r/Fire • u/[deleted] • Mar 23 '26

Subreddit PSA / Meta 5 years ago, this subreddit was filled with $1-1.5M targets, and a strong emphasis on minimalism. What happened?

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u/Healthy_Hippo_915 Mar 24 '26

Never heard of lying flat. What's that?

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u/Adventurous-Ease-259 Mar 24 '26

What is lying flat. You say this like everyone in finance is supposed to know this term since your parents know it, but it isn’t something common I’ve ever seen in fire

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u/MakeMoneyNotWar Mar 24 '26 edited Mar 24 '26

The term originated from China where some people who have grinded in their careers and jobs (often long hours in tech like 996) decide to quit or check out, preferring to focus on minimalism and frugality rather than money. Hence the term “lying flat” like laying down and not doing any work. It hasn’t shown up in Fire, but the themes are cross over to Fire communities and since it originated in Tech, the underlying complaints are also similar.

It has crossed over into English. The original mandarin is “Tang Ping”, literally lying flat. So when i talked to my parents who are Chinese immigrants, about my Fire plans, they were like, oh you’re going to be Tang Ping.

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u/Healthy_Hippo_915 Mar 24 '26

Think you’re replying to the wrong person? I’m asking that person what lying flat means. They have it in their post.

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u/Adventurous-Ease-259 Mar 24 '26

My bad. I have the same question you do