Billable Hour Trap

A trap is a door that opens inward and locks behind you. Billable Hour Trap is such a door, and this page is a window.

The trap works in three acts: first a reasonable step, then a small justification, then a point where retreat feels more expensive than advance. By the third act, the trap no longer needs to hold you; you hold yourself.

Ask the LIC agent at your door and the trader at his terminal — both will tell you the same thing in different clothes: money listens to discipline and laughs at moods.

Money is a good clerk and a terrible master; the arrangement is entirely up to us. Carry it lightly. Ideas, like umbrellas, are useful only when actually opened.