Charles Darwin's writings in 1838 include an amusing list of pros and cons:
CONS OF MARRIAGE
— "Conversation of clever men at clubs
— Not forced to visit relatives, & to bend in every trifle.
— to have the expense & anxiety of children
— perhaps quarelling
— Loss of time.
— cannot read in the Evenings
— fatness & idleness
— Anxiety & responsibility
— less money for books
PROS OF MARRIAGE
— "Children — (if it Please God)
— Constant companion, (& friend in old age) who will feel interested in one,
— object to be beloved & played with.
— better than a dog anyhow.
– Home, & someone to take care of house
— Charms of music & female chit-chat.
My God, it is intolerable to think of spending one’s whole life, like a neuter bee, working, working, & nothing after all. […] Imagine living all one’s day solitarily in smoky dirty London House. — Only picture to yourself a nice soft wife on a sofa with good fire, & books & music perhaps"
In 2010 I was at my first job out of college and frustrated that iTunes took over such a huge amount of resources on my PC. But I loved the UI look and function and the way it had playlists, and didn't like the other options on the market. So I hired a cheap overseas freelancer to build "Litetunes", which I requested look and function exactly like iTunes but be <2MB file with no installation required that would open quickly just like notepad or calculator. I thought of distributing it but ended up using it just for myself, it worked great.
Yes, the dynamics of a 30 years mortgage are what I'm looking for, but turn-key. Because purchasing a property and getting a mortgage is a huge hassle up front and requires tons of work for many years. Compare this to buying a publicly traded security which requires the click of a button to purchase, and retrieving the tax slip each year.
The saddest part of bank interest is that on top of it lagging inflation, but also gets taxed aggressively making it effectively lag by inflation by an even wider margin! Being a borrower is the way to go, where your interest payments are less than inflation AND you get to deduct each year on your taxes and save keep more real dollars in your bank account than you would otherwise. I just hate debt personally, part of my upbringing. But I wonder if there's some reit or low fee investment vehicle that makes it easy to take advantage of this dynamic while still being able to sleep at night. Any ideas?
"The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day when you are writing a novel you will never be stuck. That is the most valuable thing I can tell you so try to remember it." - Ernest Hemingway, advice to a young writer in 1935 article in Esquire
Some studies show potatoes are the most satiating food, so one theory is eating them makes it more pleasant to stop eating generally and keep calories low (exact opposite of sugar, which makes one crave more food).
"Susanna Holt of the University of Sydney Australia did a research experiment in 1995 to compare the effects of different foods on short-term satiety and appetite levels. She prepared 240 cals portions of 38 different foods...The satiety index score she assigned to the potato was 323. No other food was even close. The second closest food was “ling fish” which scored 225."
https://scottabelfitness.com/potato-and-the-satiety-index/
I love Mercury. Their interface is dream, a world apart from TD, Chase, BofA etc. Merucry is online-only so nothing requires a branch, ever. Wires are free and take 1 min to initiate. I don't have more than $1M in the bank but if I wanted FDIC insurance or a large institution guarantee I'd just put the excess somewhere and do 1-2 transfers a year between them.
That's interesting, in the long run I would say I'm that way too, but it'll be toward the end of the meeting after things have been hashed out I'd contribute my new perspective. Or even worse for first impressions, I'll often I'll listen to a whole meeting, continue forming my thoughts even after the meeting has ended, and then write a well constructed email back to the key people.
I may have figured out a better solution than was possible for anyone during the meeting, but by sending it late people's impressions during the meetings of me may not be the best.
I am an INTP and this resonates with me, but is mostly an issue in group settings rather than one on one meetings.
In one-on-one first meetings I naturally participate in the back and forth. It's group meetings where I can just listen and absorb information that I come off as disengaged and don't make a good first impression. The strategy I use to mitigate this (suggested by an old boss) is to jump into the conversation very early in the meeting with 1 or 2 comments that I wouldn't have otherwise felt a need to make. It establishes my voice at the table and then I can relax and just process information
I do a watered down version of this and have still seen great results. I try to eat only in a 11-12 hour window each days, which for me means only between 8am-7pm. More energy, less food craving, better sleep.
I started this after reading a book The Circadian Code which describes all the science behind this (written by a real scientist). Having a deep understanding of the mechanism was the boost I need to give this a fair try. The book explains why study participants who ate the same food, but in restricted hours, had better results. A broader discussion of circadian rhythms explains why eating during all waking hours negatively impacts sleep and energy levels.
Me too. Most blog posts have one pretty simple idea that it takes a ton of reading to figure out what it is. I appreciate the time he put into distilling it.
If he were to make it longer some examples might be interesting to read about and drive home the message, he no doubt has examples in his mind, and his readers would no doubt be curious as to what they are
- Creating a hard deadline, such as booking a meeting to share the work. Then "If you leave it to the last minute, it only takes a minute" can work and be efficient
- Carving out time for that thing, such as going to a coffee shop and telling myself I won't leave until that 1 thing is done
- "Structured procrastination" which is finding a task that's even less pleasant and putting it beside the other unpleasant, but easy task on a todo list, and when I'm avoiding the really really unpleasant task I can get the other thing done
- Waiting for an altered mind state. Some tasks I know I can't bring myself to do unless I'm at peak mental energy at 10am, so I let them take up that slot to get them done. Other unpleasant tasks such as badgering people to do things they dropped the ball on I might tackle when I'm feeling more in an angry mood brought on by some unrelated frustration, but lingering. When I'm feeling frustrated generally I sometimes pick up the phone to deal with annoying customer service at companies I've been putting off
- If I'm really stuck in a rut I'll listen to the Andrew Huberman podcast and try to lean abut brain chemistry and sometimes find that learning about some underlyling mechanism of why motivation helps me fix thigns
- If I'm really stuck sometimes I'll go for a run. Resets my mind, gives a bit of dopamine and motivation from runenrs high
- Avoiding carbs and alcohol is helpful for me. Carbs make me lethargic, and having low motivation makes me want to eat carbs, which is a self reeinforcing negative spiral
- I try to be mindful of how meaningful social connection improve wellbeing and motivation. Saying something nice to my wife, showing heartfelt appreciation for someone at work helps lift mood and give me energy to tackle the least motivating items on my task list
I might have answered my own question - perhaps it's when we see corporations speculate and win it adds no value and is gross? But if they actually do come up with a better way to price houses and fix them efficiently it's a positive right?
Honest question, why is it gross? Fixing up homes is very inefficient and usually done by mom and pops. Why not find an efficient model to do it, just like car manufacturing, chip fabrication, etc.? It's a massive industry and could be a boost to productivity, which is the ultimate driver of living standards in the long term
Google Voice is free and will forward SMS's to email, which can then be set up with rules to various other emails. Most banks accept google voice numbers
Twilio numbers are a dollar a month and will also forward to email or you can log into the twilio web interface to pick up sms codes if needed. Rejected by more places the demand 2FA
I'm the same way, keep me away from buffets, cupboards containing sweets, and any newsfeed.
One thing I've founds success with was getting a digital Economist subscription (confession, just a shared password). Having a steady stream of high quality content without paywall nonsense helped me replace my regular trolling around internet with something more useful and less addictive. Perhaps paying a bit for something high quality can help fill void for those dopamine seeking internet impulses.
At summer camp we had joke activities like "sand a log to nothing" and "dig a hole to China". Kids would sign up for these activities and actually sand down the log and dig the pointless hole for hours. Just as popular as playing soccer, swimming, etc. I agree this tunnel boyfriend may be on to something
CONS OF MARRIAGE
PROS OF MARRIAGE
https://www.themarginalian.org/2012/08/14/darwin-list-pros-a...