Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Yes. From a low-cost-living point of view, KonMari is operating at the wrong end of the process. The decision point 'sparks joy' versus 'adds to clutter' should come before buying something, not afterwards. It should also be taken in the context of a longish timeframe, not just 5 seconds. But there ...

I have a lot of sympathy with the OP. My framing of the issue is that you have taken a rational decision to work at an uncongenial job for the next three years in order to secure your ERE, but the irrational/ unconscious parts of your mind/body system are not fully aligned with your decision, and ar...

I would suggest you think about this the other way round: What, in terms of your needs as a human (food, shelter, social contact, retirement-funds, skill-mastery, etc), is it that you are looking for a job to meet, rather than other facets of your life? In general, the more needs a job has to meet, ...

I want to second the suggestion for "scratch", above. Scratch comes out of MIT and is well thought out, so it is easy to use, quite powerful, and does not plant bad habits.

I have three watches, a 'beater' which I wear whenever or wherever there is a risk of damage or loss - ski trips, rock concerts, the gym - and two nice Swiss watches. When my father became established in his profession, he bought himself a nice Swiss watch. I think part of the reason for this was th...

Just thinking out loud, it's much easier to take over an existing community and redirect it than to create a new one from scratch. You could maybe join your local Toastmasters with a few friends, and make all your speeches "How to"s for Renaissance Man skills, coach the existing membership...

There is an argument that a buyback shows that the management has no good ideas. In that case it is a 'sell' indicator.

7Wannabe5 wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 26, 2019 7:53 am

....such as described in the Pattern Language .....

Is this the book by Christopher Alexander? His 'The Nature of Order' is one of my most valued books.

Thanks for posting this. Very interesting reading. I sometimes think that economics today - or at least run of the mill financial analysis - loses sight of the fact that its subject matter, unlike the elementary particles of physics, have minds of their own, and are quite capable of deviating from t...

Yeah. I've had the snacktime inquisition at work. "Why aren't you eating the free cake? You're in good shape" Somehow the idea that not eating the free cake is a cause of being in good shape seems not to be relevant.

Would it be wrong to laugh at this? If the story is true, the bad thing is to borrow / take from grandma. Otherwise they have a big income and could clean themselves up with a few years of dialling back wasted spending. It's about the tension between 1) working like a dog and making lots of money, 2...

Clarice wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 20, 2019 5:33 am

Suddenly, my talk wasn't crazy anymore. We discussed some practicalities and details.

Congratulations.

Sometimes the apple just falls from the tree.

You can rephrase what I said with ....Assuming that anybody can read useful stuff for 1-2 hours a day without taking away from any other productive activity, which I would guess is a fairly sound assumption. I know plenty of people who would achieve more if they worked more, and sitting reading ins...

The SWR for 5 years life-expectation, in order to be 'safe', has to be based on not running out of money even if actual life turns out to be significantly longer than the expected value, perhaps at two standards deviations above the mean, which would push the rate down.

I wouldn't put it past the PM to make a huge mess out of the situation. Yes. She seems to have quite the talent that way. And, as heyhey said later in this thread, "I'm sure there'll be panic buying" Often, it's not the threat that is the threat, it is the government and public response t...

Eli Goldratt Goldratt started off as a physics professor, and then got involved in business, in due course developing a set of thinking tools for business (known as 'Theory of Constraints' or TOC), which have turned out to be widely applicable, not just in business. For example, I use the 'Cloud' m...

stoneage wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 05, 2018 6:00 pm

I think the situation will eventually settle down, if he does not act stupid.

On the other hand, it is acting stupid got him where he is, so what are the odds that will change? (compare UK's T. May)

I'm thinking of starting a part time business. I would suggest starting with a different question: "What are the possible ways I can I commercialise this specific knowledge / skill / passion / hobby / obsession of mine?" That will focus your search for ideas towards things you will be abl...

Efficient is roughly the opposite of resilient, so to the extent that you trust that the market is efficient, you should also fear that it lacks resilience. Well, yes, no. If we're talking about the market being efficient in the 'efficient market hypothesis' sense we are saying that the market effi...

Yes. For a country which is so concerned to discourage other forms of compulsive behaviour - bottles of wine can only be sold in state liquor stores during the permitted hours; tobacco cannot be advertised on TV - the deluge of advertising for online gambling seems out of place and disconcerting. Pe...