Guest post on GRS: A ten year update

[jacob]

I think that systemic optimization includes fully leveraging your portfolio of investments. When you're running at 100x+ living expenses, there's a lot of untapped potential. Bringing that down to 33x, to use spending as an impact multiplier on "everything Jacob," offers interesting possibilities.

True that. I struggle with scaling up because I literally have no idea/skill in terms of what to spend the excess money on. As I note in the post, my personal limit is not money but skills and imagination and to some degree connections. Also what 7wb5 said .. if I scaled myself, I might find myself running a @#$@#$@ business having to focus on management, accounting, and other gnarly backoffice stuff. This is a trap. It's like how people get into research only to find themselves spending all their time begging for grant money and dealing with whiny undergrads once they advance enough.

This leaves other projects that start at a higher min level. MMM created the MMM HQ (workspace) and is apparently looking into creating an MMM City. I talked about something similar way back, but unlike MMM, ERE doesn't have a critical mass of followers.

Best newest idea was the learning tribe. Alternatives would be to join something ... but I'm a really bad joiner.

[theanimal]

Like the others said, nice to read an update. Do us forumites get a special update on how the book you're working on is coming along?

[Tyler9000]

I really enjoyed reading that, Jacob. Not simply because it's always interesting to read personal updates, but more importantly because it reinforced yet again that I very much connect with your mindset and am in the right place.

It's small compared to the many other points people have discussed, but this one caught my eye because I've also been thinking about it lately:

"Career workers who don't know me typically ask me what I do for a living, expecting an answer in the form of a job title. (That tends to get awkward and I still don't have a clever response.)"

My favorite current answer for the "what do you do?" question goes something like this:

"I do lots of stuff, but my two areas of expertise are product design and investing. What would you like to know?"

Since the question is mostly a standard icebreaker, I like how this not only provides insight into my background but also redirects the conversation towards an area of common interest.

[7Wannabe5]

@Tyler9000:

Like it!! Much better than just saying " I am kind of a semi-retired slacker." Actually, I find I have different responses to that question based on situation/audience. If I am interacting with over IQ 130 individual, I tend to jump right into talking about whatever books I am currently reading. I also used to do a sort of purposeful Dumb Blonde response on occasion. Another trick I picked up during a spell I spent downriver in blue collar county during recession was to say "Still Workin'?" instead of "What do you do?"

[Jason]

MMM is apparently looking into creating an MMM City.

Apparently he has identified a location.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI_Oe-jtgdI

[The Old Man]

...I literally have no idea/skill in terms of what to spend the excess money on...my personal limit is not money but skills and imagination and to some degree connections.

Well, the obvious solution is philanthropy. You could also go the way of George Soros and start meddling using your stash for leverage. Make the world a better place as you see it. Possibilities are endless.

[Seppia]

Thanks for the update Jacob.
Like Tyler, reading it I felt I’m in the right place here.

Seppia thinks I've been ruined now that I'm spending more time editing and rephrasing, caring more about how my words affect other people and what other people think about me and other people than telling people what I really feel

It’s just that I miss your snarky, very Nordic humour directed towards most humans
Politically correct Jacob sounds maybe wiser and more tolerant but not as ”fun” to me

Seriously speaking, it’s curious how, while you often refer to yourself as not so much of a “people’s guy” (don’t do well in big groups etc), you really seem to care how you’re perceived by others.
Combined with the fact that you certainly aren’t insecure, it makes for an uncommon trait.

[daylen]

I believe that teaching kids how to use basic logic will result in a better society.

What is logic? I tend to lean towards the idea of polylogism (i.e. many logics), where a logic is an emergent rule-set governing a method of communication. There are many different communication channels, so there are many different logics that can be inferred. Attempting to extract a foundational/universal rule-set from all of these different channels may give you something like set or type theory. Programming logic governs a higher-order communication channel between humans and computational devices built on type logic.

At the mesoscale of reality, borders are fuzzy. Most communication channels operate at this level, so perhaps an agent must adopt several fuzzy logics to more successfully operate in reality. Unless high-level communication with a computer is becoming [or already is?] the dominate reality. Just a thought.

[Jason]

In MMM city, the concept, formula and expression of logic will be realized in the bike paths weaving throughout the territory, which through a fortuitousness that can only be explained in providential terms, appear to those flying overhead as a handlebar mustache.

[Lemur]

@Cimorene12

I can attest to being more logically minded...having better reasoning and even better mental coping skills after learning Python, R, and SQL over the past 2 years or so. These languages came sort of natural to me (I've always been 'good at math' compared to my peers growing up - math itself is a logical study) but I was surprised that learning programming made me think of life somewhat differently...more constructively I would say.

[jennypenny]

Dude, I'm not trying to teach deep philosophy in elementary school. I just think that basic logic (ok, philosophy 101) is a life skill that many people lack.

Logic and Reasoning are taught during the first semester of science in our HS (part of a freshman STEM survey class). It's becoming more common. Most kids like it because it's useful in all their other subjects as well (go figure ).


As far as philanthropy, I used to bug jacob about it but I don't anymore. If his abiding principle is to be a net positive to the planet/humanity, good things will come of it ... no need to go looking for specific ways to be philanthropic. IMO, his example alone is more than enough.

[C40]

It is odd, I think, to see people here encouraging Jacob to be (more) philanthropic. Everything ERE-related is philanthropy.- the blog, the book, the guest posts and interviews, the forum - and the time Jacob continually spends on it - is all philanthropy.

[7Wannabe5]

Philanthropy is tricky. First you would have to figure out what you truly love about humans. Hmmm...

1) Occasionally they write highly enjoyable cozy mystery novels.
2) Sometimes they have really great unexpected ideas like using canned cranberry sauce in a smoothie.
3) If your head drops off the side of the bed during sex, the other human will usually attempt to catch it before your brains leak out.

[Tyler9000]

Personally I think that to equate philanthropy to spending money sorta misses the point of ERE. The entire premise is about not trying to solve every problem with money. Jacob has already made more of a positive difference in the world on his meager financial outlay than most of us will ever dream.

[TheWanderingScholar]

Agreed. Sometimes philanthropy is offering labor and knowledge to those who need it. Sometimes is offering a helping hand or ear in times of great personal strife. Sometimes in a world where loneliness is the norm, someone to be pillar to lean upon is needed.

[Tyler9000]

To say that we don't recognize the impact that Jacob has already had and continues to have is utterly wrong.

To say that I'M saying that Jacob doesn't already engage in far-reaching philanthropy is also wrong.

Ugh. That was absolutely not the message I was trying to communicate. My bad. I don't think that at all, and I totally see where you're coming from.

Supporting your idea, maybe a "systems-based" ERE approach to philanthropic money might look less like a one-time gift to plug a gap and more like a perpetual endowment to fund an important self-reinforcing cause like financial education. Do something to get the snowball rolling.

[J_]

A very interesting update: thanks Jacob.
I think it is very good that your DW is complementing your skills. I have the same luck with my DW, it makes the duo very strong.

Another point you mention: having/making "connections" is very important to ere-living.
We on the forum have almost daily the pleasure to learn from each other through the "connections" we have via the forum. It is a learning tribe in itself. I read that you even found your quant stint via a forum member.

Having/making connections are wonderful means to practice ere-style life. I have made this summer a very interesting sailing trip from Seward Alaska to Victoria on the south of Vancouver Island (1600 Nm). The owner needed a skilled sailor to share the watches. I met the owner/skipper last year on Hawaii, and during our first talks we discovered that we shared a lot of ere-tactics in life. And so that wonderful yourney of which I had dreamed, became real, for free for both of us.

[KevinW]

Great read.

+1

In particular, it is heartwarming to know that, 10 years in, there are no significant regrets.