Early Retirement Extreme Forums

DNA influence is limited to maybe 0-10 people, whereas cultural influence goes anywhere from -50000 to +50000 or possibly even more but also less. It's a very different game. It's not uncommon for a parent to see their children working against them even if they share 50% of their genes. Which is the most important information channel and why?

I've worked with quite a few engineers in motors and watches in the french parts of your country. Very good engineers.

Engineering can be very difficult to get a foot in the door. Once you get past this hurdle you'll find it much easier to maintain.

Culture builds on DNA.
But it's not about having influence. It's about not being my own center any more. Nearly nothing I'll do could ever be more important to me than myself, except maybe childs. You had more than your share of cultural influence, but if you had to chose beetween all the influence you had over the world being removed, or dying immediatly, what would you chose?
On the opposite, I think many parents would chose to saccrifice themselves for their child with no hesitation.
I know a child is maybe more likely to die than all your cultural influence being forgoten. But it's not about results. It's about being invested.

we are going to northern norway for a month in two weeks. Really looking forward to it. We'll try to take trains to Bodø (train to narvik are already fully booked). And then hitch hike.

How did the job interview go Jean?

There was a sort of heatwave in Glasgow recently, even now I have 23 C in the flat. I think I got used to cool ambient by now. When considering relocating, I am not leaning more towards mountainous areas in Europe such as Switzerland or Scandinavia indeed. I like the wild camping laws in Scandinavia.

Also, happy 9.5 years anniversary-and-a-half on the forum.

the interview went well, but i think he figured out my gap afterwards, because i haven't heard of it since.

i got my wood for my high stand. It's probably the closest thing to an off grid house i can build here without
breaking laws.
three sides will be vertical, and one slightly inclined for stability. floor will be around 2.5m above ground. Total area will be around 4sqm. I'll have it closed on all sides. Challenge will be to build and erect it alone.

i managed to erect the structure without having it fall on my skull and break it. I had to be creative to have the different element stay vertical until i bound them together.

So can you summary your current housing situation? Maybe provide a link or maybe I will find it on my own.

What have you meant by gap? I get the gist, but is it like you came back to job market after 2 years or more? I suppose you're more into intermittient working settings rught now, but can you provide list of gigs you've done after grad uni?

I remember following things:
- savings a lot money during uni, buying house at the end of PhD,
- renting half of the house, living in the annexxe
- working a bit as scientist, hating it
- working gap
- selling beforementioned house (not sure), living creatively with GF in somekind commune (not sure)
- trying to come back to workforce, no success (haven't you tried to sell it as sabbatical?)
- wanting kids
- intermittient gigs
- ???

Sorry, if I'm coming out as "stalker". This is more about being current with most interesting folks over here over long periods of time. You can write nothing to my post or write something over PM. Or maybe treat this as somekind invitation to write book/blog on your non-consumer/howlie lifestyle .

After uni (graduated in 2010), i looked for a job for two years with no success, i made some money working in agriculture and doing my military time. I then started a phd in 2012. It was payed, and i saved a lot of money and bought a cheap house. The phd was awfull, so i left in 2015. Since then, i worked four month in carpentry, and since last year i do some moving, but less than one day a week. So i have an 8 year gap.
I still live from renting the house. I live in a big building which we rent at 8 people. I have a room there with my gf.

The high stand in the forest is just for looking at animals. Altough i could probably live there if having a family was not in my plan.

My plan to make more money in the future is to hunt cervus elaphus and sus scrofa, and sell the meat, hide and broth.

i dismounted an rebuilt tbe structure with four straight side. I finished the floor and the trap door, and was able to slip dry under the structure during this rainy night.

i finished my high stand. it's already leaning a bit, but it's nice.

i should stop applying for real jobs. somehow, it always makes me depressed. It makes me think about how much land i could have bought with the money if I had been able to find a real job when i graduated 13 years ago, or if i learnd a trade 21 years ago instead of getting an engineering degree.

Jean wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 06, 2023 10:05 am

i finished my high stand. it's already leaning a bit, but it's nice.

I'd love to see pictures of you don't mind sharing.

You're still young enough to get a well paid job and stockpile cash.

i have no idea how.

Jean wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 10, 2023 7:51 am

i have no idea how.

You seem to know and enjoy dealing with property/land in Switzerland. You could find deals for others to invest in. Profit by either getting a commission from the transaction or sourcing fee, alternatively even some kind of arrangement where you manage it for them. Pitch it to overseas buyers as an ultimate hedge against WW3/global financial meltdown/etc

Why is the gap a problem? Is it because your skills are out-of-date or some other reason?

i don't know. For hr people, it makes me look like a creep.

From a company perspective, there are a couple problems:

1. The failure to launch any career for 10+ years makes you look like someone who's after an "altenative" lifestyle. Basically a hippie. Such people are not good employes, because they don't care about promotions, raises (so - can't be motivated with them), and are likely to just leave the job quickly once they're bored, uncomfortable, or made enough money for their next adventure. The company knows that you basically won't care about them or the development of your career - and there are plenty of people on the job market who (look like they) will.
In complex office jobs such as engineering, workers are (by neccessity) only very loosely supervised. This means that it's largely a trust based relationship, and that a slacker or some sort of unhonest person could very easily take advantage of the company for a long time before they're found out (if ever). That's why companies pay so much attention to people's demonstrated character and motivations - they want to discard as many bad apples as possible.

2. After so many years, the company can't be sure if you even remember anything from your studies.

As I think I wrote here before, both can be rectified by showing commitment via investing some time and effort - either by some additional studies, or a personal project, or unpaid internship if you can get one.

zbigi wrote: Such people are not good employes, because they don't care about promotions, raises (so - can't be motivated with them), and are likely to just leave the job quickly once they're bored, uncomfortable, or made enough money for their next adventure.

OTOH, these qualities make them the opposite of "deadwood", which depending on the overall strategy of the firm might be worse. Hanzi Freinach describes the wave of humans approaching the leading edge of culture as mostly consisting of "hippies, hackers, and hipsters." A firm that was agile enough to take advantage of the human resources offered by somebody like Jean would likely also be highly competive in other ways.