Slevin's journal

[thef0x]

Congrats on the round number milestone, exciting.

Curious what funds you're picking for the golden butterfly portfolio if you care to share. Specifically small cap value.

6% indefinitely is pretty enticing; I think a lot of folks are far more conservative in their SWR, esp given you're so young, so wondering how you're thinking about it. I think I'd get closer to 6% but with some specific rules (https://www.madfientist.com/discretiona ... -strategy/). With your nest egg growing so rapidly, already having enough, it's ~moot ofc, but curious all the same.

From my eyes you're not a faker; imo ERE is about homeotelic action through systems thinking applied to lifestyle design and not so much about how much you earn. Seems like you're there. I feel myself want to "fit in" here re very low spend but I have to be realistic about where I live, choices I've made b/c of that (family proximity), and options I have available as a result of that original decision.

I was also pretty damn shocked by the Bolt, we've had ours for a few months now and it continues to wow me. You scored a hellavua deal, well done.

Any eBike recommendations? I want to build my own but my wife is terrified of trusting an aliexpress speed controller with my toddler strapped to a bike trailer

[loutfard]

Any eBike recommendations? I want to build my own but my wife is terrified of trusting an aliexpress speed controller with my toddler strapped to a bike trailer

You may want to look for models with a direct drive hub motor and compatible generic LFP battery packs:
- A direct drive motor is simpler and lower maintenance than a geared one.
- A hub motor is lower maintenance than a central one.
- An LFP battery is simpler and safer than other related chemistries.
- A generic battery is so much cheaper than DRM protected brand batteries.

There are some older Bafang models around that will fit these criteria.

You may want to ask for suggestions at endless-sphere.com .

Pity btw that your wife trusts prepackaged cheap rubbish versus well-researched decent quality gear. Nothing wrong with Lishui controllers or Kunteng lcd's. Although the Norwegian welted shoe equivalent would be a sturdy direct drive hub motor, LFP batteries and a vesc style controller.

Or maybe I'm fooling myself and an even better solution could often be to train and do away with the complexity of electric assist...

[guitarplayer]

I revisit the idea of E-bikes occasionally but tend to lean in the direction of that last sentence from @loutfard above.

Ebikes do increase the comfortable range, but then there is also a chance they would be used when there's no need for them (the phenomenon of taking one's car to go get a carton of milk from local grocery store) + then you more decouple transport and workout. In terms of negative externalities, I don't like how ebikes are currently abused in urban spaces by delivery drivers and dumb people, for health and aesthetic reasons. In the past year I can off the top of my head remember two occasions of people riding them very fast right next to me, once on a pavement and once across the cycling lane I had been on. For the delivery people: (1) look at the food they deliver and (2) where I am they ride those bikes until they disintegrate it feels, their chains always squeak like crazy and they don't have a good bike posture.

Also, heavier and more expensive. I am not keen to leave my worn off trekking bike outside already (mostly it's the Brooks saddle I am keen on not having stolen), with an e-bike I would be even more hesitant.

[delay]

Ebikes do increase the comfortable range

To add to your good points, an ebike is heavier and takes more effort when the motor is off. And it is frictionless to use a bit more battery power. I see people who buy an ebike lose fitness quickly.

When you have headwind the temptation to turn up the motor is high, but that is also the time you exercise your muscles. I think that when muscles feel peak usage going down they give up strength easily.

[Slevin]

Certainly the "fittest" thing is to just bike and use a bike trailer to do all your hauling, ever. But for me I need a solution for the failure mode too, as after a day of heavy front squats / too many kettlebell swings I'm likely to just leave the normal bike and just take the car, while with the ebike I'm happy to take it and let the motor do some of the heavy lifting.

I.e. "Ubermensch" me is happy to work hard and do the manual tough thing all the time, but actual me is not feeling tip top most days out of the week, either due to weights or after shoveling and wheelbarrowing many loads of wood chips / dirt / compost / whatever around, or digging out those big holes in clay / adobe soil, and actual me will usually choose a car over a pedal powered bike when I'm feeling beat up. Ebike is less fitness, but 100-300x better than taking the car .

DGf and I had this slight argument for like 2 years before I got the ebike. One of the things that put me firmly in the yes camp was talking with a couple professional cyclist friends who bought ebikes, and said they used them in the same situations (where they wouldn't do an X mile round trip on a normal bike because it would mess with their training schedules, but the ebike would let them do 10-15 mile errand runs no problem). Once I got the ebike, and she saw the results (bike errands didn't effect energy levels etc) she saw the value.

tl;dr ebike helps me get farther, use less calories, be less tired.

Curious what funds you're picking for the golden butterfly portfolio if you care to share. Specifically small cap value.

Nothing exciting, just running VBR in my vanguard account.

6% indefinitely is pretty enticing; I think a lot of folks are far more conservative in their SWR, esp given you're so young, so wondering how you're thinking about it. I think I'd get closer to 6% but with some specific rules (https://www.madfientist.com/discretiona ... -strategy/). With your nest egg growing so rapidly, already having enough, it's ~moot ofc, but curious all the same.

Yeah, I read that post years ago and align with it in viewpoint. Gonna pull a lot less than 6% when it comes time; this 6% number was mostly calculating yearly gain as an average (and yes averages are bad) to look at velocity of investment gains. we need a lot less than the quoted ~90k per year to live very comfortably.

I was also pretty damn shocked by the Bolt, we've had ours for a few months now and it continues to wow me. You scored a hellavua deal, well done.

Any eBike recommendations? I want to build my own but my wife is terrified of trusting an aliexpress speed controller with my toddler strapped to a bike trailer

Bolt is 11/10. Can't give it enough props.

For an ebike, I would only suggest getting something that can be supported locally. Back in Boulder everyone rode around RadWagons with 1-3 children strapped on the back. It looked awesome.

@guitarplayer everywhere I've lived, teens are blasting around on the little e-scooters or piled 3 deep on e-bikes. I'm sure they get hurt sometimes but I like that it expands their world and ability to go explore with friends. I'm excited for their generation to get older because they grok the tech and how useful it is to move humans around in that way. Of course some people will abuse them, but that is true of literally any technology. Hopefully as we adapt to it, usage will be slowly moved away from walking pedestrians.

[jacob]

Strategies of accumulation and coping mechanisms for “not enough” seem insane and backwards. We need new autoimmune systems and strategies to shed the veritable storm of people/things/content being thrown at us, to let us sit down and appreciate all the amazing things we have and the amazing people that seem boring to us now.

I'm wondering whether my initial response (above) was misguided in terms of what "we" need. "We" as in global humanity ... or "we" as in the typically individually oriented person who doesn't see or care about global trends abd how planetary boundaries/environment ultimately determines their destiny?

From the perspective of the self-centered individual (typical consumer), the current abundance is in many ways analogous to the abundance that the green revolution created in terms of calories. Over a couple of generations (roughly spanning from 1940ish to 2000ish) the majority of humans went from being underweight to being overweight, both with their associated consequences. How do you go from a place where calories are scarce to a place where calories are so abundant that they will shorten your lifespan and reduce your quality of life if you don't develop an immune response against it.

Likewise, how do people avoid drowning in handbag or tool collections when so many products are available on same-day shipping for under ten bucks. Frankly, my limiting concern these days is never "how much does it cost" but "where do I find the space for it" or "how do I get rid of it". However, many people are not at this point yet and so when they click the buy button, their life or living circumstances develop the material analogy to physiological obesity.

FWIW, my best answer to both cases is a sense of functional and/or minimalistic aesthetics. Both of course running counter to "eat all you can" messaging.

[guitarplayer]

I hear you @Slevin, it was a similar situation for me not long ago. On top of a daily HIIT and a 4 mile run I would carry the bike up and down three floors sometimes twice or even three times a day to go pick up free food or run other errands, clocking in 5-20 miles in a day. Sometimes when carrying it up, it would be with 10-30lb panniers. It was doable but at some point I figured I was verging on a physical burnout, really exhausted.

Though my solution to this was to skip 4 mile runs and do HIIT only every second day, but retain cycling places to get free food and others. My thinking was that I rather forgo some of my beloved exercising routine (exercise addiction is a thing I think) and do some of the exercising 'in the wild' (when cycling places) than retain the exercising routine as is but need to find another way to go places (eg e-bike).

But maybe it was the three flights of stairs and the vision of hauling an ebike up and down these daily that decided for me, then I reverse engineered all the above. Without question, ebikes over cars wherever possible!

[Slevin]

Correct @jacob, I'm pointing at "we" the self-centered individual here, and come across the same problems as you do. Most of my issues with things these days are just storage and disposal, or even actually just finding the time to use / enjoy an item, even if I really enjoy it. Really to the point it eats away at me. I need a better immune system to handle physical and digital goods accumulation, and looking around it seems that most other people around me are basically in the same situation . My minimal-fu needs some excessive strengthening.

@guitarplayer Think of the strength gains of carrying that 70lb+ ebike up and down those stairs multiple times per day though . Nothing could ever go wrong in that situation...

[thef0x]

Thanks for the response and yeah, same boat re the utility of the ebike, it's not an exercise supplement/replacement, it's a car-trip replacement. I still think there are homeotelic benefits for ebike beyond lower kWh/trip: getting off major roads and into dog-petting opportunities with my kid, fresh air, an option when my wife is using our car, 'slowing down', and man they're just fun! a perfect level of mildly-thrilling.

[Slevin]

idk like a 2x . yr update or something:

Nw: ~ 1.25-1.3ish? Might be higher but depends on some fuzzy numbers, idk it's not super important to me at this point anymore. It will grow and be happy.

We moved into a 120+ year old farmhouse with some more updated additions in a tiny hippie town in Marin County. In case you were wondering about the exceptionally old life expectancy thing of Marin county, yeah it's basically rich old people here that can afford the best doctors, eat healthy food, and they generally hike and walk and exercise a lot. It's all hills here, and people just go hike them all the time, and the number of cyclists on the roads is also insane. This is also where mountain biking started, and there's plenty of older mountain bikers around here too (with more than a handful of them being absolute MTB / ERE legends that should be on the HWLI page). Everybody is healthy from the food and the exercise and the doctors and the money and the beauty. At least in my little slice of the woods, it's a lovely life in a place where people put out baskets of extra fruit on the street for anybody walking by, and neighbors help each other out.

This place is basically literal heaven on earth for me. Walkable, bike able, decent transport for the US, grows literally anything easily, amazing hiking, and really lovely and nice people. We ended up also with a high ceilinged 300sqft cottage / ADU out back that I'm planning to rent out to cover taxes / insurance forever. It needs to have a lil kitchenette added and some of the pier and post foundation adjusted before renting. If you have the skills and want to come stay for free for a bit and help fix it, hit me up.

I've basically have just been cleaning up / fixing up the old house for the past 6 months outside of working and it will be a lot more months before I'm done, but that's fine. I'm Learning a lot of building techniques and having a lot of fun doing it. Built several new fences, cool deck railings, fixed up cabinetry with missing doors and just missing doors (idk why nothing had doors, hippies are interesting). Messed with plumbing, lighting fixtures, water filtering built a new garden and irrigation system, did some siding replacement, all the basics. Ethically we try to get most things used, which makes doing most of the repairs a little more time consuming (Except just wood for projects when it needs to be straight / new, then it comes from the local lumberyard). Everything on the old houses around here is built with old growth redwood, so that's been fun and interesting to work with as well.

There's this fun part of fixing old things which is that nothing is quite "level" or "square" (idk maybe it was a century ago), so there's a lot of on the fly problem solving and building to account for things "looking level and cohesive" versus actually "being level". Overall, its a right PITA, but spending a lot of time solving a weird problem only to step back from it at the end and have it look really good / function well leaves me with a deep level of satisfaction its hard to get elsewhere. And with things already being a bit imperfect, the bar isn't to necessarily hide mistakes in hopes of making a thing look brand new or whatever, but to instead highlight the interesting aspects and fixes in a way that tells a story of who has been here and what is has been. A little kintsugi instead of destruction and reconstruction. What is broken is mended, and in a way that shows the story and the history. So much of modernity is destroying the story of a thing or its context in hope of building a "perfect" or "simple" new solution, its more fun to leave the context and the history when its appropriate.

[AxelHeyst]

That sounds like a very satisfying project/system to have on your hands. I appreciate your thoughts on the kitsugi approach.

I'm lightly familiar with the area you're in. If I were in a slightly different circumstance I'd jump on the chance to lend a hand and spend some time there.

[Slevin]

That sounds like a very satisfying project/system to have on your hands. I appreciate your thoughts on the kitsugi approach.

I'm lightly familiar with the area you're in. If I were in a slightly different circumstance I'd jump on the chance to lend a hand and spend some time there.

Yeah I'm sure you are, seeing how long you lived in Oakland. It would be fun, and I'm sure we would end up massively over engineering a cool little passive tiny house if you were out this way. But I also want to see you living your best Alaska life and happy that you finally found a niche that gets you towards FI quickly.

If I could handle the cold and the dark I would be up there building too, it looks and sounds super fun. Feel free to DM me if you find yourself passing through on the way back down.