Don’t worry about efficiency and worry about output

I have always thought that being efficient was the way to go for planning my faily schedule, it is only recently that I have come to discover a better way to do it.

We want to look at what you have accomplished during the week rather than how efficient you made everything. Why care about saving your commute if at the end of the week you didn’t write any stories or blog posts.

From now on I don’t worry about if this is the most efficient way of doing it – I just think – what do I have to get done today! Whats needed to be done this week so that I can achieve my goals.

Like a sniper looks through his sights, this aligns your goals for the week!

Heading nowhere to your goals

Did you set lofty goals at the beginning of this year?

And did you forget about them and now realise it is already October again – this time 2022?

Don’t worry – let’s start again next year in 2023?

You are falling into the trap that keeps you the same every year.

Start on your goals tomorrow!

I will tell you how in my post tomorrow – so stay tuned!

Help yourself before you help others

Do you feel like you have the right answer? What you are doing is the correct way to go about things? That you wouldn’t do things any other way?

Well, I can tell you for a fact that you are not wrong – everyone we meet is living with ideas and theories that they think is correct and right. Otherwise they wouldn’t be doing it – right?

When i was younger, the idea that everyone has their own thoughts was foreign to me. As i got older, i realised that everyone is working to achieve the very best for themselfs and based upon the story they tell themselves.

Some familiar tropes that we all often hear:

• she is out of my league, she wouldn’t go for someone like me
• that is so dangerous, you must be crazy to attempt or have that idea
• better settle down before its too late
• we need to trade time for money
• we can’t be happy until we get what we want

The natural narratives and programming that society has established restricts our ability to do what we want and funnels our actions into a narrow subset. Else, if we think in probabities – this is the normal distribution of actions to ensure a stable societ. Whether rightly or wrongly.

The mere thought that you do something outside the familiar tropes will leave you in mediocristan living a median life. That may be good for some people, but i hope it isn’t what you want.

Putting it all together – I think that things that our outside the normal distribution are going to be labelled as crazy, or weird. And we should not let others’ opinion influence our decision.

IF the decision has high upside and low downside. GO FOR IT. There is very little to lose and all to gain.

What i learned from the great book thinking in bets

After reading this book I have noted some mental models or techniques that help you in your decision making

Keeping the door ajar (90% certainty of your beliefs).

Leaving some doubt so that the idea or action can be discussed. If we invert this idea, the likelihood that you are 100% correct 100% of the time is 0. It is irrational to belive that you are 100% correct so why are we so certain of all the choices that we make?

Ulysses contract (be proactive)

A Ulysses pact or Ulysses contract is a freely made decision that is designed and intended to bind oneself in the future. … The term refers to the pact that Ulysses (Greek name Ὀδυσσεύς, Odysseus) made with his men as they approached the Sirens – He tied himself to the mast so he could avoid the beautiful song of the sirens.

10 minutes – 10 hours – 10 years (first order/ second order effects)

Put your position out from where you stand and thinking about the impacts or likelihoods then

back casting (beginning with the end in mind)

If we put ourselves in the final position and look back, do you think of how naive we were for the original idea?

pre mortem (ante)

instead of a post mortem – conduct a premorterm to determine what you have and why you have made these decisions. this will allow you to review and adjust your decision making with the benefit of hindsight.

Related books

• thinking win- win. Story about battling with your partners. Losses of serotonin when someone ‘loses’. Change the frame
• Sharpen the saw (cointunous improvement – habits book)

The beautiful sun – what does this tarot card mean for you?

The Sun Upright Meaning

The Sun is at the centre of our solar system – And the Sun card is about your centre, your self — who you are and how you cultivate your personality and character.

The Sun’s radiance is where one’s original nature can be encountered in health and safety. The limitations of time and space are stripped away; the soul is refreshed and temporarily protected from the chaos outside the garden walls.

Under the light of the Sun, life reclaims its primordial goodness, truth, and beauty. If one person is shown on this card, it is usually signifying a human incarnation of the divine. When two humans are shown, the image is portraying a resolution of the tension between opposites at all levels. It’s as if this card is saying “You can do no wrong — it’s all to the good!”

The Sun Reversed Meaning

The Sun is round and its form reversed suggests that this is one of two cards that traditionally have no negative meaning. Perhaps you will choose to take extra care to humbly count your blessings and give credit to all that have contributed to your successes.

Perhaps you can create a program of giving, volunteering or bringing as many people into your good fortune as you sensibly can. Satisfy your conscience that you are a wise steward of your good fortune.

What should you do?

The Sun card advises you to have confidence in your natural divinity. Be true to your centre and throw off any conditioning (cultural or otherwise) that keeps you from being authentic with yourself.

Step into the full light of truth and reveal your motives and principles. Once done, you will no longer give away power to the people that criticize and shame you. Focus on the positive and the real. Your authentic shining self can be a light for others if you project it without contrivance.

Visual Intelligence – sharpen your perception

A few cliff notes that i remember about the book

• When we describe a scene, we should aim to be thorough and use objective language and not leading (subjective). For example, when looking at a picture of a older lady and baby, we should not jump to the conclusion that she is the baby’s mother. We simply do not have enough information to reach this conclusion. This is similar concept of being more rational (limiting your language to more discrete descriptions).
• When we look at a painting, the interesting thing is not the painting itself, but our life experiences affecting how we describe the painting. For example, a dentist will tend to look at a peron’s tooth first, a doctor look for medical signals and an architect will admire the background. This is what is interesting about paintings beause it creates discussions from the alternative viewpoints created by people’s life experiences.
• The perceiving eye vs the observing eye. When we look at an item we see it and recognise for what it is. We make a decision on this item in a snapshot (honed in from our forefathers – lest we get eaten by bears). We do not have the luxury of time to take a step back to really understand what is happening and examine our first impressions. So understand your first impressions and examine their weighting regiously. Take a step back and use our perceiving eye.
• So really we should consider it in two-fold action. We can perceive and try to fit within our existing mental models, but we should also describe only what is happening and to free our mind from jumping to conclusions.
• This is the next level and you can really see the problems created by using particular language. You are there to sell and enforce your language set and have the person react to this new language system.
• When using the perceiving eye, it pays to turn your head and not be target focused and only look at one thing. We should observe the communiation /language that leaks from the body. Touch is something small and can be perceived greatly by a women because you are invading her persona space. Something that does not happen daily. We are separated from our connection with the physical word – focusing on the experience of our minds
• Understand that things are different from another angle. If you control frame or tackle the problem from the side this is enough to break down any resistance or to apply force from another angle. Just like in bjj – there is only resistance on one side. And you can try to overpower on the one side or seek another path which is easier. To complain that they are ‘too strong’ releases you have the onus to seek another solution/path. Take a step back and revaluate your choices and actions.

My takeaways:

• Guard the language that I use and recognise my first impressions and provide weighting accordingly
• Keep my thoughts in the present and actually listen to what the person has to say
• Don’t get caught up in my thoughts and use my perceiving eye

So you picked up the Hanged Man. What does it mean for you?

The Hanged Man Upright Meaning

This card indicates a lack of ability to help oneself through independent action. Your energy is arrested and awaiting judgment. With this card, you are in a losing position and there is no avenue for the will to regain control until the situation has passed.

This represents a good time for you to be philosophical, to study and meditate upon the position you find yourself in, and to form plans for the moment you become free again.

It is challenge to you and only those who possess wisdom, patience, and optimism will be able to break through the downs, the limitations, including possible humiliation, to grasp the inspiring lesson one can gain from such an experience.

The Hanged Man Reversed Meaning

If this card is reversed, this suggest that your seemingly noble deed of offering yourself as the sacrificial lamb is, at least for the time being, a useless gesture. There will be no benefit to the greater good; you will experience no expansion of consciousness.

It would be an empty move, so don’t put yourself in that position. Ask yourself on what basis you allowed yourself to hope that your sacrifice would make a difference in this situation. Who knows? Perhaps this is meant to be an opportunity to learn something about self-denying tendencies.

The Hanged Man Advice Position

This card advises you to surrender illusions of control. Accept that you have been overcome and deceived by your own devices. Having made your bed, you now need to lie in it. This is not a negative judgment. It’s just that sometimes there are consequences for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Bad things can happen to good people. These consequences are not fatal, even if they are inconvenient — or perhaps even embarrassing.

Stop resisting your circumstances and let some time go by. Eventually, you will be released a little wiser and not much the worse for wear. You will come to realize in time how you collaborated with the problem. However, the issues you were stuck on when you were first hung up have subsided and no longer concern you. You are free to take up new endeavors. You will ultimately feel refreshed and grateful that you were derailed from your former track.

Life’s prescriptions – and why they limit your choices

My friends (D&L) were getting married in a church with a pastor. The pastor was saying a few things regarding the church, and referencing various passages in the bible.

An item that was of note was that he mentioned fear was the overiding reason why couples fight and that we should not be afraid of fear. That the more time people spend together, the less we can be truly open to our partners.

From a historical point of view – the teachings have been used for hundreds of years and should likely continue working. It has been proven to be anti-fragile. However, we need to take note that the environment has changed, and what once worked – eg. farming may not work anymore. Due to technlogy and laws the relationship between men and women is now different.

Since we have limited our ability to edit this document, and only change our interpretation. We have a limit of big a leap we can take with these words. These prescriptions provide a path for couples to navigate (provide instructions) which may limit potential options in today’s age.

Things that i have an alternate viewpoint

• thinking win/loss in the relationship. We should always reframe as looking for the truth and trying to solve win/win
• the perception that the relationships are difficult and that we need to whether through the valley of conflict. We must recognise the nature of women and look to/and convince her that she is the best man for her. That means keeping in shape, fashion and always be showing your strong side. Showing the motions aka weakness only reinforces the point home to the female partner that she can do better
• body languague tells alot. There was a kissing game where the host brought out another couple. The man looked to it as an opportunity to get some ‘action’ whilst the female did not want to practicipate. only peer pressure was able to bring her up, and then after they were kissing – telling that she pushed his face out of the way when it got too cringe for her.
• when i read the vowels with my wife will i be quoting Naval – from the book of naval
  • looking to play long term games with quality people
  • the difficulty is staying together thick and thin, and aim to raise a family long term
  • always look to provide win win
  • prescription that i was a player and that i finally found the one and look to settle down
  • awkward and timid in the beginning and now working to full confidence with no fear of social thoughts

My takeaways from the Sovereign Individual

I recently read this book and is what I learnt:

• The recent period of middle class and less inequality was a outlier and not the norm. Throughout history you will you find examples where there was a wealth disparity between peoples. This is in effect of compounding your habits (or wealth) where in those productive people kept on producing. Causing inequality of outcomes
• the internet will break down abritrage opportunities. No longer will your job be priced to be done in the country you live in if someone else from a lower cost location can do it. Note that this is also includes your fellow countrymen living in those lower cost locations. Those lower cost locations are no longer the deprived locations as seen in ages past.
• the internet forces you to compete with everyone, and also gives you opportunity to network with anyone. Harder to get in, but when you do – there is alot more money to be made
• we live with the tyranny of location – the internet will allow you to be break free from that and thus the government will act more like businesses nowadays, trying to entice the best customers

After understanding the above things, here is how to put it into practice

• Build that second and third income on the internet
• Put a discount factor on buying properties that have no location advantage. If we break free from the tyranny of location than it will be of fact that the old idea of living next to the city is not as advantageous – you can work from next to the beach, on a farm, in a low cost location
• Look for places that are advantageous. e.g. close to nature, next to airport, good community