The 29-year-old millionaire rapper, rather than grasping for exponential wealth, follows the advice of the great philosophers: work less, sit around more

While skimming through the headlines one curious story jumped out from the tedious tales of remarkable physical achievement at the Olympics. The announcement from a young rapper named Bow Wow that he was retiring, aged just 29.

Now Bow Wow, it is true, has been round the block a few times despite his tender years. He was discovered by another canine hip-hop artist, Snoop Dogg, who he calls his uncle, when he was only 13 then just Lil Bow Wow and had been rapping for some years before that. A prodigious talent, then, and a successful one: he claimed in a tweet to have sold 10 million records over the years.

You might say: Its all right for him, hes made loads of money already, why wouldnt he retire? But when you think about it, it is rare even for the rich to call it a day. Everyone just keeps plugging on, working hard, never knowing when they have enough, and complaining about a lack of leisure.

But Bow Wow will now enjoy ample free time to pursue his own hobbies and interests. In this he is following the advice of the ancient Greek philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato. For them leisure their word was skole, which turned into our word for school was the most important part of life. It was in your leisure time, they said, that you should study the art of living, as well as important subjects such as grammar and astronomy, and find out who you are. Work was a means to an end, and that end was to make the time during which to pursue happiness or what they called eudaimonia, sometimes translated as fulfilment.

The philosophers also counselled against the excessive love of money. Before greed became good, avarice was traditionally seen as a vice. Bow Wow again shows himself to be a wise young person when he says in a tweet: Made over 20 million off rap. Why be greedy? Hedge fund managers and Philip Green types could take note, as it is generally the case with the rich that they never feel they have enough, because one of their acquaintances always has more.

Shad Moss(Bow Wow) (@smoss) August 9, 2016

“Im walking w/ my daughter officer goes BOW WOW hey man enjoy retirement bros. haha im like DAMN word spreads fast”

Bow Wow might like to use his newfound leisure time to study grammar, a favourite subject in the ancient world. When announcing the release of his new album, he wrote on Instagram: ITS OFFICIAL!!!! THIS SHIT BOUT TO BANG ON MOMMAS! And we aiming and im talking RECKLESS on this album. NOBODY SAFE #DPG #ATK.

He also might like to embrace the joys of doing very little indeed. Now he will have the time to contemplate the universe, to gaze at the stars, to go for long walks and ponder the imponderables, to sit on top of a mountain or under a tree and meditate.

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Bow Wow will be able to take up a hobby. Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian

Bow Wow will be able to take up a hobby, perhaps. On that subject, there has been a noticeable decline in the world of hobbies over the last 20 years or so. Hobbies used to be normal: stamp collecting, fishing, building model train sets, birdwatching. They were activities done for their own sake, and not because they led to money or glory. Hobbies are all about living in the moment. But in our increasingly utilitarian times, hobbies are seen as a waste of time. Why pore over your stamp collection when you could be updating your Facebook page with photos of you looking groovy, or doing some extra work for your boss? Do children actually have hobbies any more? Does anyone?

Weve all become too job focused. Something went wrong during the industrial revolution, when we were told that work was the most important part of life. Before that, sitting around doing nothing was an acceptable form of behaviour. We should take the time to do something less useful, like debating the meaning of justice or discussing the different forms of love.

Even serious-minded economists believe that leisure is the highest form of human activity. John Maynard Keynes complained in 1930 that we have been trained too long to strive and not to enjoy and went on to predict that, thanks to technology, we would have a three-hour day by 2030. Three hours of toil, he thought, was about enough to satisfy the old Adam in us. The rest of the time would be spent in singing, dancing, philosophising and reading. His friend Bertrand Russell said much the same thing in his essay In Praise of Idleness.

Bow Wow has been lucky enough to realise the dream of leisure at a young age and we should praise him for his courage and for setting a good example to his followers for, as Keynes said: We shall honour those who can teach us how to pluck the hour and the day virtuously and well.

Tom Hodgkinson is editor of the Idler and author of the forthcoming Business for Bohemians (Penguin)

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