Two Can Pay You Dividends

Is it true that you can’t have it all? Here’s what Kenneth Koch said.

I think often of this first stanza of Kenneth Koch’s poem, “You want a social life, with friends”:

You want a social life, with friends,
A passionate love life and as well
To work hard every day. What’s true
Is of these three you may have two
And two can pay you dividends
But never may have three.

Originally published in The New Yorker, May 18, 1998

Is it possible to have all three? I don’t know. It usually doesn’t feel like it. So which two do you choose?