Message in a Bottle

[CaptainCrusoe]

Once upon a time, there was a man living on an island in the Pacific Ocean, with no neighbors in sight, in a small hut with a big garden, and a lot of time to ponder. His partner was cooking a meal while he was busily writing down a letter to be sent into the wide world -- well, not by bottle, but rather via internet; the analogy had to break down somewhere

Thanks for your interest in how we spend our days, and where we hope to get to. I'm looking forward to chatting with you all and learning about your world views, maybe propose a new view myself. I've been known to stick with a theory as long as it made sense and was internally consistent, but to switch to a different one if shown to be a better match with reality.

My story in short: I got an astronomy PhD in Switzerland, decided to leave the country for greener pastures, and set up a tiny house in New Zealand. I live happily with little luxury, and reached freedom from serfdom after 5 years on the job. Thanks to the law of truly large numbers I just had to find the blog of a financially independent expat astronomer with a knack for mindful living

How did I end up here? I'll explain in a journal.

What am I all about? Jacob wrote that people tend to be inconsistent with the values they proclaim and the ones they actually live by. I don't like inconsistencies; so here's an opportunity for you to hold me to account later:

critical: health; eating nutritious food
very important: do meaningful things; wellbeing of loved ones
important: freedom, no debt, security, having means
would be nice: improve the future, flexibility, ease, achieve potential, follow a passion
luxury: self-esteem, form an identity, have an impact, reduce suffering of strangers
relatively unimportant: respect, inclusion, approval, appreciation, status, fame, power

The categories are from Tim Urban's pentapus.

My current ikigai is to help people sort their mess, I'm doing that in a professional quantity as knowledge manager and data scientist, and by organizing other people's work. I envisage my future ikigai to revolve more around showing people a viable alternative to "more, faster, better".

Farewell,
Captain Crusoe

PS: connectivity is a bit hit and miss, you may hear from me at irregular intervals.

[jacob]

I got an astronomy PhD in Switzerland

We might have been colleagues... or at least know some of some of the same people.

[Seppia]

I’m excited already. Yours could potentially be my second most favorite journal here (the guy in the arctic is unbeatable) assuming it involves some diving (or some snorkeling at least).
Welcome!

[Blackjack]

Welcome! How hard was immigrating to New Zealand? Is Data Science one of those skills they have on the “come live here” list for adding to their industry so you get the working visa very quickly?

Secondarily, what’s the land like that you are living on? Big garden, lots of nature l? Interested to see how the journal develops!

[chenda]

Welcome... Funnily enough I was listening a few days ago to a podcast of a young Swiss girl who moved to NZ...

[CaptainCrusoe]

@Jacob Watts-Strogatz and some piano-counting would suggest a path length of 1.5 -- maybe Benz, or Lilly?

@Seppia Thanks for the kind words, and it would be nice to swim a bit, but a cyclone is approaching, 8m waves are forecast - even animals are hiding.

@Blackjack I wouldn't describe the bureaucratic hassle we went through as "quick", but the job got us some points, and related titles are included in the LTSSL. For the land: It's out in the sticks, a comparatively small parcel of 4 ha, half in bush, half pasture.

@chenda Hi Hope you're feeling well; I was surprised to find that there's a group of 20 people with some connection to Switzerland in the catchment area of the nearest town. Not quite the same surprise as finding the ERE forum, though

"It happened, one day about noon going towards my boat, I was exceedingly surprised, with the print of a man's naked foot on the shore, which was very plain to be seen in the sand. I stood like one thunder-struck, or as if I had seen an apparition; I listened, I looked round me, I could hear nothing, nor see anything; I went up to a rising ground to look farther; I went up the shore and down the shore, but it was all one, I could see no other impression but that one. I went to it again to see if there were any more, and to observe if it might not be my fancy; but there was no room for that, for there was exactly the very print of a foot, toes, heel, and every part of a foot; how it came thither I knew not, nor could in the least imagine." -- Daniel Defoe

[CaptainCrusoe]

My current setup through a system lens, a bit like the advanced cash flow diagrams. An arrow says "goes into" or "gives". The "-..->" arrows are work in progress.

[Jean]

Hello with one another.

[jacob]

@Jacob Watts-Strogatz and some piano-counting would suggest a path length of 1.5 -- maybe Benz, or Lilly?

Benz rings a distant bell. I was in Basel (2000-2004). This came out of the hills when I was there
https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0310368 There must have been something in the water.

[CaptainCrusoe]

@Jean: Grüezi!

@Jacob: Martin's description matches with the antics of some senior academic people I've worked under -- an institute had to be closed because of bullying by a professor. Freakonomics would sagely nod their heads: "Incentives, incentives!"

"Is there insufficient visible matter to justify the kinematics? No problem; dark matter is introduced and everybody is happy." How true, again, plus in the meantime other theories were introduced, but it feels as if they're not given the same earnest discussion as the predominant hypothesis. Guilty myself

"Something in the water" - I assume you mean the effect of multiple discovery . At the time I was somewhere between Journeyman and Master, looking forward to the fun to be had, not worried about a career.

Thanks for allowing a wide range of opinions, by the way. I'm curious to dive deeper into the discussions here on applicability/security of/alternatives to the SWR measure. I'm using a probabilistic measure for the degree of FI I've reached; and tally up possible regret points until death to find an agreeable path.

[MBBboy]

Very interesting diagram - will have to try something like that myself after I get done with the expense teardown I'm working on.

What did you use to generate? My professional background has me planning on using PPT, but wondering if there's a better way

[CaptainCrusoe]

The diagram was done in Dia, mainly because it was easily available on a linux computer. It keeps arrows attached to the boxes when you drag them around. To simulate stocks and flows, I have used TRUE (found it via a Modern Monetary Theroy model) and OpenModelica (versatile, steep learning curve).

[zbigi]

https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0310368

Fascinating and quite entertaining lecture. The author, ex-scientist, sees huge parallels between modern science and medieval Catholic Church. According to him, modern science also is a powerful, centralized institution, interested mostly in perpetuating its existing dogma and actively squashing novel or alternative perspectives via methods of censorship [1]. Let's hope climate deniers don't get a hold of this article...

[1] He says that it's actually worse now than it was back then - according to him, Copernican Revolution would not be possible today, whereas it managed to slip by the Catholic Church.