Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Love is a verb as well as a noun. This is good; well said. Aquinas defines love (as in the theological virtue of love) as the "choice to will the good of the other." I suspect you could be married 75 years and still have not fully unpacked that definition; I know I'm still working at it. ...

My 2 cents, perhaps not worth even that amount: Cent 1: We think prioritization is important --> priority 1 is God; priority 2 is spouse/marriage; priority 3 is kids (depending on the day I might put one kid above another :lol:; as in, I'm not too thrilled with DS right now as he just kicked the soc...

(young Republican boys in boat shoes now older successful men in suits, yawn.) Hey, wait, did we go to HS together? :lol: FWIW, DW and I are from the same small southern town and met in middle school and dated off and on in HS but then left town for separate colleges, then separate travels, then se...

FWIW, some recent stories from the past week or so related to the FIRE world: 1. The trailer park millionaire: https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/us-man-who-lived-in-trailer-park-hid-a-5-7m-secret-20231122-p5elsn 2. Dave Ramsey getting trolled about the 4% rule by this guy: https://www.youtube....

That being said, I don't think collecting easy money by leveraging an advantageous labor market is anti-ERE or anti-FIRE. I don't see it as that much different than leveraging an advantageous financial market. Personally, my job got a lot more tolerable/ lucrative after covid and as a result I work...

Keep in mind that the stereotypical FIRE adherent is a knowledge worker and many of the MMM followers worked in careers with higher than median salaries like tech, finance, business, etc. Many now work from home, work a lot less hours than they used to, and in some cases get paid even more! . . . ....

The Great Books platform I've been using for the past 2.5 years, onlinegreatbooks.com, is closing up shop in its present form at the end of this month for reasons some of us are still trying to make sense of. The various seminar groups in that program are all trying to figure out where to go from he...

Thanks all! I'm leaning towards the through-the-wall type window unit, which I can stick on the back of the shed where no one will see it; and I'm not too worried about cutting any holes in the side of this shed. If I were installing a new shed that wasn't such an eyesore I'd probably go with the mi...

I've got a 14'x20' backyard shed that already has electrical running to it, roughly a 1/3 of which I'm going to insulate and put up some drywall to make into a home office for me that will also likely double as a tv/video game space for my kids. If you've read my journal you know I know jack squat a...

One month without alcohol. Should have done this a long time ago. Everything is better. It's very different than when we've quit for things like Lent in the past, when we knew it was temporary and looked forward to the end of the temporary halt. The idea of drinking is starting to feel foreign to me.

Could be. I'm still stuck/exist in the construct of "caves/turtles all the way up/down". I'm not convinced/don't "feel"/experience a difference between "unitive" and going to the mathematical limit (for those who've gone there). Turtles all the way up/down strikes me a...

@Hristo - Mainly the former, because the latter includes constraints from the community/societal obligation. The metaphor is more useful in its generalized form even if Plato himself sought to push for a collective/community obligation. Then I think you just stay in the cave, or, as I think is bein...

Not everybody is so compelled. People exist on a range and some are okay with not returning/leaving others behind/only leaving traces. I get confused with "allegory of the cave" references in these sorts of discussions: are we using the allegory as just a generic reference to a red pillin...

chenda wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 18, 2023 9:44 am

What does this refer to ?

Stephanus page numbers; so that everyone can be "on the same page," so to speak, despite reading different translations, editions, etc. Forgive my silly marginalia:

I don't know that "freedom to" factors into the allegory of the cave at all. We are compelled to leave the cave, and once we've ascended and seen the good sufficiently (through compelled education), we are again compelled to return to the cave and compel others to leave the cave (519d).

Salathor wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 17, 2023 11:04 am

Hey I also wear an A168. We're men of taste!

Admittedly, I also have the Casio DW5600, cuz how can you not.

Fun thread; I can't believe I haven't engaged with it before. FWIW, here is where I ultimately came out on the men's fashion thing in my mid 40s after having obsessed about it too much in my 30s: My every day wear is: a pair of jeans (Levi's 501 STF "rigid"); a Brooks Brothers non-iron dre...

Whoa, if you could bottle up and sell that willpower you'd be a very wealthy man :) That's such awesome progress, great work. I'm happy you're seeing all those benefits. I've noticed much of the same things. It's cool how your mindset shift made such a big difference. That resonates with my experie...

Timely for me that @Smashter just revived this thread; DW and I stopped drinking a couple of weeks ago and I doubt we'll go back save for the occasional half-hearted drink socially when appropriate (e.g., a wedding toast, visiting a family member with a $$$$ bourbon collection who wants to offer me ...

It was a frantic evening and morning with work stuff and now that the pressure is off a bit I found myself in a bit of daze and not quite sure how I'm going to manage to check off 1 or 2 more items on the to-do list before I call it a day. So, why not update the journal since it's been a few weeks. ...