Brainstorming

[brainstorm]

Hey folks!

Starting a journal to record my progress, get to know similar-minded people, learn new things, and in general talk about an area that feels largely inaccessible to most people I know. Journaling also just helps me better understand my internal states and notice correlations, like how I feel anxious a couple hours after eating a bunch of lemon bars. Weird, right? Despite lurking, I have gotten value out of reading quite a few of the journals here; thank you to those who have the courage to share! The longer ones are a bit overwhelming, lol, but those are also good in the sense that they document a long-term transition. There will be plenty to catch up on in the coming years.

About me: I live in the city in the midwest (see intro if that's too vague) and like to read, cook, and exercise (bike/climb/walk/stretch/be outside in general). That takes up most of my time! I’m also learning bike repair (like many others here) at a local co-op, and been meditating every day for a few to several months now. My full-time job is programming.

Motivations: Besides not spending my time on silly corporate projects, my motivations are a blend of skill development, efficiency, and eco/sustainable living (aka efficiency). I actually really like the skills perspective, since I feel that breaking down <x> into a collection of smaller, learnable steps is really empowering and way less intimidating = less anxiety. Nice!

Finances: Where am I at now? I'm sure I'll get more into this later. I have a good income, but need to work on reducing expenses. Savings rate is about 50% – not too bad but I can certainly improve – and have saved about 6x expenses. I pay way too much in rent, and will find a roommate when my lease expires in a cheaper, quieter part of town. Walk or bike to get around, and sometimes take public transit. I like to cook meals at home, and eat out maybe once or twice a month.

Reading: MMM got me to sell my car, and Ministry for the Future got the environmental ball rolling (followed by The Deluge, The Displacements, and Being the Change, with varying degrees of optimism/pessimism). I recently finished Survival+, and although I didn't enjoy reading "simulacrum" so many times, I did appreciate his bits about how one person can't go it alone (resilience through social capital), opting out to starve the beast, and prioritizing virtue and experiential knowledge (as opposed to permanent adolescence). I'm now reading Thinking in Systems and Overcoming Gravity (got that rec from one of Axel's old entries, thanks!).

That's probably enough for tonight. I'll plan on doing a little August recap soon!

[brainstorm]

August Update

A good month in the books!

Financial: I switched to using my debit card for easier spending awareness (after a spendy July) and was able to save extra on top of my recurring investments! I had a savings rate of about 67% and, with the help of some market recovery, have now saved 7.7x expenses. I was slightly low on some categories like eating out, but also higher than normal in travel and bike parts (typically none), so it doesn’t feel particularly unsustainable. Right now my savings are going into a bond money market fund to balance out a lot of US stocks.

Physical: Got back into a good biking and climbing routine after an inconsistent July (travel, illness). I can tell I’ve been getting stronger, although I need to keep up with mobility/prehab work. My only concrete plans are to climb twice per week and hangboard once per week, but I’ve also been trying some bodyweight/calisthenics exercises on my “off” days – eventually I’d like to do muscle-ups, one-arm chinups, and front and back levers. Plus maybe some of the variations of planche, handstand, and L-sit/V-sit/manna.

Mental: Been in a great morning routine of short walks, meditation, and morning pages. I’ll keep it going in September! Also been off Instagram for the month and don’t miss it – I’ve thought about deleting it but I’m not sure yet, so I’ll just keep avoiding it until I can make up my mind. My weakness in this area was probably dealing with traffic – I can get frustrated and impatient with drivers when I’m walking or biking, so I need to practice more patience and be okay with simply stopping and waiting for them to pass. No confrontations will lead to any personal reform, so there's not much point in getting worked up.

Environmental: I made a few changes to the daily lifestyle that were impactful (I think), sustainable, and enjoyable:

• I got a drying rack from the local buy nothing group and enjoy air-drying my clothes on the porch. It’s nice to see them fluttering in the wind.
• I have A/C but set the temp to 82 and just used a fan most of the time. After about 2-3 days at a higher temp, I don’t notice it much. We had a few heat waves roll through, but overall the energy usage is noticeably lower. The lows are getting lower again, so I can let in the cool air in the mornings.
• And I started doing Navy showers after reading one of the old blog posts. I actually prefer turning off the water in the middle since I get a way more satisfying lather. Not bad!

[ertyu]

Around here, for a layer of safety, folks who want to spend on debit not credit keep 2 debit cards -- one is their "main card" which they do not touch except to regularly transfer small sums to their "spending card." This limits the amount vulnerable to fraud. It only works because there's no overdraft or overdraft fees, however. If you're spending mostly on debit, how do you keep yourself safe?

Re: road rage: can you bring any of your meditation experience to bear?

[brainstorm]

Thanks, ertyu, for the thoughtful suggestions. You raise some good points!

I haven't heard of the separate spending card approach before, but it certainly makes sense. I think what I like is the immediate feedback of it, that I can just log in and see my balance without doing any mental gymnastics – it acts as a good ledger for me. The approach you describe would preserve this while still creating separation from my "main" card/account, which seems great. I wouldn't like to lose those funds by fraud or theft! But I've also been wondering what exactly I need that feedback for. It helps with identifying surplus funds, which either get invested on top of my recurring transfers (majority) or perhaps also for getting a pizza when I might not normally have (minority). So, net positive? It's not a large sum that gets spent, but I still need to reflect more on why having $X "left over" means go ahead with buying something. How am I feeling when I am most inclined to spend frivolously?

About cars, I certainly can! I've realized that a good part of it is my own impatience, not theirs, despite what my internal narrative said. Observation without judgment and loving-kindness are very common practices, but it feels like I've largely left them out of my daily life. So lots of room to improve in this area, but since realizing this my rides have been much more positive.

I picked up a pamphlet at the Buddhist temple and of their six Right Livelihood guidelines, several stuck out to me:

Pause before buying and see if breathing is enough.
Be equally grateful for opportunities and challenges.
Work for peace at many levels.
Find connections between Buddhist teachings and your life.

There's a lot more good stuff in there, which I'll try to sit on in the coming weeks.

On another note, I enjoy baking and this weekend made my first whole wheat loaf. It turned out great! It had a moist crumb with a subtle flavor and fairly soft crust. I'd definitely like to make it again.

[brainstorm]

September Update

It was a very full month! A lot of exercise and cooking/baking; the oven heat will be much more welcome when it’s cold out. I picked up a sewing machine off Freecycle, and am now ready to spend tons of time learning (anything) about how to use it – my first project will be a DIY stuff sack (simple, cheap, and fairly useful).

My short term goals are:

• Decluttering my apartment of stuff I don’t use/need anymore (more $, more free space, less maintenance/cleaning, easier moving)
• Low-buy month (informal): I’m looking for some bike fenders, and maybe a front rack, to make my life easier/cleaner this winter, but I have pretty much everything I need to be happy already. For incoming items, I’ll try to work up a ladder of: do without or repurpose an existing item > DIY > buy used > buy new.
• Reduce housing expenses: My biggest expense that has lots of leverage over how much I can save and therefore how much I need to work. I’m hoping to get into a nearby intentional community (from the waitlist), which would work very homeotelically (is that a word?) w.r.t. building community, social connection, minimalism, eco-friendly living, my commute, and reducing expenses. It sounds like a very enriching experience, so fingers crossed!

And eventually, I’d like to:

• Downshift to no- or part-time work, so that I can pursue other interests freely
• Find a partner
• Buy a house/land in cash. Not very eager to pay 3x the price by way of a 30-year mortgage, and anyways I’m interested in small & simple living. But I’m really not sure where, and a partner might inform this decision too.

A lot to figure out to make those happen! But I’ll be aiming to align my weekly/monthly steps with those long-term goals in mind.

Finances

Opened a new bank account to try out the spending card approach (thanks, ertyu!); so far, so good. My savings rate was at 65% this month, which I’m glad to see despite some more-than-usual eating out (including one on the more expensive side for my friend’s engagement, but hey a rare occurrence!). Up to ~8x expenses now!

Health & Fitness

I definitely enjoy exercising, and getting to do it more is a big attraction for early retirement or part-time work. A mix of: I’ve always done it, I enjoy seeing the progress from hard work, I meet people through it, I get to learn about different modalities of movement, I get to see new places. My family also has its share of health issues (a lot of it seems to come down to alcohol and exercise), so kind of an act of rebellion too.

Not much calisthenics this month, but some yoga and hangboarding was nice (I need stronger fingers and more flexible hips!). Got a few more V6s under my belt, even some in 1-2 attempts, which is great for me – trying to get more consistency at this level. Also had a nice 120 mile bike ride! I didn’t train quite enough for it lol, but I still finished in around 7-8 hours without drafting and with some wider tires (it’s pretty flat here). I think it’s around my 18th century? I did all the other ones several years ago, when I went across the country mostly along the TransAmerica trail. So it was nice to spend a long day on the bike again!

Brain-wise, I’m trying to be more mindful of the content/media I consume, particularly the quantity. It’s easy for me to feel overwhelmed! I’ve noticed since I’ve left more empty space that those feelings, and anxiety too, have dropped down. It had become such automatic behavior to reach for a podcast, or an email newsletter, or a book or Youtube video, that I was basically switching from shallow distraction to distraction. I’m able to focus a lot better too, so it seems to be a step in the right direction! Kind of crazy to think about how many more bits are flowing into our brains now compared to when they evolved. dustBowl, if you’re out there, it was nice reading your posts about this most of my friends either don't feel the same way or just don't mention it (or they just have a higher threshold for it, lower sensitivity to it, ...)

Food

Notably, some jam and cinnamon raisin bread. I like to cook and bake a lot, and especially to share what I bake with others (also, the recipes make way more than I want to eat!). I’d be happy to cook meals for others too, but my network isn’t particularly full of vegans/vegetarians and I haven’t made much of a point to host dinner parties. But I think a few folks here have talked about hosting Epicurean nights, and that sounds interesting to try out some time. My grocery spending is still a little high for one person though, around $400/month.



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This month’s reading list:

• Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television (partial)
• ERE: I felt like I followed it much, much better than the last time (a couple years ago). Back then, I was mostly looking for a list of quick hacks to apply to get a cheap apartment (clearly it didn’t stick, given my current rent). But there are some pretty good principles to work from, so maybe it just took some more time and maturity to get it? I’m sure it wouldn’t be the first time it took a couple reads to really grok it.
• The Story of Stuff: Overall solid – I found it very valuable to consider Stuff’s entire lifecycle rather than it just materializing at the store/website. But I don’t reserve a lot of mental space for keeping track of the specific minerals or plastics, and a lot of the “reasons to hope” I found…not very inspirational (they mostly felt like, oh a couple hundred corporations have signed this voluntary agreement to do better!)
• Voluntary Simplicity: Really resonated! I skipped the chapter on the environment cuz I’m already reading too much about that. But it was a great read and I’d definitely recommend it to others
• Poking around Low- and No-Tech Magazines – pretty cool stuff! Will continue digging through them this month, along with probably Nonviolent Communication and/or my first Plotkin. Recs always welcome

[delay]

Thanks for your journal update! If you like a "spending card" perhaps cash is also worth a try. A few years ago I switched to cash to experience it while it still exists. It stuck! Cash is simpler and I'm much more conscious of what I spend. It turns out I spend less when I'm not tempted by digital points or offers.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up has an alternative approach to decluttering. It says to lay out everything of the same type (say clothes), then hold every item and keep it if it sparks joy, and discard it if it does not. I threw out more than 10 trash bags of stuff and I haven't missed any of it.

The ideas from non-violent communication are excellent. For me the video was better than the book. Here's a forum thread on NVC.

[AxelHeyst]

In my experience meat-eaters don't grumble too much when you provide tasty delicious food that happens not to have animals in it. Sometimes they don't even notice. Regarding low/no-tech reading, you might like John Michael Greer's Green Wizardry, and/or Paul Wheaton's Building a Better World In Your Backyard, Instead of Being Mad at the Bad Guys. And also, I've lost track of how many times I've reread ERE but every time I do I get new insights.

Cool journal! Come visit QH sometime, we'll ride bikes and climb and stuff.