I've been thinking recently about alternate ways of mapping a lifestyle, similar to the systems diagrams described in the ERE book.
An example of what exists in the book is here:
A 'good' graph of this type is structurally sound, with higher number polygons being better, indicating more connections between things that create redundancy.
After some thinking, I'm trying to come up with something that fits my thinking better.
I've come up with this, a weighted directed graph of resources mapped to ends:
Here is the legend:
solid line: x would not be possible without y, causal/necessary relationship
dotted line: x helps y, x is a strong contributor to y and without it y would need to change immediately
light dotted line: x helps y, but y could survive without x for a couple months or more with no outcome change
square: means
circle: end
Here, a good graph is having more connections that are lighter, and rely on things that serve multiple ends. For example 'bike transport' relies little on money, and provides for fitness and food.
In terms of our ERE wheaton levels I would consider this a tool most useful for people in/near the "Optimization" level.
From this second diagram, it's very clear that my life centers around money which comes from my job. However, I've got other flows going like calisthenics, reading, and bike transport that don't rely on money as much.
It is evident that the way to make this diagram rely less on 'job' is decreasing dependency with 'money'. The end goal is to 'feed' investments until the trickle coming out of it can supply the rest of the graph, but this can made a lot easier by decreasing dependencies on money in the first place.
Lastly, this is how I would map the average person's lifestyle:
What do people think about this? Do you find this useful? Would you make any modifications?
(I made all these diagrams with diagrams.net, which is free)
Alternate Lifestyle Visual Models
- seanconn256
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- mountainFrugal
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Re: Alternate Lifestyle Visual Models
It might be interesting to add on a layer of line thicknesses as an indication of time spent per day/week/month if that is possible. This could clarify if there is a ranking for how time is currently spent. You could then draw the same graph with a more "ideal" time spent balance while working full time and then a similar one for what your life might look like without full time employment or one of these other nodes removed. Maybe there is some scaling factor for the thicknesses so that items that currently take a large portion of the day do not dominate the overall image.