Early Retirement Extreme Forums

I agree with @grundomatic about the back-to-basics feel of our last meeting. Nothing revolutionary, but it still felt like a worthwhile discussion. The topic we talked about that I find myself coming back to is environment design - specifically, how to design your personal environment so 'good' proc...

A topic that came up in our conversation was the value of diversity vs certain types of similarity in the context of connecting to people / creating community. One member brought up the example of their time in grad school and how the graduate admissions process acted as a type of filter that ensure...

Current learning is also incidental to actually finishing a project, see e.g. https://forum.earlyretirementextreme.com/viewtopic.php?t=12429 ... The hard part about project-oriented learning is coming up with a reasonably sized project. Not too hard, not easy either. How did you feel about the leve...

Another thing that I'm still very much dealing with is bad habits and cognitive patterns that I'm having to unlearn. YMMV, but for me the work environment taught me to hurry and rush work, go as fast as possible, and as soon as I crossed the threshold of "Yep this is good enough that they prob...

Hey @theanimal, thanks for checking in. One year on, I'm still struggling with a lot of the same stuff. Having been out of work for a while, I'm hungry to find a project to sink my teeth into, but nothing seems to provide the depth of engagement I'm looking for. Maybe it's just an age thing? I remem...

How's somatic meditation? Did you end up sticking with it? Results, discoveries, thoughts? Yes, I still do it daily. My practice has been uneven over the last few months though because I've done multiple moves, have been helping my family with stuff, and have been traveling a lot. My high-level opi...

@J+G I've been enjoying following this series. I think having some kind of needs-theory like the one you're describing here, while useful for almost everyone, is especially important for EREers. Because if you live a 'normal' life and you don't understand your own needs, well, you might be alright i...

I'm trying to decide if I should just say "fuck this" and literally just quit right now DO EEEEEETTTTT :twisted: @dustBowl - You know, I think you have a good point here with needing to avoid the entire internet. I noticed that I do still use some of it when I reach the point of total fat...

Would you mind elaborating on what you see as "vision"? I was surprised to read you thought it was an intrinsic personality-type thing. If this question is answered by E-Myth, then let me know and I'll wait to find the answer there. I'm using 'vision' here in a pretty business-specific wa...

Inner work update I feel I have made some significant breakthroughs with some inner work lately. My practice has become: 1. Avoid the entire internet and streaming podcasts so I have to actually experience my own life. 2. Get depressed. ... Largely this has been very unpleasant, but I'm actually ma...

I want to develop the skill of having a compelling vision myself rather than working under someone else's so that will have to be an area for growth for me. I would be interested in hearing about your experience with this as you go along. I guess I've always considered this to be a more intrinsic p...

Are you still considering going the small business route? I wouldn't foreclose the possibility at some point, but it's not something I'm actively working towards. It became clear to me as I was looking at the possibility of starting something for myself that I was lacking in the two key categories ...

I would check out The E-myth revisited . I read it last year at one point when I was mulling over the idea of going in the small-business direction. I originally found it on this forum, I think via a recommendation from 7wb5. It won't help with your issue of figuring out what you want to build - it'...

@sodatrain Like you, my list skews heavily towards food-related skills. Mooching a bunch of ideas off of previous posters, I would have something like: Fermenting Pickling Canning Cooking different cuisines, but especially Indian food (Indian food is my white whale... I've spent so much time trying ...

This is an excellent idea. Two of the most common struggles we see people report post-early-retirement are 1) lack of clarity on their freedom-to and 2) lack of a peer group to do interesting stuff with. An ERE skillathon potentially targets both of those issues.

NVC came up a few months back in the Plotkin MMG because Plotkin recommends NVC practices as a way of cultivating your north facet. I ended up reading part of the book back then but it got lost in the shuffle of moving and I dropped it. This gives me a good reason to pick it back up. I'll finish it ...

@Jean came by my place on his way through Phoenix last night. We shared a meal and spent the evening waxing philosophical. He also had me cracking up with some of his stories. It was very enjoyable. I mention it in this thread because 1) it's an example of a real-life social connection that only occ...

I think an important factor in clique prevention is the fact that the ERE forums have a strong journaling culture. Meeting people whose journals you've been reading for years is quite a different experience from mingling with actual strangers at e.g. a conference. It even came up in conversation tha...

Woo! Looking forward to this one. I've been thinking a lot about communal living setups since our conversation at the fest.

Everything about this experience was great! The surroundings were lovely, the people were lovely, the workshops were engaging, the whole thing was just a blast. It felt like I had more interesting conversations in the last four days than I did in the preceding four months. I can't say enough good th...