Early Retirement Extreme Forums

For whatever reason, I don't like Altucher at all. I think he copies things he thinks are popular or edgy and then acts like he thought of them by himself. He puts out crap he thinks will stir up "controversy". He seems phony to me.

He has to be one of the worst interviewers I have ever had to listen to, although he does have good guests sometimes. He's very vain and I am not surprised about the divorce, but I do feel sorry for him and his family.

When I heard about his tack towards minimalism. I felt like his last attempt at originality just died. I wonder how long it will last.

jennypenny wrote:
@theanimal--Duhigg was on the Art of Manliness podcast discussing his book. That's the third podcast I've heard him on. Don't feel like I need to read the book now.

Yeah, Duhigg and Ericson are really "making the rounds" these days. It's funny how the book promo circuit has morphed from talk shows to podcasts.

Dragline wrote:For whatever reason, I don't like Altucher at all.

brute must agree. he just listened to that minimalism podcast, and there was maybe 3-5 interesting sentences in all of it.

If you have the stamina for it, here is a 3 hour interview with John Michael Greer. It is quite a lot more extensive than all his other previous interviews. His world view is the one that I click with the most and, apart from just wanting more free time, that world view is my primary motive for ERE.

@cmonkey--I liked that one even though it was long. JMG was also patient with the interviewer, who didn't seem to know a whole lot about him.

The interview got my DH to (finally) read The Ecotechnic Future.

I haven't read any of his books, but I like the thought of reading Star's Reach. When I have more time later this year I'll probably get it from the library.

Are his other books worth reading if you have listened to all his podcasts? I feel I'm past the point of getting much more from the podcasts.

I think The Ecotechnic Future is a good complement to ERE. The longer format also allows JMG to expand quite a bit on his thoughts.

jacob wrote a post about it http://earlyretirementextreme.com/the-e ... treme.html

I've read The Long Descent. If you've read James Howard Kunstler's stuff, JMG's blog, Overshoot or anything else it probably wouldn't be worth it. There isn't anything new. Just expanded thoughts as Jenny said.

Matty wrote:I particularly enjoyed the Tim Ferriss 3 part interview with Kevin Kelly which I listened to yesterday.

Kevin's an interesting guy. He talks about a lot of cool stuff including frugality, tiny houses, and living like he was going to die in 6 months!

http://fourhourworkweek.com/2014/08/29/kevin-kelly/

Kelly was on Ferriss's show again yesterday. There's an interesting discussion in the second half hour about living simply vs. complexly (word?). I always enjoy listening to Kelly. http://fourhourworkweek.com/2016/06/05/ ... nevitable/

Recently, I've been listening to "Make it Stick" which is a book regarding research on more effective ways to learn a subject or motor skill. It makes the argument that most of us are using very inefficient practices to learn and retain knowledge. It advocates for lots of self quizzing and recall to plant information into our long-term memory much more effectively than just re-reading material.

@tylerrr: maybe related, what about spaced repetition systems? brute has been wondering if they work for CNS based motor skills, not just vocabulary-type factlets.

BRUTE wrote:@tylerrr: maybe related, what about spaced repetition systems? brute has been wondering if they work for CNS based motor skills, not just vocabulary-type factlets.

Yes, exactly, the book claims that spacing out exercises instead of condensing a practice of only one skill, repetitiously, is just as effective for motor skill type learning.

For example, when I practice drums, I do one exercise for no more than 15 minutes, then I move onto something else and eventually, circle back to the first thing i practiced. Studies show that even spacing out a practice with a day in between is far more effective than drilling something over and over continuously.

For some reason, when you couple a skill or factoid with other related skills/practices or factoids, it deepens the long-term understanding and memorization.

If you drill something continuously and get it mastered, then move on, studies show you forget most of what you mastered or memorized later on....

Force yourself to mentally retrieve the info. with tests, quizzes of what you just read, or write about what you just read and try to explain it in writing to more effectively memorize it long-term.

The statistical improvement is significant. They studies athletes, medical school students, etc.

interesting. brute shall acquire this book.

Episode of Ideas with Paul Kennedy from CBCradio on The Degrowth Paradigm. Features Jim Merkel (Radical Simplicity). I liked all of it, but particularly the bit @22-25 minutes.

jennypenny wrote:I love podcasts. I think it's the old-timey radio aspect that appeals to me (I have a 1937 Blaupunkt in my office that I still listen to). Just a sampling of my monthly list ...

David McRaney's podcast

I have been realizing for some time now the value of surrounding myself with folks that are smarter than myself and David made the cut today. Really fantastic stuff on his show. I really enjoyed the cast on selling out, particularly the realization that counter culture can act as an engine for the mainstream capitalist culture that is so despised by the counter culture.

It also got me pondering how the ERE culture fits into that. How would an ERE counter culture feed capitalism. Maybe it isn't big enough or shouldn't even be considered a counter culture. I seem to remember a discussion on this.

Thanks for sharing your list and feel free to update with any similar listening.

cmonkey wrote:How would an ERE counter culture feed capitalism.

high savings rates lead to more capital?

cmonkey wrote: How would an ERE counter culture feed capitalism. Maybe it isn't big enough or shouldn't even be considered a counter culture. I seem to remember a discussion on this.

Any oestensibly counter-culture movement can feed capitalism via consumptive orthodoxies and signalling behaviors. One of my favorite examples from the past: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib-Qiyklq-Q

I agree that this isn't big enough to make any difference in the greater scheme of things.

But it does reveal the fundamental difference between a general concept: "we just consume less in general" and a a rule: "we consume x, not y".

I thought we liked capitalism.

I'll add Malcolm Gladwell's podcast to the list. I haven't been the biggest fan of Gladwell's writing but I love the podcast. Rich Roll sent out a link to the Hallelujah episode today (one of my favs) which reminded me to add it to the thread.

Kunstler was on Martenson's podcast last week. Nothing earth shattering, but an enjoyable conversation.

http://www.peakprosperity.com/podcast/1 ... ruining-us