Right? You all know this, the idea that you should be spending or can spend up to 20% of your time on, I will call them, "discretionary activities," things that are outside the scope of your regular job, things that are a little more experimental. This is a very cool idea.
And so I think what's going to be incredibly important in phase two of the tech revolution spending-- discretionary spending. But one of the things that I explore in the book is that that revolution prosecuted by the political right didn't end there,
And what that suggests is that, yes, on one end, which was representing me on the train that night-- and I'm sure many of you can identify with-- yes, having too little discretionary time in our day is associated with less happiness, and that's because we feel greater stress. But what was interesting-- and in this data, it was less than approximately two hours of discretionary time in the day.
And also, I think it is important to point out in our data, even, that it wasn't just about the amount of discretionary and having a lot because, for folks who spent their discretionary time on worthwhile activities that they felt were enriching-- so an enriching hobby, or doing sports that felt purposeful and productive, or spending time connecting with others--
They were able to understand how the pieces of the organization fit together. use their discretionary influence, if they feel jacked around, your ability to be influential is going to be impaired.
I really just want everybody to carefully look at their discretionary time. People have much more discretionary time that they think Somebody's watching "House of Cards." And that's why I really believe in finding a thrive buddy.
The problem is that the situation we have now is that there's not enough water in that end of the pool. This is the discretionary spending.
So these are Green, these are Yellow, and these are Red. Culture exists to guide discretionary behavior.
So these are Green, these are Yellow, and these are Red. It's there discretionary acts.
Mastery is a second urge. Mastery is our desire to get better at something, particularly better at something that matters. It is a fundamental human impulse. they spend their discretionary time doing equally -- if not more -- challenging work for someone else for free. Think about being the employer.
It's one monthly payment and one student loan servicer. and they take a percentage of that discretionary income, and that becomes your student loan payment.
It's one monthly payment and one student loan servicer. PAYE lowers it to 10% of discretionary income.
It's one monthly payment and one student loan servicer. And it's also 20% of discretionary income-- and there's a formula-- or you could pay less than that based on a different formula,
Then, there is the ICM, or Investigative Case Management, search application. is characterized by a largely discretionary and even arbitrary set of practices not designed or suited for the purpose of effectively locating records
It's all about-- and then fill in the blank. But that flexibility-- that only comes from discretionary capital.
We were spending, by the way I have duct tape on my wallet that's another story, but we were spending 144 dollars a day. That's not mortgage that's discretionary income. And when the winter hit it went down to 44 dollars, let's see.
So these are Green, these are Yellow, and these are Red. But isn't also just in a discretionary way ready to help everyone else.
We are undoubtedly going to be the freest country in the world. Another thing that led to significant acts of corruption were the discretionary transfers to provinces.
A feeling that we just don't have enough time to sleep. I really just want everybody to carefully look at their discretionary time. People have much more discretionary time that they think Somebody's watching "House of Cards."
So these are Green, these are Yellow, and these are Red. So our definition of culture is that culture guides discretionary behavior in the absence of a stated policy, in the absence of direct supervision.
But we were doing 5 to 6 percent. Then Reagan came and you see the collapse of the discretionary programs as a share of national income down to about two and a half percent. It continued all the way through every administration.
It comes from the one thing that any company wants most from it's managers: emotional commitment. A manager's emotional commitment is the ultimate trigger for their discretionary effort. It's worth more than your financial, intellectual, and physical commitment combined. A manager's emotional commitment, that's the stuff that solves problems that are unsolvable. It creates
biggest, discretionary expense is? Yeah, just shout it out.
And what we keep forgetting is that investing in these other 10 pillars is non-discretionary .
of the game, rather than through discretionary authority, that we have a more egalitarian distribution of economic power.
It's all about-- and then fill in the blank. We need that. On the subject of discretionary capital and what we can do-- I mean, on your site-- and this is something that we pushed when we were at Gates
Not so much different from when Reagan was in office. The part where Reagan succeeded in his goal of rolling back government was this civilian discretionary -- or the non-security discretionary budget. And that was cut roughly by half as a share of national income from the time that Reagan came in till the end of Reagan's
So there are these big, discretionary expenses. I don't want to say, "Cut down your travel all the way." Because maybe you really value that.
And we, we practically don't renew any contracts unless the positions are absolutely necessary. At the same time, we have stopped public works and we have eliminated discretionary transfers to the provinces. We have also diluted public sector wages.
and nonworking Americans how they spend a particular, regular day. And with that, we calculated how much time they spend on discretionary activities, which, using other data, we identified as that-- that was sort of doing nothing, relaxing, passive leisure; active leisure, so exercising, playing sports, going
having too little discretionary time in our day is associated with less happiness, and that's because we feel greater stress. But what was interesting-- and in this data, it was less than approximately two hours of discretionary time in the day. But what we also saw on the other end, that was the surprising part, where people with too much discretionary time-- or there was such thing as too much discretionary time
For a lot of us, we were just getting through. And things that are important but, I will say, "discretionary ," like networking, let's say, professional development, let's say, these are things that a lot of people have let languish over the past couple of years.
It's one monthly payment and one student loan servicer. But essentially, what these plans do is they take your discretionary income, which is the money you have left over at the end of a month,
It's one monthly payment and one student loan servicer. So IBR, for example-- it's 10% to 15% of your discretionary income.
It's one monthly payment and one student loan servicer. Revised Pay As You Earn, or REPAYE-- it's 10% of discretionary income.
So my parting words, the design of the built environment is no discretionary luxury.
So that doesn't come through the ministerial departments, purely discretionary of the member of Parliament.
But you can count on us to be very sensitive to this when it comes to our discretionary grant programs, when it comes to the work that we're doing on best practices
Defense, education, what goes in Washington as "discretionary spending"-- that's all sharply down relative to GDP.
And we were successful in January of this year in getting the law there changed from a discretionary regime to a mandatory regime.
The problem is that the situation we have now is that there's not enough water in that end of the pool. So what's not mandatory, what they call the discretionary spending, it's all these really unimportant things like education, roads, the Coast Guard, defense.
And substantially of the environment. So significant deregulation. And the third were sharp cuts that have lasted in the non-security discretionary budget of the United States. We've now done this for 30 years.
Education is a classic example of this, already recognized by Adam Smith as an area of society where the government needs to play an important role. So, these are all the categories of our non-security discretionary budget. The part I mentioned that Ronald Reagan slashed -- it includes legislature and the court system, agriculture, commerce, the education department,
Or what I call the 'two-headed savings approach,' and just focus on your two biggest, discretionary expenses. Who here knows what their first or second
They're starting to think about, do I need to be cutting back on some of my discretionary expenses?
But I went on to test that to look at, would I be happier if I had a whole lot more time? So with some of my favorite collaborators, Hal Hershfield and Marissa Sharif, we tested what's the relationship between the amount of discretionary time folks have and their satisfaction in life.
But what was interesting-- and in this data, it was less than approximately two hours of discretionary time in the day. But what we also saw on the other end, that was the surprising part, where people with too much discretionary time-- or there was such thing as too much discretionary time because you saw lower levels of satisfaction among them.
But those retirees who do volunteer work, for instance, you see actually increased amounts of satisfaction. And also, I think it is important to point out in our data, even, that it wasn't just about the amount of discretionary and having a lot because, for folks who spent their discretionary time on worthwhile activities that they felt were enriching-- so an enriching hobby,
--too happy in the relationships that you have. But you did see that, again, it's about spending both your discretionary time and your nondiscretionary time in ways that are worthwhile. That's the goal, and that's what we can talk about because that's the secret.
Some of the fastest growing areas, geographic areas around gaming, are Africa and the Middle East, as consumers have more discretionary income, as they