7Wannabe5-Take 5

[Jin+Guice]

I'm very excited to see how your adaptation and adoption of Efficiency plays out. I'm also reading the book and I also would benefit from decreasing reading time and increasing doing time, but it's so hard!

[Dream of Freedom]

You know, audiobooks, though slower than reading can be consumed while doing other things like workouts and chores. I even find that it is easier to keep going if I have a slight distraction like an audiobook or podcast. So you might be able to have your cake and eat it too to some extent.

[Bankai]

The fact that reading is only allowed for an hour per day during early years of this program combined with initial assigned reading list of titles by Zig Ziglar or on topics such as advertisment copy writing offers a challenge likely only to be achieved through process of adding all the other required activites to my schedule so that there is no time left for leisure reading UNTIL I achieve such a level of wealth that I shall once more feel secure to indulge at whim as promised by author, with no further need to fret about only affordable shelter options (less than $500 including
utilities/month) being couch in semi-decrepit apartment of lovable-but-cuckoo sister with 4 dogs who fight, bedroom in luxury apartment of bi-polar, terribly messy, increasingly decrepit mother, sharing bed in modest, tidy apartment of extremely territorial-aggressive BF (currently engaged in war with neighbor reminiscent of scenes involving the father in "A Christmas Story" or the mother's BF in "8 Mile", I woke up around 11 last night because he was playing his bass on full volume along with country music station in battle against booming urban bass from next door), or renting a charming, moderately decrepit studio apartment in a 100 year old building in a borderline seriously dangerous neighborhood.

This sentence has 213 words. Does 7W5 listen to Slayer?

I'm looking forward to take 6 of the journey.

[C40]

We operate much differently, but just incase it may be useful for you in your efforts to eat less cookies/sweets: I've found that for myself, the best way BY FAR to get myself to stop eating ice cream is to tell my closest friend (who I won't ever lie to about this) that I will send him $10 on paypal every time I eat ice cream for the next X months. This made the "should I eat ice cream" decision so much easier that it was never a real question. I had 100% adherence. I'm not paying ~$14 for some ice cream. And you probably won't pay $10 or however much extra to eat a cookie.

[Seppia]

Best of luck with your resolutions!

I’m not exactly a WSP-pro, but what is the point of limiting reading to only 1 hour per day?
Reading is the leisurely activity with the top ROI of all in my opinion*, I can imagine very few situations where “less reading” is beneficial to almost any human being.

I’m sorry if I missed something in your journal, but would you mind elaborating a bit on the reason why?
I’m thinking maybe you spend way too much time reading? Or are you reading things that you consider useless?

*im probably biased as I read almost zero fiction. For me reading = gathering useful information. Only exception is a bit of sports reporting but it may represent <5% of my reading time

[daylen]

I vote for 'asking questions' being the highest ROI activity. What are you gathering information for? Why for that and not this? How does attending to a series of symbols distort your perception of reality?

[prognastat]

@Seppia

I would assume it's about needing to spend that time on other productive tasks?

[Jason]

I have decided that 2019 will be the Year of Execution!

We all know how much Hitler accomplished when he rang in 1941 with the same words.

[Mister Imperceptible]

Triumph of 7W5’s Will

[Fish]

I’m not exactly a WSP-pro, but what is the point of limiting reading to only 1 hour per day?

Discussed in this article: http://wallstreetplayboys.com/things-to ... -thirties/

Action Over Books: While you should certainly read every single day (maybe 30 minutes to an hour) you should understand that *action* will result in much more progress than information.

See above link for the full explanation.

[Cheepnis]

Since I only just joined I would like to take a moment to respond to your OP celebrating your newly achieved minimalism.

Wow! That is truly awesome. Minimalism, having such crossover with the FIRE, lifestyle is a concept I've been giving some thought. Personally, I don't own a ton of shit by American standards, but I'm nowhere near a few bags either. There's a little catch-22 that I think might be a "thing" and I was wondering if you could weigh in.

It seems to me that the weight lifted with the removal of unnecessary items would be particularly freeing. Yet after reaching a certain threshold of not many things I think the weight we (or I would) feel would jump back up. Let me explain. At first, reducing all the things I need to find, use, repair, store, or otherwise care for would undoubtedly lead to more freedom, but after reaching a point such as the picture in your OP I think each remaining item would carry more weight that it used to. At the point of only the items that would fit into the backseat of a car I think I'd almost feel the pressure to get it to all fit on my back so I wouldn't have to make 2 trips.

I'm not particularly well versed in the minimalist lifestyle so maybe this is a widely discussed concept. If not, have you experienced anything like I suggested?

FYI: not posting this as a critique of the lifestyle, simply wondering what your experience is being many levels ahead of me on the Wheaton scale.

[classical_Liberal]

@7WB5
I've always admired you and I wish you well in all of your endeavors. I'd encourage you to give this a legit shot, save some greenbacks because it'll open a ton of options for you. But, pretty-please, don't let yourself get too caught up in the earn-more/have-more lifestyle. It's easy to do, see the other 99.9% who aren't nearly as cool as you. Please just don't give up who your are, the grass always seems greener.

[Seppia]

Thanks @prognostat and @Fish for the explanation

[prognastat]

Well mine was just a(n apparently accurate) guess based on the little bit I have read from them, Fish actually did the leg work so all thanks belong to him.

On the other hand if you did read an hour every single day this would probably allow you to read about 3 books a month or 36 a year, so still a decent few books.

[7Wannabe5]

You know, audiobooks, though slower than reading can be consumed while doing other things like workouts and chores.

Good suggestion. I started listening to Zig Ziglar's "The Secrets of Closing the Sale" on my long bus ride to my substitute teaching gig. I must note that I find some discrepancy between the philosophy of Ziglar and the philosophy of WSP. I like Ziglar's take on a sales career better, but maybe that is just due to the fact that he is better at selling anything than WSP.

This sentence has 213 words. Does 7W5 listen to Slayer?

No, but I am 1 degree of separation from Weakling.

And you probably won't pay $10 or however much extra to eat a cookie.

True, but I would be likely to stretch the definition of "cookie" about as far as a POTUS might challenge Webster on "sex."

I’m not exactly a WSP-pro, but what is the point of limiting reading to only 1 hour per day?

The WSP plan does value reading for information, but requires majority of time to be spent on direct Money Making activities (66 hours), sleep (56) hours, exercise/food (16 hours) ,social/hobbies (11 hours), transit (12 hours),reading/learning (7 hours)= 168 hours/week. I am using some of my social time to type this journal entry since my BF is watching football.

I'm not particularly well versed in the minimalist lifestyle so maybe this is a widely discussed concept. If not, have you experienced anything like I suggested?

No. More like the opposite. For instance, I put my cold feet too close to the Mr. Buddy heater in the shed, and melted the glue holding on the sole of one of my 3 pairs of shoes, but I didn't have any appropriate glue or anywhere to store it, so I had to pay $5 to have them re-glued by a shoe repair guy.

But, pretty-please, don't let yourself get too caught up in the earn-more/have-more lifestyle. It's easy to do, see the other 99.9% who aren't nearly as cool as you. Please just don't give up who your are, the grass always seems greener.

Thanks No worries. I only plan on doing a very quick run through this program. I will likely quit at income/net-worth level achieved by typical WSP follower at approximately age 22.5, or as soon as possible after my DD27's wedding 10 months from now, because I still need to complete my first perma-culture project by Harvest of 2022.

[7Wannabe5]

Time to report in regarding my attempt to follow the WSP "Efficiency" program.

Overall rigid adherence to program thus far: D-
Intuitive Interpretation of Spirit of Program: C+

The earliest chapters of the program emphasize that physiological efficiency is more important than financial efficiency. In fact, it suggests that physiological efficiency (health/fitness/aesthetics) is regarded as so important in American society, the first decision that must be made by very young followers of the program is whether or not he (or she?) is in possession of enough inherent talent or qualities to either play some sport professionally or earn a scholarship to a Top 50 university. Given my advanced age, current level of lower body obesity roughly equivalent to two holiday hams slung below theoretical rough site of vestigial tail, frequent failure to catch any object thrown at me due to high level of distraction and reflexive fearful startle response, and, perhaps, my gender, it seems as though the obvious answer should be ABSOLUTELY NO. However, if the question is modified to something more along the lines of is there anything I could do with my physiology to earn decent money, then the answer would be "Yes, but not without violating the 'keep it legal' guidelines suggested by the creators of the WSP program, UNLESS there is a larger, more eager, niche market for videos featuring a fully clothed, bottom heavy, aging female riding away on a bicycle than I would assume likely."

Anyways, next order of business to be sorted out by the age of 21, or ASAP in my case, given no obviously phenomenal inherent talents, would be whether a recreational sport emphasizing power, speed, endurance, accuracy, or balance would best suit me. Since large holiday hams, no matter how fat laden, must also contain some amount of meat, I will choose power and endurance, with some outside possibility for accuracy or balance. Therefore, my sport will be something like underwater soccer OR water fowl hunting.

Then I temporarily kind of skipped over the boring part which would require me to work at some sort of highly lucrative career for 10 years, until I was making enough money I could visualize myself standing alone wearing a hand-tailored suit in my hard-edged minimalist penthouse apartment looking down from a dominant height on the lights of the hard city which I had semi-conquered..., and jumped right into the fun part where I start my own business. So, I bought a 1999 Honda Accord (gold! mint!) and a new printer on sale for $24 at WalMart and re-booted my rare book business!!! On Thursday I bought a copy of "Hydroponic Strawberry Growing" for $1 and I sold it for $69.99 on Saturday. Back in the game!

[Riggerjack]

So you read WSP, thought about it for a while, and decided your previous path was a better path?

Funny. Me too.

[EdithKeeler]

Then I temporarily kind of skipped over the boring part which would require me to work at some sort of highly lucrative career for 10 years, until I was making enough money I could visualize myself standing alone wearing a hand-tailored suit in my hard-edged minimalist penthouse apartment looking down from a dominant height on the lights of the hard city which I had semi-conquered..., and jumped right into the fun part where I start my own business. So, I bought a 1999 Honda Accord (gold! mint!) and a new printer on sale for $24 at WalMart and re-booted my rare book business!!! On Thursday I bought a copy of "Hydroponic Strawberry Growing" for $1 and I sold it for $69.99 on Saturday. Back in the game!

This sounds MUCH more interesting.

[classical_Liberal]

I am sooo relieved! Congrats!

Ohh, and sweet new ride! Two or four door? Those Vtec engines will get you 300K.

[7Wannabe5]

So you read WSP, thought about it for a while, and decided your previous path was a better path?

The primary benefit I derive from reading such books is a tiny kick of "killer" competitive spirit. When I got to the junction where I decided to re-boot my business and consider other related options, I also re-read "The Art and Science of Dumpster Diving", whose author has a similar rugged individualist philosophy, but a much more likable, amusing voice.

"Efficiency" is a decent manual if your goal is to achieve maximum success under conventional terms by "just pimping" , as the author of another similar book,"The Art of Mackin' " described such a process. The book offers no advice on how to achieve success under your own terms, except to the extent that you already have the perspective to see how some of the suggested strategies might apply.

Also, I really believe that the advice offered in "Efficiency" to base your business on selling to other people's insecurities is long-term misguided. I don't recall his name, but I remember reading an article written by one highly renowned, extremely successful entrepreneur and he said he got his start by selling firecrackers to other kids on the playground. If you like what you produce or sell yourself, then you will like and respect your customers, and you enter into a cycle of positive feedback. Otherwise, you are lining your pocketbook at the expense of YOUR OWN concept of humanity.

@classical_Liberal:

4-door.

@EdithKeeler:

So true. Much more fun.

@Augustus:

Thanks. I do plan on writing gardening essays in my 80s.