Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Hey folks. My name is Cam and from Northern Ontario, Canada. I'm in my early 20's so I am still at the start of life in the big scheme of things. Currently living at a permaculture homestead for the summer to take in as much information and lessons as I can. I'm also in the midst of learning about value investing through Preston Pysh's free course on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfDB9e_ ... dex=1&t=1s

It's hard to date exactly where I learned about early retirement, but I'd say somewhere between 4-6 years ago now. I remember getting into Mr Money Mustache, and reading The Simple Path to Wealth along with other stuff about index investing. I eventually opened an account with Questrade and started buying the vanguard funds with the low fees. I was happily putting money away each month.

Then around November 2018 I came across a blog called Question Everything written by a systems science professor named George Mobus http://questioneverything.typepad.com/
His site was my introduction to the collapse of civilization, and it was a bit of an obsession for several months now that I look back on it. I probably owned about 20-30 books all pertaining to collapse, and was subscribed (actually still am to some) to many blogs discussing collapse. I fell into a bit of a depression for a while, and it was pretty much entirely from reading about all the issues facing us today. I did eventually get out of it with the help of some folks close to me and a change in perspective. I'd say Joanna Macy was one of the big factors in turning me around. She helped by redefining hope as something you do and not something you have. You don't hope that people in your neighbourhood start gardening, you start gardening yourself and set the example. You don't hope that your local community becomes stronger and more tightly knit. You start to get to know your neighbours - maybe through your gardening! Those are just a couple of examples.

Oh and I should mention that I sold my index investments upon learning about collapse. So as of now I have no investments so to speak.

So here I am now. I'm an active member on Permies and it's where I devote a lot of my energy. I'm also learning about value investing because it seems like a good avenue for me. I'm staying out of index funds for now I think. I do however want more income streams than just a job, and a week ago now I checked out the ERE investing parts of the 21 day makeover and it got me searching. First checking out the Dogs of the Dow, then the Canadian version called Beating the TSX. Then through that I got into value investing which is what I'm in the depths of now. So a bit of a long read, but I am happy to be here! It looks like a place full of good info and discussion.

*Edit I should add that I recently took an electrical pre-apprenticeship program at a local college, and I am scheduled to take a full welding course at the same college this fall. By the end I will be able to get my welding ticket with the canadian welding board. Following that I am going to start an electrical apprenticeship to eventually become a construction and maintenance electrician. The welding is more just a skill I'd like to have, not a career path. I have the time and the money to get the schooling so I am getting it while I am young with very few commitments.

hello! that's an interesting profile... welcome to the forum.

Now that I think of it that's a condensed version of the story. I'm interested in just about everything so I have been all over the place with regards to learning. My parents call me a dabbler and they are absolutely correct. I think I may try the journal as this will help get my ideas out of my head and out there. Thanks for the welcome!

Hey Cam! Welcome to the forum. I'm also in my early 20s and currently reskilling myself in light of revelations of collapse. Permaculture sounds like it'll be a great learning opportunity -- I'm very jealous as we don't have anything like that in my neck of the cornfields! I sympathize with the dabbling...LOL. Welcome to the forum!

Sounds like we're pretty similar, that's neat Yeah Ontario has quite a few opportunities for hands-on learning about this stuff. It was through my posting on permies that a lady contacted me about visiting her homestead and now here I am! I say the world needs more dabblers, we've got too much highly specialized expertise in a world with problems that cross many disciplines. Plus it just makes life more fun at least for me.

Cam wrote: ↑

Tue May 25, 2021 10:59 am

I say the world needs more dabblers, we've got too much highly specialized expertise in a world with problems that cross many disciplines. Plus it just makes life more fun at least for me.

hah! was gonna say something along those lines in response to your previous post. good to see you're in a good place mentally.

but nevertheless, "dabbler" is usually a pejorative. as an old, likely similar age as your parents, let me offer are couple more positive concepts for your self-presentation:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_knowledge

https://polytechnic.purdue.edu/blog/wha ... iplinarity

and a book:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41795733-range

frankly when i read your story i saw it all make sense as an integrative approach towards solving some fundamental problems vis-à-vis your world outlook. but that doesn't mean everyone can see it too. so here's hoping this can help you explain it to them.

Alphaville wrote: ↑

Tue May 25, 2021 11:09 am

https://polytechnic.purdue.edu/blog/wha ... iplinarity

Thx! That was useful. Turns out I've been using the wrong word.

Alphaville wrote: ↑

Tue May 25, 2021 11:09 am

hah! was gonna say something along those lines in response to your previous post. good to see you're in a good place mentally.

but nevertheless, "dabbler" is usually a pejorative. as an old, likely similar age as your parents, let me offer are couple more positive concepts for your self-presentation:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_knowledge

https://polytechnic.purdue.edu/blog/wha ... iplinarity

and a book:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41795733-range

frankly when i read your story i saw it all make sense as an integrative approach towards solving some fundamental problems vis-à-vis your world outlook. but that doesn't mean everyone can see it too. so here's hoping this can help you explain it to them.

Hi I'm Cam I am a transdisciplinarian generalist. Now that is pretty haughty I'd say, I like it. Joking aside I actually haven't heard that term before. I've heard interdisciplinary a lot though - I actually took two interdiscplinary courses when I was in university and I loved them. Each yeah there'd be a theme to the course, like 'dirt' or 'white' or 'trojans'. Every two weeks a professor from a different discpline would come give a talk about how the theme plays into their discipline. For example in 'trojans' a history professor would talk about the story of the trojan horse, a microbiology prof might talk about how viruses sneak their way into human cells, a religions and philosophy prof might talk about how Buddhism has been brought over to the west, but could be serving as a trojan horse for increasing productivity for capitalists (e.g. mindful workers get more work done, earn more money for company...but is this the goal of Buddhism). In the weeks between the lectures we'd have seminars where we took the last two talks and tried to find the connections between them. These were my favourite because the conversations would sometimes get totally off the rails but it was always endlessly interesting at least for me. Those courses do a great job of teaching lateral thinking (I think it's called) where you jump across disciplines easily.

Thanks for the book recommendation! I've definitely seen that one around but haven't read it. I'll check it out.

Cam wrote: ↑

Tue May 25, 2021 12:22 pm

Hi I'm Cam I am a transdisciplinarian generalist. Now that is pretty haughty I'd say, I like it. Joking aside I actually haven't heard that term before.

haha! that title is quite a mouthful. the transdisciplinary idea was put forward by you talking about "across disciplines." i just pasted the right label on it.

anyway let me try rewriting that intro (you add the caps later)

hi, i'm cam. i'm a generalist. i'm interested in developing trandisciplinary responses to conditions of ecological and societal collapse... (etc etc)

This is actually pretty close to the Stoa2 talk I've been working on since the first one: How a transdisciplinarian approach is much better for solving complex problems than getting a bunch of specialists together in a room---that approach has, after all, been failing for the past 40+ years. I called it "multidisciplinarian" because I wasn't aware of the distinction.

So watch out for that one... (not sure when)

Alphaville wrote: ↑

Tue May 25, 2021 12:35 pm

haha! that title is quite a mouthful. the transdisciplinary idea was put forward by you talking about "across disciplines." i just pasted the right label on it.

anyway let me try rewriting that intro (you add the caps later)

hi, i'm cam. i'm a generalist. i'm interested in developing trandisciplinary responses to conditions of ecological and societal collapse... (etc etc)

I like the sound of that. The only word I'd change is "developing", I'd put "implementing" instead. Lots of excellent responses out there to our predicament - think of permaculture, de-growth, re-localization and whatnot. We just gotta get off our asses and work on this stuff. I think that's my main driver for living a very frugal life now: so I can devote more time to working at it at my local level. And also why I am beginning to explore alternate forms of income.

oh if you are already at work then yes. plus we can shorten (& sweeten)

"...i'm a generalist. i implement transdisciplinary responses to..."

haha, i like words. well there's your suit of armor now. go charge!

Lol thanks for the slogan/introduction! Time to jump into the journals I think.

Welcome to the forum!
The Question Everything blog looks interesting.
Two expert authors on permaculture your may already know are Wendell Berry (Unsettling of America) and Sepp Holzer.
Yes, I have to also keep reminding myself to focus on things over which I have control - at the personal and local level.
ERE is a great example ... aggressive marketing tactics aside, no one else has power over how we spend our $!

It is an interesting read. Not fun when it was my introduction to collapse, but now that things are more settled in my head it is good stuff.

I have read some Wendell Berry, I think it was Sex, Economy, Freedom and Community I read recently. I really enjoy his writing. As for Sepp Holzer I have heard a lot about him but I haven't explored any of his materials.

Yes this is very important for one's mental health. It's something I frequently ignored when I was doing all my reading on collapse, and I suffered for it. I'm doing far better now (back to my cheery self) now that I've brought my focus back down to what I can have an effect on. Stoicism and the serenity prayer both harp on this same idea. And yes that's for sure! It's an empowering way to live I'd say, and extremely helpful in adapting to the ongoing collapse.

Cam wrote: ↑

Wed May 26, 2021 8:04 am

As for Sepp Holzer I have heard a lot about him but I haven't explored any of his materials.

sepp holzer is the smartest farmer there is and i wholeheartedly recommend his book even if it doesn't apply to your region/climate/etc because he is a great example of how to go about solving problems and thinking about things in a way that yields practical results.

Noted I will check him out. In the midst of a Geoff Lawton PDC course on DVD and it is giving me more insight on thinking in systems. I'll put Holzer's stuff on my list to watch when I get home.