The Education of Axel Heyst

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AnalyticalEngine
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Re: The Education of Axel Heyst

Post by AnalyticalEngine »

AxelHeyst wrote:
Sun Sep 11, 2022 5:35 pm
I'm probably done with traveling overseas. I'm really glad I went, there's no part of my travels that I regret... and I think I'm done with it, probably forever... partly because you give up a lot of day to day agency to live that way. You cook with what ingredients someone else decided to get, you work on projects someone else decided would be good for you to work on, you live with people someone else decided would be good to let join the group, you sleep in a place someone else decided was fit for a person to sleep in... it's fine for a time, but going along with other people's flow gets old.
That's been my experience with travel too. I think it can serve a very useful purpose in shaking you out of existing routines and mindsets, but the transient nature of it can make complete autonomy difficult because you're always on the move. Nonetheless, I for one appreciated hearing about your adventures over seas. I think you did something a lot of people would find very inspiring, and it was cool to hear about all the arrangements you found. Looking forward to hearing about your next installment.

Western Red Cedar
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Re: The Education of Axel Heyst

Post by Western Red Cedar »

AxelHeyst wrote:
Sun Sep 11, 2022 5:35 pm
and I thought about this post from waitbutwhy,
I forgot about that visualization. Really good stuff - thanks for the link.

I started having some second thoughts while I was in Mexico about the viability of long-term slow travel as a transition strategy. One can regain a bit of agency by paying for accommodations and groceries, but you still have a limited amount of control living nomadically with minimal possessions. There are some positives that come from that, such as keeping my ego in check and challenging my perceptions, but it can still be a grind. My main problem is that I've sold the dream to DW (INFJ) of vagabonding as the big transition after we quit our jobs.

Of course, we have time to figure it all out and it's probably not worth too much energy to worry about it at this point. We'll see where the stoke is when we are closer to our financial goals.

guitarplayer
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Re: The Education of Axel Heyst

Post by guitarplayer »

I am with you @AH on human powered way of travelling. Add to this wild camping where possible, and given one accepts what sort of lifestyle this becomes, autonomy in travelling can be largely retained. There is a sort of arbitrage to it, this has been written about in the ERE book. So for example, doing one of the pilgrimage routes like Camino de Santiago one can fly under the radar wild camping, 'because I am a pilgrim', but at the same time forgo the 'locals will welcome you with what they have' etc and instead go to a shop and get what you want to eat and similar. Question would be of the purpose for such travel. Picking up the above revived on the forum Bartle's taxonomy of players, one could take exploration as the purpose.

AxelHeyst
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Re: The Education of Axel Heyst

Post by AxelHeyst »

guitarplayer wrote:
Mon Sep 12, 2022 9:53 am
Question would be of the purpose for such travel. Picking up the above revived on the forum Bartle's taxonomy of players, one could take exploration as the purpose.
Achievement as well. "I pedaled all the way to Tierra del Fuego, learned Spanish and how to fix a flat with a mixture of dried leaves and goat manure, and my quads are now carved from oak". I'm keen on the idea of doing local trips along these lines, from my front door literally, as a way of ramping up into that sort of thing.

guitarplayer
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Re: The Education of Axel Heyst

Post by guitarplayer »

This is really funny that bit about dried leaves and goat manure

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Re: The Education of Axel Heyst

Post by AxelHeyst »

@wrc - it became quickly apparent to me that there was zero percent chance of exDGF and I workawaying as a couple. She would have not enjoyed the kinds of setups I wanted to do, and the ones she wanted to do would have had no use for me. Before we broke up, we were going to try to do like a month separate workaway, one month together in a rental, type of thing. I'm pretty sure that wouldn't have worked well. (For the record, though, the reasons we broke up had nothing to do with travel logistics).

That said, I met a few couples doing long term workawaying who seemed to be pretty stable. Many of them figured out a rythm, though, where they found a workaway that appeale to both of them for a time, and then would take time off to wild camp or vanlife or rent a cheap place.

At any rate, probably the main thing that would keep the stress as low as possible is making it explicit that you (as a couple) would stop whenever it stopped being fun. "At any moment, on a whim, we can just leave and go do anything else", whether that's rent a cush airbnb or fly back home. Knowing that you have the power to self-rescue yourself out of any situation you find yourself in aids in a laid-back attitude. Sort of like having FU money... if a host is being a dick, if a country or a city sucks, if any situation is just a grind, you can say FU and bounce.

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Re: The Education of Axel Heyst

Post by AxelHeyst »

On Saturday we had a neighborhood highway cleanup morning. It was good to meet old neighbors, some of whom I hadn't seen in 20 years, and also to meet new neighbors who'd taken over places I knew under the previous owners. I intend to develop a reputation as a generally available and capable neighbor who's happy to come over and help out (everyone's off grid up here, so there's always stuff going wrong). My dad has the reputation as the neighborhood PV system expert, so part of my angle will just be doing ride-alongs with him.

We finished our sections and met back at the trucks to chat and eat cookies my mom baked. Then I walked to my buddy's place in town. I started walking at 1030 and got there at 2030. From the point I started it was 24 miles.

I hadn't worked up to that mileage at all. I'd most recently gone on a 3 mile walk in the hills the week prior. I had food, 3L water, a change of clothes, a tarp, an ultralight quilt, and a zlite, in case I got tired and decided to overnight it. 90% of the walk was on forest road that parallels the highway, and then a long rural dirt road. Very pleasant walking.

The first 12 miles were fine. The pain started then, first in my toes and then my right knee, all the muscles and tendons. The pain never stayed in one place, it kept moving around and sort of roiling. I took that as sign that it was 'ouch this hurts please stop' pain and not 'something is about to break' pain. My energy, hydration, and PMA were fine the whole walk, it's just the foot and leg pain that made it spicy for the second half. I hobbled the last few miles.

I'm really happy with how it went. My feet are blistered but basically fine. My joints feel fine, even an ankle with an old injury that bothers me from time to time. I think long distance walking is something I can get into. I've had a suspicion for a while that long suffer-endurance activities are something I'd enjoy and be good at, as long as I stay out of the overuse/injury zone. 24 miles isn't much for people who actually walk, obviously, but it was a big step for me that got me a taste of being well past a certain pain threshold and I dug it. I've got some biomechanics/footwear issues to sort out, but I'm stoked to be doing more long walks and have some longer trip ideas in mind. Next step: build an expedition cart.

I took the MWF bus back to within a mile of home. I think I'm not going to have any problem not owning a car here. When I need to make a materials run for a build I'll just borrow my parents vehicle or tag along on a trip they're making anyway.

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mountainFrugal
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Re: The Education of Axel Heyst

Post by mountainFrugal »

Really cool! Now hike most of the PCT North and come stay with us! ;)
AxelHeyst wrote:
Mon Sep 19, 2022 3:27 pm
Next step: build an expedition cart.
and so it begins...

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Re: The Education of Axel Heyst

Post by AxelHeyst »

My Life Now That I'm Back
I'm on the family land, the land that is going to fall to me when my parents go. It's on the edge of the Mojave desert. It's 30 miles from town. There are less than a dozen neighbors, the nearest is a mile away. We're bordered by BLM, national forest, and designated wilderness on three sides. Current plan is that this is 'home' until I die or am compelled to leave due to extreme circumstances. (Obviously, I'm not optimizing for safety wrt climate or energy descent scenarios.)

My current focus is on setting up and learning to operate a personal-household system here. That means getting my wog operating smoothly in terms of the basics of shelter, food, water, transportation, and finances. This doesn't include growing food yet, but it does include appropriate food preps. The finances looks like getting my annual inflow of money to be greater than my annual expenses. Shelter mostly looks like ensuring I don't bake in summer or freeze in winter. (Some context is that my life has been 'unstable', moving from place to place every three months, since 2018. This is my first serious run at shaping an ERE system for the constraints of one place, rather than the constraints of constantly moving.)

I'm intending on not owning a car. My parents have two, and don't mind if I borrow one occasionally, so it'd be a big waste for me to get one. I'd like to drive it no more than once a month, when I need to pick up e.g. some lumber or salvage or a big food drop. Otherwise I'll walk or take the bus. If I get a fat tire bike I might be able to ride into town with only a couple miles of mandatory on-road, which I don't like because it's a narrow shoulder on a mountain highway with lots of gravel truck traffic.

My parents want me to do paid projects for them on the property. As I'm going to inherit this land, these projects are very homeotelic. My first project is building a solar system for the water well, which has been running on a gas generator since 1998. A likely second project is to build a covered deck out the back of the main house. So I'm continuing to develop practical skills, earning money, and improving the land that is my legacy. Excellent.

I've got a list of things I can build that I feel fairly confident I can sell (cargo trailer conversions, truck toppers, teardrops, for just one category), and many ideas for things I want to build anyway that *might* sell. Making stuff on spec to sell is an idea that's on the shelf for now, as I've got plenty of other tasks to occupy my attention.

A way I'm thinking about this phase of my life is this: How simple can I get? How little do I need? What is the effect on quality of life when I question as many of the assumptions about what I 'need' as I can in order to drive CoL down to absolute bare minimum? What skills do I need to learn, and how can I learn them while maintaining stoke? What does it look like to have my personal-household system humming along smoothly, requiring very little conscious effort on my part and almost zero decisions that need to be made quickly?

I anticipate being solidly in this phase for about a year - but who knows, could stretch much longer.

I think the phase after this will be about being more outward looking, investigating what kind of system I can spin up that is... I'm not sure 'greater' than household scale is the right word, but at least 'other' than household. Is that an ecovillage? A NAI-style research institute? An Advanced Retroadaptics training facility? I have inclinations, but no idea. I'm not trying to 'work' on that at the moment, but I don't stop myself from daydreaming about it if I feel like it. It's likely that the household-system phase and the Facility-system phase will blend from the one to the other. e.g. I might build my closed-water loop Ark walipini thing to get off well water and grow some plants and raise fish, prove the concept works, then bring on volunteers to build a scaled up version, and develop and entity that does workshops or events or something else using the Ark as a launchpad (activation energy) from the one to the other...
Sonke Ahrens, How to Take Smart Notes wrote:The risk of losing interest in what we do is high when we decide up front on a long-term project without much clue about what to expect. We can mitigate this risk considerably by applying a flexible organisation scheme that allows us to change course whenever necessary.


I have the gist of this quote in my head every day. I'm trying to build out my system in a way that maximally supports/cultivates intrinsic motivation. Ideally this looks like not having anything I *have* to do immediately, so stoke can more often be the top factor in deciding what to do.

I've rebuilt my GTD system to be mostly analog, and mostly mind-maps, which is a format that my visual brain likes. The idea is that I can quickly scan the mindmaps of all my projects without the implicit hierarchy of lists, let my intuition / internal sense of stoke guide me to whatever pops out at me, and do that. I also maintain a 'next action hopper' and set weekly desired outcomes, Cal Newport style. But I try to aim for having at least 50% of each day be purely unstructured wander time (a concept I got from Jon Young et al in the Coyote Guide). I look at my GTD stuff often enough to not worry that I'm forgetting something I need to do, but don't let the system dictate what I do, if that makes sense.

A crucial element of 'do whatever I want to do'-life is to take steps to make sure that I don't do things I don't want to do, but might be tempted to waste time on anyways. For example, my little compound is outside of the wifi coverage from the main house. I could easily mount a booster on the house to project internet out to my place. But I'm not going to, because then it'd be too easy to faff around on the internet.

AxelHeyst
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Re: The Education of Axel Heyst

Post by AxelHeyst »

mountainFrugal wrote:
Mon Sep 19, 2022 3:31 pm
Really cool! Now hike most of the PCT North and come stay with us! ;)
Currently researching PCT permits for 2023... 8-)

white belt
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Re: The Education of Axel Heyst

Post by white belt »

AxelHeyst wrote:
Mon Sep 19, 2022 4:49 pm
My Life Now That I'm Back
I'm on the family land, the land that is going to fall to me when my parents go. It's on the edge of the Mojave desert. It's 30 miles from town. There are less than a dozen neighbors, the nearest is a mile away. We're bordered by BLM, national forest, and designated wilderness on three sides. Current plan is that this is 'home' until I die or am compelled to leave due to extreme circumstances. (Obviously, I'm not optimizing for safety wrt climate or energy descent scenarios.)
Sounds cool. The only downside is it sounds like dating prospects might be...limited?

As you probably already know, Brad Lancaster's work might be particularly helpful for you since you're also in a desert.

AxelHeyst
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Re: The Education of Axel Heyst

Post by AxelHeyst »

The dating scene is indeed sparse, and local culture is mostly socal so not a huge amount of love for carless family-land-dwelling ERE dirtbags. Dating is a lower priority for me, as one of the takeaways coming out of my last relationship is that I'm now single by choice, as in single is my preferred permanent relationship status. That said, 'celibate' is *not* my preferred sexual-life status. I have some ideas on what to do about that but am unlikely to put any attention to it for a bit - my ideas require my personal household system to be running smoothly first.

Yep, I've had Lancaster's books on my shelf for a long time. I'm stoked to finally put some of those ideas to practice here soon. ETA: Also Art Ludwig.
Last edited by AxelHeyst on Thu Sep 22, 2022 9:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

theanimal
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Re: The Education of Axel Heyst

Post by theanimal »

AxelHeyst wrote:
Mon Sep 19, 2022 5:01 pm
Currently researching PCT permits for 2023... 8-)
We should chat. The Animal Clan is planning on heading southbound starting in July.

Western Red Cedar
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Re: The Education of Axel Heyst

Post by Western Red Cedar »

AxelHeyst wrote:
Mon Sep 19, 2022 5:01 pm
Currently researching PCT permits for 2023... 8-)
It is hard to get rid of the travel bug. :D

AxelHeyst
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Re: The Education of Axel Heyst

Post by AxelHeyst »

September Renaissance Report


Technical

I'm designing and installing a photovoltaic system for the water well here, which has run on a gas generator for over twenty years. I'll do a separate post on that at some point.

I'm also helping a neighbor retrofit his solar system, which has degraded to the point of barely being able to hold a charge. The solar panels are literally older than I am, which is incredible. Between these two projects, which are my third and fourth PV design-build projects, I'm really deepening my understanding of off-grid power generation and electrical systems in general.

I've got a long list of projects for Serenity and the Studio. I'm redoing Serenity's roof at the moment. Soon I'll build windows and shade scoops for the Studio's south windows, which will play an important role in heating the Studio through the cooler months. I'm going to build an outdoor shower. Over half my books are still in boxes, and I'm keen to learn some skills of finer woodworking than I've done so far to build some nice book shelves and cabinets. Longer term I want to build buried greenhouse structures that will play a central role in closing the loops on liquid water waste streams for the household. I'm very curious how much rainwater can be harvested.

So. I'm certainly not at any kind of a loss at what to do with myself now that I'm back.


Social

I'm in the slow process of reintegrating with my friends, family, and neighbors. I went to two highway cleanups and met the new neighbors and reconnected with the old neighbors, some of whom I did work for as a 15 year old bucking hay and mucking stables.

I am seriously enjoying time with my parents. It's one thing to visit family, which can be intense, and it's another thing entirely to live with them. It'd be difficult if we shared the same roof, but since I've got my own compound we can manage our level of interaction so we don't get burnt out on each other.

It's interesting being a 36 year old who has technically moved back in with his parents. It's not a narrative our culture is very kind to. But our culture doesn't really know what to do with the fact that I grew up helping develop this place. I hacked the main house foundation trench out of the decomposed granite with a prybar when I was 13 years old. There are whole walls I can point at and say "I remember framing that when I was 15". My brother and I dug the 1/4 mile long phone line trench together, 50 feet at a time. I built the chicken coop over at Gary's place, and the pond over at Earl and Edna's place? All those rocks around it? I put them there when I was 16. It took me all summer. Our culture doesn't know quite what to do with the fact that I want to grow old in this place and, with any luck, die here.


Emotional

I feel calmer than I maybe ever have. Where I am feels right. I'm not experiencing any kind of restlessness, which is a sensation that I mostly observe by noting its shocking and novel absence. My project 'list' is more like a sprawling network of interconnected nodes, but I have no real sense of urgency. I work on my projects as the energy and interest to do so arises, and things move along. I'm working on constructing an intuitive, delight-led workflow that harnesses the power of intrinsic motivation. I know how that sounds. I'll write more on it later.


Ecological

Listening to the birds here is a very different experience than listening to the birds in Scotland. It's much quieter here. There are far fewer apparent species. Not much moves about during the day.

I'm really enjoying paying attention to tracks. The sand here makes it easy. A few weeks ago I went for a walk and a coyote popped onto the jeep road ahead of me. He (?) trotted a little ways, paused to give me a look, and sauntered on. I tracked him a little ways but found it difficult (reading tracks here can be like reading a book that's had four or ten different books all printed on top of each other). I wandered off the road, picked up a deer's track, and followed it a half mile over the hill.

The solar designs I'm doing have me more aware of what the sun is doing (or, rather, what the earth is doing in relation to where the sun is). Doing yoga on the rear deck at night has me more aware of what the moon is doing (although I do miss watching the tides at Rubha Phoil). Wanting to start collecting rainwater and close the water loops here has me paying attention to what isn't falling out of the sky, how dry the air is, and the wind. Showering outside every day also has me aware of the impact of aridity and windspeed on evaporation and heat loss.


Intellectual

Books I'm Reading/Read this Past Month:
Surviving the Future, David Fleming and Shaun Chamberlain
Dune Messiah, Frank Herbert
Infinite Jest, DFW (I might have to stop reading this at night. I think it's influencing my dreams in an unfun way.)
The Heart of Yoga
A smattering of asset management books

Blogs and Podcasts:
Hanzi on Solarpunk.
Nate Hagens' The Great Simplification. In particular his episode with Rushkoff. 'The Sixth Pool?...' was gut wrenching. Listening to his Frankly #4 is a great intro to his thought. If you want to know what I think about The Predicament, just listen to Hagens. He hasn't yet said anything that I disagree with regarding the Big Picture stuff.


Economic

Technically some of my travel expenses occurred in August but I accounted them in September because it's neater. September also shows a bulk food order, the first step to get my pantry three months deep. I'm still in the sub10k zone, but making TTTM5K by next April is probably not going to happen. It'll more likely be May or June.

Image

It feels like spending very little money doesn't take hardly any effort of will or creativity any more. When I began this journey of frugality in January 2020, I was spending money at a rate of between $60k and $70k/year. That number seems absolutely bonkers to me now. I barely even understand it. I feel like surely it must be wrong and I should go check again, but I know its right. I have some boring excuses, but the fact is that in 2019 that's how much I spent.

It took a consistent and significant effort over many months to get my expenses down to the level they're now approaching. It was more than just cutting out obvious dumb expenses like going out to restaurants and bars too much. I had to develop new skills, new ways of thinking, and new questions to ask myself. My lifestyle looks quite different now, but also my mind works differently. There are thoughts I was capable of then that I'm not now; there are ways I think now that my self three years ago wouldn't understand.

Image

It is hard work to change your mind, but once it's changed, it's changed. It's like being a tug and pushing the prow of a boat that is just going forwards. It's hard work to get the big oaf to point in a different direction, but once re-pointed, it just goes. That's how I feel now with respect to willpower. It doesn't take any effort of will to not go out to a restaurant just because I don't feel like cooking. It doesn't even occur to me. The idea of going to a bar and spending $8 for a beer or $13 for a real drink is actually... almost revolting. The enjoyment of the drink and the atmosphere would be totally ruined by the near-physiological sensation of aversion to that kind of waste.

At any rate, it feels like I'm very near the end of the phase where decreasing my spending requires much effort. I've got years of work to tune and tweak, to mature my frugality practice and to deepen my skills, but the Big Push feels like its over. I'm at the point of diminishing returns, where every unit of effort invested to decrease expenses will only get me a few extra dollars a month of money not spent, whereas a year ago that same unit of effort got me $50 or $100 a month not spent.

Learning to spend very little money while still enjoying an interesting, rich life is an important first step, but it's not the end of the journey. I've learned how to spend little money, not NO money. My lifestyle still relies on a certain flow of income. For the past year I've lived off savings, but at least at the moment my savings are not a renewable resource. I'm drawing down from a finite source, and must learn to interact with my environment in such a way that I can continue my way of life indefinitely (see what I did there?).

My next phase is to master income generation and asset management on my own terms.

With any luck, my blog and podcast will serve as the equivalent of a forehead tattoo in terms of being a career-killer. I'm not going back to any kind of traditional j*b, and will probably never again earn a salary. I've got to generate income some other way.

Happily, I already picked up two pieces of paid work that I'm having an absolute blast with (the PV projects I mentioned). And I have a handful of other ideas for income generation that fit well with my desired lifestyle. The stress really comes off of income generation when you spend so little that you just don't need to worry about making a lot of money to pay the bills.

The other angle, asset management, is a whole thing. I'm still in the early stages of getting my head wrapped around it. It might be a while before I emerge from the fog of ignorance and am comfortable writing about it. But I will, eventually.

Physiological
Last weekend I walked to town to visit my friends, which was 24 miles. The first half was fine. The second half hurt my feet quite a lot, and I hobbled the last several miles. My blisters are still healing, but I really enjoyed the walk, and plan to do a lot more of it.

Image

I've been doing yoga on my deck every night, sometimes at night under the moon, and bodyweight training every week day. Having control over my diet again for the first time in six months is already showing a difference in my body composition; I've increased my ratio of fats and decreased carbohydrates, while probably holding protein about steady. Also the only bread I eat now is simple flatbread from freshly milled whole grains, and pasta is completely out.

ertyu
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Re: The Education of Axel Heyst

Post by ertyu »

sounds cool

tbh sorting out people's solar panels sounds like a great direction to go in; it aligns with your values and there's likely to be demand as well. one advantage you didn't mention that i can think of is, because you're a frugal person and coming at this from the direction of Values, you will probably naturally not scam people and not try to milk and overcharge them. Quality work for an honest price builds its own reputation; i won't be suprised to see your jobs expand by word of mouth.

how long did it take you to walk the 24 miles?

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Re: The Education of Axel Heyst

Post by AxelHeyst »

Ten hours. My pace really dropped off for the last few miles as the pain in my feet spiked.

And yeah I think you're right about the solar stuff. Also this community is remote enough that getting people to come all the way out and do good work is a real issue, for solar as well as just general handyman stuff. Some outfits in town simply won't come out, and others charge a lot just to drive up.

Western Red Cedar
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Re: The Education of Axel Heyst

Post by Western Red Cedar »

ertyu wrote:
Thu Sep 29, 2022 11:21 pm
Quality work for an honest price builds its own reputation; i won't be surprised to see your jobs expand by word of mouth.
+1 to this. It seems like there is a lot of opportunity for incidental income from developing or repairing off-grid systems, as well as general handyman work. This could fit really well into a model focused on building skills and community while still treading lightly on the earth.

My dad made friends with a local contractor/handyman a couple years ago who lives a few miles away from their cabin. Initially, he hired him to consult on upgrading the electrical system and pumps for his wells, but he's pitched in on a few different projects. He just charges a standard hourly rate, and has even come over for something as basic as helping my dad move a new fireplace out of the truck and moving the old one out. At this point they are casual acquaintances and he is happy to just talk to my dad about a project and give him some pointers because he has so much other work.

Based on your history in the area, I could certainly see a future with a series of mutually beneficial relationships that provide some structure, purpose, and capital while also giving you the flexibility to take off for months to pursue some cool adventures, or just chill out when you don't feel like working.

guitarplayer
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Re: The Education of Axel Heyst

Post by guitarplayer »

AxelHeyst wrote:
Thu Sep 29, 2022 7:15 pm
[...]I was spending money at a rate of between $60k and $70k/year. That number seems absolutely bonkers to me now.
Wow, to me too! Must have been quite a ride all the way down to the current level.
AxelHeyst wrote:
Thu Sep 29, 2022 7:15 pm
It is hard work to change your mind, but once it's changed, it's changed.
I tend to think that it is hard work to change the other way as well, i.e. once expenses are at a low level, it is actually difficult to get up to a high level expenses. At least I feel it would be difficult for me to get up to your original expense level, it would probably take a few years to get there.
AxelHeyst wrote:
Thu Sep 29, 2022 7:15 pm
I'm not going back to any kind of traditional j*b, and will probably never again earn a salary. I've got to generate income some other way.
It's good you don't rule it out completely, no harm in a salary job maybe for a bit at some point or every now and again.

AxelHeyst
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Re: The Education of Axel Heyst

Post by AxelHeyst »

guitarplayer wrote:
Fri Sep 30, 2022 2:09 pm
At least I feel it would be difficult for me to get up to your original expense level, it would probably take a few years to get there.
Eh, it's not that hard. ;) Just tell your gf you'll support her financially even though you know she just got a 1985 vanagon that needs a new engine, pay for six months of apt living in a place where people from the SF bay area go to play, and spend the rest of the time driving in circles between CA and NM at 14mpg because you're towing your house. Also, buy a motorcycle. And eat only food from expensive hippie coop type places. That'll just about do it.

The lesson there for me was that there's more than one way to plow through cash. I was living vanlife sort of kind of, which can be done inexpensively if your strategy is set up that way, but doesn't automatically mean you're going to be living frugally. I just happened to live in a diy trailer thing, but the j*b (income) and lack of any coherent strategy meant I was just wildly responding to life as it happened to me and solving my problems with money. It's amazing how many problems crop when you're a nomad with no strategy and not much extra time (because you work full time).

In other words, if you didn't look too hard at my life my burn rate wasn't obvious. I didn't have a new car, lots of gadgets, new clothes all the time, a big house, trips to tropical places - most of the stereotypical observable markers we associate with a high level of consumption, I didn't exhibit. But if your strategy isn't on point, our culture makes it really easy to make it rain.

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