. Around about are green trees and grass. The place is a sheltered, reposeful woodland nook, remote from noise and stir and confusion…and all this is fitting, for lions do die in such places, and not on granite pedestals in public squares fenced with fancy iron railings. The Lion of Lucerne would be impressive anywhere, but nowhere so impressive as where he is.

I’ve seen few things that elicit that sort of response. Man made things at least.

But there is a long list of incredible man made wonders.

A few that spring to mind:

Michelangelo’s David

Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne

Al-Khazneh in Petra

The Pantheon in Rome

It’s an endless list. There are incredible creations from every era of history and every spot on the globe.

And man still creates beautiful things. But you don’t have to spend much time in a Costco to know that things are a bit different.

It feels like we just build for ourselves instead of building for generations that haven’t even been born yet…

There is an economic concept called time preference.

Basically:

High time preference = I want it now.

Low time preference = I’m willing to wait.

The Lion of Lucerne has no function. It was built to be, to remember, to last.

And last it has. For over 200 years.

How might we start thinking with that same lens?

Funny thing. If you’ve got deferred comp, you’re already doing it. You agreed to be paid years from now for work you did this year. That’s about as low time preference as it gets, and most folks never think of it that way.

The catch is that patience only pays if the thing you’re waiting on is still there when you arrive. That part isn’t patience. That’s a document question.

Anyhow. Something to chew on this week.

All the very best,

John Montgomery

P.S. If someone you work with would like a short note like this a few mornings a week, forward this along. The sign-up lives at montgo.co.