Solve my World
By Joseph
Solve my WorldFeb 07, 2020
55: Lessons from the Game of Poker
Poker
Receive 2 cards, you are the only one to see your two cards
Dealer reveals 3 cards that all players can see and use in their hand
Players bet
Check - if you have enough bet but don’t want to raise
Fold - if you need to put in more chips but don’t want to
Call - match the amount of chips bet by others
Raise - increase the amount of chips bet by each player
Dealer reveals another card
Players bet
Dealer reveals final card
Players bet
Best hand wins
You have no control over the cards you are dealt or the community cards
The only control is whether you take the opportunity given to you or wait for another opportunity
If you are wise about the opportunities you take and the ones you don’t, then over time you will win more often than lose.
When deciding how much to bet, you determine how often you would win out of 100 rounds with that hand (winning percentage) If you would win 1 out of 100. Then you wouldn’t want to bet much if at all because you would have to get 100x what you lost each round when you win just to break even. But if you would win 50% of the time then you only need to double your loss when you win which if you have more then 2 players is likely going to happen.
In life, you don’t get to choose where you start, who your parents are. You only have a small control (usually) over what other people do to you. But you do have the opportunity to choose how you react.
When you have a bad “hand” you can fold and just ignore the situation, you could also bluff and try to learn some things about the other players.
Sometimes, when I have someone who is purposefully attacking me (verbally). I often find it’s a good strategy to bluff and assume that they are joking with me and I laugh along with them. Oftentimes this either softens them up or at least confuses them enough that I can leave the situation.
Sometimes you are given great opportunities and you should determine your odds of success and how much you are willing to bet on that opportunity.
Most of the time you are just dealt average hands and you can try to make the most of it and be willing to adjust as you go.
If whenever you get a bad hand you get angry at chance and think it’s not fair, you will be a poor poker player. Use your bad hands to learn. Be creative, is there any way to turn this into a win, even if it’s a small one?
Remember, we are playing the long game, it’s not about winning every hand, it’s about winning the whole pot. This happens by consistently making good decisions and correctly determining probabilities.
Great players can turn bad hands into successful rounds. It’s all about the mindset
https://www.thrivetimeshow.com/podcast-guests/sean-stephenson/
Clifton Taulbert
54: Auto Assign Secret Santa
Each year for Christmas each person in my family is assigned one other person to give a gift to.
We want it to be a surprise so we can’t have a rotation
We can’t have ourselves or our spouse
We can’t have the person we had last year
We would like to make it more likely to get someone that we haven’t been assigned for awhile.
My program automatically sends out an email to each person with their assignment.
I like it because it forces you to try to get to know the person better so that you can get them a good gift. Strengthens family bonds etc.
53: The Tragedy of Age Segregation
Age Segregation
Kids go to school, spend all day with other kids their age
People are encouraged to retire, leaving the workforce for people in working age
Older people spend their time in retirement homes
The normal thing is for the grandparents to help teach the kids
Grandparents teach what is most important, morals, how to live a good life
Parents teach more practical things, how to make a living, how to organize your life etc
Why the change?
Perhaps because things are changing so much that many people look at their parents and grandparents as uninformed because they don’t know the latest tech.
Schools and the push for retirement are big factors
52: Designing your vision for your life
People making drastic life choices without thinking them through
Autopilot just following the path of least resistance
Buying things you don’t need or sometimes don’t even really want
Weighing the importance of each thing
There isn’t enough time or money for you to do everything so you must actively prioritize
Big potential mistakes:
Going into debt - car, house, college, consumer
Wasting time
Not having an idea of what you want your life to look like
What to do?
Think about what a perfect day would look like for you
Try to be as realistic as possible (sitting around all day gets boring fast)
What can you do to design your day to look like that as much as possible?
Do this exercise often because it will motivate you and also it will change over time.
51: LastPass Password Manager
50: Making the World Stronger by Allowing Groups to Split
When more than one leader crops up it is because the people no longer agree on something fundamental
Social insects follow this pattern
Primates follow this pattern
Dunbar’s number hypothesizes that we can have a group of 150 people max that we feel comfortable socializing with
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number
If a group gets so big that each person no longer knows all the others then it’s harder to agree on a leader (or common ideologies)
The tribe then splits (or fights)
This is probably good over all
As long as the groups can get along, separating because of fundamental differences leads to more options
The more options there are, the more likely a better option will emerge
If we force everyone to stay in the same group it is probably unhealthy
-it leads to animosity and resentment
-If there is only one option it is less likely to be the ideal (fragile)
How could a system like this work?
Maybe try to design cities with this in mind
Allow communities as much autonomy as possible
Make sure there are clear agreements, traditions, expectations, etc for what happens when there needs to be a split. (peace treaty, who leaves and who stays)
Dispute resolution is key
49: Personal Preparedness
Personal Preparedness
thesurvivalpodcast.com
Emotional?
Risk Assessment
Fragility Assessment
most common things are not what most people think of
Lost job (savings (money and food), personal connections, side hustles)
Sickness (savings, insurance, personal support group)
Disability (savings, insurance)
Unexpected expenses (savings, insurance)
Death (savings, insurance)
Etc
Less likely things are potentially more disruptive
Natural disaster (food storage, insurance)
Economic problems (food storage, social connections)
War
Pandemics (food storage)
etc
Preparing for the more common things usually sets you up pretty good for the more disruptive things
Find ways to make yourself ant-fragile
Tips:
Make a budget, start saving, financial freedom!!
Eat what you store, store what you eat.
Get insurance!!
Help those around you and build social connections
48: Google Keep
-Widget on your phone
-record audio
When people give you a suggestion, make a note
When you think of something, make a note
Must plan on looking at it at some point
47: Collective Preparedness vs Individual Preparedness
Collective preparedness is fragile
We can’t always predict everything
We can’t have stuff for everyone
Only one option, if we get it wrong everyone is hurt
Individual preparedness is anti-fragile
Most people are prepared for the things that they think are most likely
Anyone who is wrong can be helped by those who are right
There are thousands of options with varying degrees of usefulness
Distribution is easier
No single point of failure
Each area, community and person is more likely to know what their needs are
46: Time Management
Capture Tasks (Stay Focused)
When you are already doing something and you see something else that needs to be done, write it down wherever you need to so you can remember it later.
Unless it is more urgent or important than what you are doing now
Or it won’t throw you off track
Prioritize Tasks
What is Urgent?
Things that will cause major consequences if they are not done on time
What is most important
What do you enjoy
Plan Tasks
Try to eliminate as many urgent tasks as you can (Focus Funnel Procrastinate on Purpose by Rory Vaden)
Eliminate - Ignore
Automate - Invest
Delegate - Delegate
Procrastinate
Permanence of deadline
Rock - Cannot be changed, you do it at this time or not at all
Wood - Date is set but you could potentially change it
Clay - Better if scheduled but can be moved easily
Water - No scheduling needed, can be done any time
Focus on the most important urgent item and get it done then move on to the next
Take small breaks as desired (pomodoro)
When All your urgent tasks are done, work on the things that are most important and that you most enjoy.
45: Aloe Vera
Aloe Plants
Easy to grow
Basically never water them and they are fine
Uses:
Sunburn
Bug bites
Scratches
Aloe Juice
https://www.healthline.com/health/how-to-use-aloe-vera-plant#caring-for-aloe-vera-plant
44: Crowdsourced Funding
It is difficult to fight piracy.
Are copyrights moral? (another day)
You can get the product for free or maybe watch an ad or something (you would be able to anyway)
Or you can buy the product and then you get a share from all future profits
43: Make Everyone Your Coach
Ask For Advice
Ask Questions
Listen
Last week we talked about coaching. This week I will share a trick that will let you turn everyone you meet into a potential coach.
When you talk with people, the natural tendency is to do most of the talking but the people who are the best conversationalists are the people that listen the most. They listen and they ask good questions.
The trick is asking good questions, these are questions that allow the other person to share things that are important to them.
Body Language. Where are the feet pointing
While you are asking questions you may as well ask advice about the things that this person is good at.
Remember, only listen to advice from people that know what they are talking about. If someone is unhealthy, discount their advice about health. If they are poor, money. Etc. (always exceptions)
42: Phone Car Mount
iOttie Car Mount
Powerful suction cup with sticky edges to hold
Transfer it from car to car fairly easily
Take your phone on and off with one hand
Adjustable to fit any phone (probably)
41: Freedom of Association vs Anti-Discrimination Laws
Freedom to refuse service
Freedom of association
Lawsuits against wedding cake businesses who refuse to make a cake for gay weddings
Anti-discrimination laws for employers
This idea sounds good in theory but has unintended consequences
Whenever we try to legislate morality it becomes difficult to enforce and usually starts creating inequalities with how people are treated under law
If I have a company I have the right to refuse service to anyone no matter what because it’s my company. If I want to be a racist that is my right. I will probably go out of business but I have the right to make that choice.
If I want to fire someone I should be able to do that for any reason whatsoever. For the same reasoning. If I fire people because I’m racist then I will miss out on good employees from other races and will be less competitive. Plus as news of my stance spreads, there will be many people that will boycott my business because of that.
The market will correct itself if people truly believe in a cause.
If the government gets involved it can create many unintended consequences. If I fire someone because they are a bad employee. They might try to sue me for discrimination. Well I was discriminating... against bad employees. The creates an enforcement issue that favors bad employees because they have less to lose from the situation.
What if I have a haircutting place for people with african style hair. Someone that doesn’t have that type of hair would be discriminated against because they can’t be served.
What about a mens haircut place? Is that discriminating against women?
If I have a sales job then I might want someone who can speak fluent english. Is that discrimination?
What about movie studios, when they need someone to fill a black role is that being racist that they aren’t hiring white people?
40: Natural Talent and Hard Work Are No Longer Enough
Against the Rules with Michael Lewis
Natural Talent is no longer enough
When playing sports the older you get, the less it is about natural talent
Canadian kids highlight the advantage of coaching
Thrive 15 coaches businesses to success
Kids that have better test coaches/tutors get higher scores on standardized tests
Better schools lead to better outcomes
No matter how good/smart you are, you will not be able to compete for long without some sort of coaching.
Is this a problem that exacerbates inequality?
39: Motion Sensor Solar Lights
Solar Motion Sensor Lights
http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/aiotd-4-13-17
I found some cheap with a deal several years ago and really liked them. I don’t have a specific brand but Jack over at the Survival Podcast recommends these ones and his reviews are very reliable.
38: How a Free Market Handles Shortages (Toilet Paper Anyone?)
Auto-Adjusting Price
https://twitter.com/bytemaster7/status/1254229127219105793
Empty shelves are evidence of government interference in the free market or an economically ignorant population educated by said government. In free markets scarce goods are always available at a price and competition keeps it as low as possible.
In an optimized market store shelves could automatically increase pricing as inventory fell and lower pricing as inventory rises. Imagine if we used bancor to ensure everything is always available to those who need it most when they need it.
All the more reason to have prices rapidly adjusted to ration remaining supplies and reward those who prepared. Instead we punish those who prepare to serve this market by denying them profits.
Those guys take an economic bet that future demand will be higher. Further more, if stores had dynamic pricing then it wouldn’t be possible to buy them out to resell higher.
In a market with fair money and free from government distortion those with money have earned it by providing value to others in the past. If money is not the arbiter of scarce resources then political clout or those willing to wait in line at 3am become the “virtuous” entitled.
Should I Invest in Bitcoin?
What is bitcoin
Peer-to-peer network
Immutable Ledger of transactions
Decentralized
Bitcoin solved the “double spend” problem
World wide access (internet)
Fixed supply. Rate of inflation cannot be altered
Relatively fast and cheap transactions
Risks:
In a normal market, as demand increases the price increases which leads to more supply being created by producers joining the market which lowers the price which leads to less supply being created as producers leave the market.
This happens constantly which allows the price (supply and demand) to reach an equilibrium.
If you have something with a fixed supply then there is no way for supply to adjust to meet demand. This means that the price is completely tied to demand. And because demand is the unpredictable and uncontrollable aspect of price. The swings can be irrational at times.
This is predicted to lead to volatility.
There are other, theoretically better, cryptocurrencies out there that could make bitcoin obsolete.
There could be a new technology that renders bitcoin useless. Perhaps quantum computers
Conclusion:
Many people have gotten rich from the large price swings of bitcoin.
Many people have lost everything from the large price swings
At this early stage it isn’t really an investment, it’s speculation. Which means that you should only speculate with money that you are willing to lose because you probably will.
CamelCamelCamel.com
Amazon price tracker
Notifies you when it hits a certain price
Shows best deals on amazon
Rss feeds of deals in a category
It only saves you money if you would’ve spent it anyway
Just because it’s a deal doesn’t mean you have to buy it.
Virtual Reality Driver Training
Virtual reality simulator that mimics real driving as much as possible
Let kids drive when they get a high enough score?
Your car can judge your driving?
Yearly test or something
Maybe a vr app you could have at home.
Over time your score goes down
As you drive in the app your score goes up
Testing centers
Self-Awareness
Accept and love yourself
Don’t take things personally take them as suggestions (facts)
Listen to what others say, even if they’re joking there can sometimes be truth to what they say
Step back and imagine that you are an outside observer watching your speech and actions. What would you think of yourself?
Pay attention to what things bother you in other people and chances are, they bother you because your subconscious knows that you do those same things.
Come at it from a desire to learn and grow, not to feel bad about yourself. None of us are perfect but we should always try to be better.
If someone gives you feedback about yourself that you don’t agree with, listen anyway. They’re not always going to be right but they are more likely to be right then you are.
How I Fixed my Knees
https://www.amazon.com/Christophers-Formula-Complete-Tissue-Ointment/dp/B000FVDY2A/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=Dr.+Christopher%27s+Formula&qid=1591975426&sr=8-2
I don’t know a ton about different herbal remedies but I had this product recommended to me.
Growing up I played a lot of soccer. A little during high school but mostly after I started having sharp pains in my knees. One knee would hurt pretty bad so I would wear a brace on that one and then the other one would start to hurt so I would switch.
In addition to the sharp pain while playing, they would also ache quite often making it hard to sleep sometimes.
I had this product recommended to me because it is able to help your body to reproduce cells faster, including your bones and other deep issues.
I was a little dubious but I started putting it on whenever my knees hurt. They seemed to have a small pain relief effect in the short term but I started to notice that I was using it less and less as my knees stopped aching. I also stopped wearing the knee brace while playing. In the last year I have probably only used it once.
My boss uses for cracked hands
My mother-in-law uses it for cracking feet
Also good for small cuts and bruises
Don’t use for deep cuts
Finding everyone a Good Job
Currently it’s all about who you know. Getting connections is the key to getting a good job. If you are just sending in resumes then you are going to have a hard time finding a new job.
This makes it difficult for people that don’t have connections to get ahead in life.
We could help teach people how to make valuable connections
We could create companies that do it for us
Companies want employees and are willing to pay
Employees want jobs and are willing to pay
There is incentive on both sides to solve this problem.
Headhunters keep a list of people that they know are good employees and they are always looking for opportunities to connect their people with good jobs. Why not have a scalable version of this.
Tinder for jobs
Counselors to help you find interesting jobs
Schools help with learning specific skills
Junk Food for the Brain
I was listening to a podcast and the host asked the guy, “Why are people so addicted to the news?”. The guy responded quickly and almost dismissively, “It’s junk food! It’s just junk food for the brain. Anything shocking or anything like that, it’s junk food.” They moved on to a new subject but for whatever reason his quote stuck with me.
What is easier to sell, cookies or vegetables?
What will have people coming back again and again because they crave it?
I feel like over time the news has just gone more and more towards the “junk food” and less and less towards healthy foods.
So to take this analogy further:
Junk food:
Quick high - shocking news gives you a jolt
Bad for you short term and long term - in the short term it makes you anxious and emotional, in the long term it makes you cynical, depressed, numb.
Healthy food:
Not as exciting up front - almost boring sometimes
Leaves you feeling good - learning something new
Gives you more energy - Leaves you feeling positive about the world
Allows your body to heal.
My Everyday Carry (EDC)
Every day carry
Wallet - Grip6 Wallet v1 (not for sale)
Keychain - Carabiner clip
Keys
Gerber Dime - https://www.amazon.com/Gerber-Dime-Multi-Tool-Black-30-000469/dp/B006M9NIDO
Knipex Pliers - https://www.amazon.com/KNIPEX-87-01-125-Pliers/dp/B005EXOKKE
Market for Kidneys?
Kidney Donation Market
Is it ethical to allow people to sell their kidneys?
Potential issues
Poor people could be manipulated into selling their kidneys because they feel they need the money or even as collateral for a loan.
Is this a bad thing? I’m not sure... probably
The purpose of a market is to allow supply and demand to work out the optimal distribution of a scarce resource
Money is a great way to run a market because it is fungible, easily transferable and allows people to make good decisions.
But a market doesn’t have to be monetary.
Other solutions:
Kidney paired exchange programs
https://www.kidney.org/transplantation/livingdonors/incompatiblebloodtype
If you want to donate to a friend or family member but you are incompatible, you can donate to someone else in the same situation and you can swap the kidneys.
Preferred status for organ donors
People who have signified their intent to be organ donors if they die are given a preference if they ever need an organ transplant.
My idea:
Why haven’t I donated a kidney? Partially because I want to save it in case someone I care about needs it. But what if no one I care about ever needs it? What if I could donate now and then receive a voucher that I could give to anyone in the future that gets them first on the list for a new kidney?
This would allow me to donate now, helping someone who needs it, and then in the future if a friend or family member needs a kidney, I can give them my voucher which would be equivalent to giving them my kidney.
In fact, you could probably do this for all organs, but instead of you getting a voucher when you die, you could specify in your will who gets the vouchers for any organs they are able to use when you die.
This would incentivise people to donate organs now, when they are needed but still be able to get some benefit from them in the future.
Get Off Your Phone!!
- Most mobile phone users check their phones up to 63 times daily.
- Americans spend an average screen time of 5.4 hours on their mobile phones daily.
- Currently, there are 272.6 million smartphone users in America.
- Social media is responsible for 2 hours and 24 minutes of global internet time spent online by an average user daily.
- 13% of millennials spend over 12 hours on their phones daily.
- Most people check their phones around 63 times a day.
- Baby Boomers spend 5 hours using their phones.
- Millennials spend 48 minutes texting every day.
Being on your phone isn’t a bad thing in and of itself
This really is a time management issue. There are lots of ways that we waste time doing things that don’t really make us happier
The problem with phones is that they are especially addictive
Push notifications:
This is a big one. If you haven’t disabled push notifications then your apps will send you little alerts every once in a while begging you to come back.
Disable all push notifications by default and only enable ones that you truly want to be notified of immediately. For the rest of your apps, you can check them when you want to on your schedule, not whenever the app maker wants to distract you.
variable ratio schedule - Excitement of seeing new things, sometimes something new sometimes not. Same as slot machines
FOMO - What if you miss out on some tidbit of information? This is what the app makers want you to think.
This is especially common for social media and news apps
To cure yourself of it, don’t check the app for a while and see if you really missed out on as much as you thought. I bet you won’t.
Infinite Scrolling - If there’s no bottom then you will never get the mental que or satisfaction from finishing so you will just keep scrolling forever.
Make a stopping point for yourself. Setting a timer is a good way to do this.
Autoplaying videos -
This is common in video streaming services as well as social media
When your show finishes the next one starts playing automatically, this means that if you don’t take initiative then you could sit there forever.
If possible, disable this feature so that if you want to watch the next show you’ll have to physically push the play button. This gives you a minute to decide if you really want to watch another show or not.
Remember that you are in a constant battle for your time, the only resource that you can never get more of. We only have so much time, how are you going to spend it? The app makers want you to give it to them so that they can sell your time to advertisers. They will do whatever they can to make that happen. If you don’t want that then you will need to fight back against them.
I talked about it in my first show but make sure that you are paying attention to others and not ignoring them because of you are addicted to your phone.
Ask yourself, am I making myself happier, becoming a better person, helping others?
Wishshield Wiper Replacement
If both of your windshield wipers are the same size you can apply this trick
When you feel like you need new windshield wipers just buy one new one and put it on the driver’s side.
When that one gets worn out, get a new one, put it on the driver’s side, and take the old driver’s side one and put it on the passenger side.
The passenger side one doesn’t need to be as good so your old driver’s side wiper should be fine on the passenger’s side
I look for when my wiper goes on sale and buy one so that I always have an extra one.
Extra tip
Consumer reports says that pretty much every windshield wiper will last about 6 months no matter how good it is. The better ones just do a better job before they get worn out so you don’t have to worry too much about trying to buy high quality to last longer.
Taxing Corporations
Each corporation's true purpose is to give profits to the shareholders. There is a going rate for how much it is worth it to risk creating a business in an area. This number rarely changes. If the expenses go up then costs must be cut elsewhere or prices for the product must go up.
Shareholders expect a certain rate of return
When you tax corporations they simply pass on the cost to the customer
Of course, the tax code is so messed up that it isn’t necessarily that simple.
Which of course brings us to our conclusion that the tax code is too complicated and probably immoral
What would a moral tax code look like?
Property taxes
States pay federal
Counties pay states
Cities pay counties
People pay cities
Each city can decide how to tax for services
This allows for the most competition between different tax ideas
Fees for services
-roads
-police
-fire
-military
Survivor Bias
Survivor bias is a form of selection bias
Selection bias is when you are doing a statistical analysis but you don’t get a good random sample because of your poor selection criteria
During World War II, the statistician Abraham Wald took survivorship bias into his calculations when considering how to minimize bomber losses to enemy fire.[10] Researchers from the Center for Naval Analyses had conducted a study of the damage done to aircraft that had returned from missions, and had recommended that armor be added to the areas that showed the most damage.[citation needed] Wald noted that the study only considered the aircraft that had survived their missions; any bombers which had been shot down or otherwise lost had logically also been rendered unavailable for assessment. The holes in the returning aircraft, then, represented areas where a bomber could take damage and still return home safely. Wald proposed that the Navy reinforce areas where the returning aircraft were unscathed[10]:88, since those were the areas that, if hit, would cause the plane to be lost. His work is considered seminal in the then-nascent discipline of operational research.[11]
How to Tie your Shoes
Best way to tie your shoes
How to Lace -
Evenly tighten all the way down
Over-under (x-marks the spot)
Double Helix
Ukrainian style
This simply turns the laces upside down so that you have a pre-made starting knot and two loops even when your shoes are untied
How to Tie -
Fast and Secure
Fastest shoelace knot is the “Ian Knot”
More secure is the “Secure Ian Knot”
Who is Liable for substance abuse?
Allow people to sue for addiction recovery
How can we handle dangerous and addictive substances?
Current problems:
Making substances illegal:
Creates black markets that lead to crime and abuse.
Funds criminal gangs
Addicts are criminalized
People who are addicted are at the mercy of the dealer with no recourse
Costs a lot of money to enforce
Difficult to enforce
Creates privacy issues
Constitutional?
Moral? I think it is immoral to make substances illegal
I think we can all agree that illegal substances generally do a lot of harm so if we don’t make them illegal then how will society handle it?
Many people argue that from a moral perspective if people want to take addictive substances it is up to them.
But as I’ve thought about the issue and listened to debates from different experts I think that is only true when the person is able to make the decision themselves.
For example, we generally don’t allow children to make their own decisions until they become adults.
I would argue that when people are addicted they have lost the ability to make a rational decision and therefore are no longer truly making the decision themselves.
I think this is proven by the fact that many people try to quit but can’t. If they are trying to quit isn’t it their decision to not do it?
I think that they should be treated less like adults making a rational decision and more like a child that is not liable for their decisions as much.
So who is liable? Well if an adult/company influenced a child to do something, the adult/company is held at least partially liable for the outcome. I think the same could be applied to addictive substances.
Solution?
Legalize all substances
Allow addicts to sue the seller of the substance for rehabilitation costs
Also apply to gambling/pornography/etc
Will this work?
I imagine that companies selling drugs would have to be very careful to not allow their customers to be addicted. I can only guess as to how they would handle this but off the top of my head I have a few predictions
Creating/breeding for less addictive substances
Monitoring of Customers, if they suspect that a person is getting addicted then they might require a doctor or specialist of some kind to sign off on letting them purchase more
Go out of business all-together
Benefits:
Enforcement would be basically non-existent
Black market would be greatly reduced
Potentially helpful drugs that are currently illegal could help more people (cannabis)
People that do get addicted would be helped
No need for the government to violate privacy. If you buy drugs from someone you know who they are if you need to sue them.
Another benefit would be that companies that make addictive pharmaceuticals would also be able to be sued. If this had been in place the opioid crisis I believe would’ve been much less. And at least the companies responsible wouldn’t have made a killing off of the problem that they caused.
How to Handle Your Inbox
Many people have issues handling their email.
I think the biggest problems come when people use their inboxes as a type of to-do list.
This allows anyone to add things to your to-do list by simply emailing you.
Email is really a communication and information sharing tool.
You could use it to give you ideas of what to put on your to-do list but your to-do list should be separate.
Method 1 - Inbox 0
Idea, you must sort your email before you read any of them, clear out the clutter!
Unsubscribe from recurring emails
Search for all emails from the same place and delete them all at once
Archive all your important emails like bank statements and such. It might be worth creating an automatic filter to archive these
At this point you should only have emails that you actually want to read and because you’ve seen all of them you can go ahead and start reading/replying to the most important ones.
Remember that just because someone emailed you does not mean that you have to respond or take any action. Guard your time by guarding which tasks you decide to do otherwise others will quickly fill your time with things that are important to them
Method 2 - Ignore method
Idea : If I’m not paying you or you’re not paying me then I’m not going to respond to your email
Use your email as more of a reference. If someone wants to get a hold of you they can call or text. If they then send you attachments or more information in an email then you can quickly find it and use the information
On the whole you just ignore your email. Think of it more as like a facebook newsfeed, you could scroll and scroll and never get to the bottom.
Check your email once a day and only reply to people that are paying you or that you are paying
Ignore everything else
My method - Hybrid
I generally ignore my email most of the time but then once or twice a month I will go in and get to inbox 0.
This works well for me because most of the time my emails aren’t urgent and if they are I just take care of them as they come. (either by responding or adding them to my to-do list) and then once or twice a month I go through all my emails and get to inbox 0. This way I can find anything interesting that might not have been important enough at the time to worry about but that I would like to put on my to-do list.
The Most Ancient Game Still Played
The game was invented in China more than 2,500 years ago and is believed to be the oldest board game continuously played to the present day.
Go was considered one of the four essential arts of the cultured aristocratic
-Instrument
-Go
-Calligraphy
-Painting
- Rule 1 (the rule of liberty) states that every stone remaining on the board must have at least one open "point" (an intersection, called a "liberty") directly orthogonally adjacent (up, down, left, or right), or must be part of a connected group that has at least one such open point ("liberty") next to it. Stones or groups of stones which lose their last liberty are removed from the board.
- Rule 2 (the "ko rule") states that the stones on the board must never repeat a previous position of stones. Moves which would do so are forbidden, and thus only moves elsewhere on the board are permitted that turn.
Backgammon is a "man vs. fate" contest, with chance playing a strong role in determining the outcome. Chess, with rows of soldiers marching forward to capture each other, embodies the conflict of "man vs. man". Because the handicap system tells Go players where they stand relative to other players, an honestly ranked player can expect to lose about half of their games; therefore, Go can be seen as embodying the quest for self-improvement, "man vs. self".
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.zenandroid.onlinego&hl=en_US
Retirement or Financial Freedom
The cultural norm is currently that we work until 65 and then retire. This is looked at as everyone’s dream, work hard your whole life so that you can retire at 65 and just relax the rest of your life.
Is this really what we want and for that matter, is it what actually happens?
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/more-people-are-returning-to-work-after-retiringand-theyre-happy-about-it-2020-01-31
Many people are returning to work after “retiring” sometimes several times.
So if the holy grail is that we can give up working at 65 then why do so many people continue working long past that?
I believe that we all want to find meaning in our lives. Working is a way that we help others and contribute to the world. If this is true, why would we ever want to stop?
I think the reason the idea of retirement is so appealing is because when we “retire” it means that we no longer have to work, any working we do after that is a choice.
Once we don’t feel like we have to work, any work we do is much more enjoyable and fulfilling.
So why do we need to wait until 65 to get to this point?
We don’t!
Let’s change our mindset, instead of focusing on retiring sometime in the future, what if we focused on becoming financially independent as soon as possible.
What is financial independence? I define it as when you have enough money, or passive income, that if you decided that you didn’t want to work tomorrow, you wouldn’t be stressed about it, at least not from a financial perspective.
Maybe this means that you could start working part time at your current job and still have enough money to get by for a year while you worked on a side-business you’ve always wanted to do.
Maybe it means that you can take a lower paying job that gives you more meaning and still be able to support your family.
Maybe it means you can simply work for non-profits the rest of your life with no pay.
Maybe it's just taking a year off from your current employment
The point is that you are free! If you don’t want to go to work you don’t have to! You only work when and on what you want to!
It might take you until your 65 to get to that point but it also might only take you until you’re 30 or anywhere in between.
So how do you become financially independent? Good question!
I’m not anywhere close right now but it is my goal to get there as soon as possible.
A few tips I’ve heard from people who are financially independent:
Start saving... a lot! Many people start saving as much as 50% or more of their income. Just think, if you saved 50% of your income, you would technically only need to work half the year!
If you save 50% for 5 years think of how much money you would have!
Invest wisely, investing is a great way to increase your savings at a faster rate, but remember that if you aren’t getting good advice and really researching and learning about investments you could very easily lose a lot of money.
You will probably lose money on many of your investments but you want to learn from your mistakes and get better over time.
Either increase your income or decrease your spending or both! This allows you to save and invest even more.
Organizing
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A place for every thing and everything in its place -Benjamin Franklin
Start big picture. Instead of finding a specific place for everything find a home for categories of things. Food in the pantry, dishes in this cupboard, pots and pans in this one.
Once you have the basic areas for things you can start to organize each area more specifically. Canned goods here, fresh stuff there, etc
No point in starting with the specifics when often you end up changing it all around anyway.
When organizing an area, make sure that you only get out enough stuff that you will have enough time to put it all away.
Ask yourself if it’s worth finding a place for the thing/storing it. If not, decide if you want to sell it, recycle it, give it away, or throw it away
Have a place for homeless items
Pick one area and anything that is not in its home:
- If it has a home, put it there
- If it doesn’t then if you can think of one in less than 30 seconds then do that and follow step 1
- If you can’t think of a place right away, put it in the homeless area.
Homes:
Make it easy to put away. If you want something, you will take the time to get it but if it’s hard to put away then you often just stick it somewhere
If you’re not sure where something should go, ask yourself “if I needed this, where would be the first place I would look?” Usually this is a good indicator of where it’s home should be.
The more frequently you use something the more convenient it should be to get it out. If you only need something a few times a year, you can put it in an inconvenient spot but if you use something every day it should be easy to get to.
If you use things together, think about putting them close by
Gum Chucks! The Best Way to Floss! (No Really)
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“According to the American Dental Association, you should floss at least once a day in order to maintain optimal oral health and prevent gum disease. If your gums are really healthy, flossing every other day or 3-4 times per week is fine. If you ever see any blood on your floss, just increase your frequency of flossing until any bleeding stops.”
https://www.brigliadentalgroup.com/blog/oral-hygiene/how-often-should-you-floss-your-teeth/
Design a Stable Currency (No Inflation or Deflation)
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Purpose of Money (To store the value of our working time)
Attributes of a good currency
- Transported
- Spent
- Hold Value
- Problems with Inflation
- Money loses value over time
- Money loses value over time
- Problems with Deflation
- New users to the system are penalized
- Hoarding is encouraged, potentially leading to a deflationary spiral
- New users to the system are penalized
- Problems with Inflation
How to create a true stable coin (Match Supply with Demand)
Tie to the worth of human time
- Money represents our working time so the value should follow human working time.
Design of System
Stable Coin - Tempus (Time)
- Maintains stable value in relation to human work time
- Users mint new coins by proving they are human and spending time
Shares
- When new coins are minted, a percentage goes to shareholders.
- New shares are created (5% annually) and sold for tempus that is burned
Increasing supply
- Users mint new coins by proving they are human and spending time
- For every new coin minted by users, a percentage is also minted and given to shareholders (or perhaps just used to buy and burn shares?)
Decreasing supply
- Steady rate of burn (In theory, if there is a constant rate of burn then we should avoid the “death spiral”)
- Inflate shares to buy and burn tempus
- Inflate shares to buy and burn tempus
Proof of Human Work
- Captcha market (I don’t really like this idea but it’s the best I’ve got so far)
- captchas that prove you are human
- Users are given a random captcha to prove they are human and mint new tempus
- captcha developers get paid with bonds that mature at a later date (1 year?) and can be seized if the captcha is shown to be cheating the system
- Bounties for discovering cheating users/ captchas
- captchas must burn tempus to be listed/they must pay users out of pocket for an amount of time (1 Year)
- captchas that prove you are human
- Maybe try to determine the value by analyzing the fees people pay
- Some other way to find how much people value their time
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y3KQjNfxk73xKQQEx3uLIuglmGEp5TeRTJAu13lhHSs/edit#
Easy Budget
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Recurring:
Expenses that happen on a regular basis that you are committed to pay
Reserve:
Expenses that you know will happen but you're not sure exactly when or how much they will be.
Discretionary:
Everything else
Steps:
- Take your income
- 10% for charity
- 10% for investing
- Fund recurring items
- Take 10% of what is left for reserve
- The rest goes to discretionary income
Track your expenses and subtract them from your saving categories
Pick a Person
This algorithm is designed to select a random participant from a group by having each participant select a random number.
This allows for a decentralized and tamper proof way to select a random participant.
Following is a brief explanation:
Each Participant picks a number between 1 and the number of participants.
You then take the sum of the numbers and get the remainder after dividing by the number of participants.
The remainder is the participant that is selected. (remainder 0 is the last participant)
To see an example of a single round click here.
To run a test to see if the algorithm is truly random click here.
How Does Money Work?
A currency is simply a type of commodity that's use is facilitating trade
A good currency needs:
The ability to be transported easily
The ability to spend easily
The trust of people that it will hold value in the future.
You don't need to tie a currency's value to another commodity
How to Change Your Mind (and flat earth theory)
How to disagree productively and find common ground | Julia Dhar
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We all have opinions on how we think the world works
What are the chances that you are right with all of them?
Your chances will actually increase if you are actively changing your mind to be more correct over time.
Ask yourself, what would it take to change your mind
This opens you up to the possibility of being wrong
This doesn’t mean the you should change your mind all the time
Sometimes you are right, you just need to give equal weight to your opinion as to others’ opinions.
Just because you hear something new doesn’t always mean you need to change your mind right away
There are reasons people (or you) believed the things that they do. Take that into account
Sometimes the reason is ignorance. In this case when you learn something new it can change your mind
Most of the time there is a counter argument, find out what the counter argument is and the counter argument to that argument.
Most issues have been debated back and forth enough times that there are good arguments and counter arguments for each issue
Usually it comes back to where your worldview originates and what is most important to you.
Flat Earth Theory
What would it take? There would need to be a convincing set of arguments to explain the natural phenomena we experience.
Pocket: Saving Articles to Read Later
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Use share feature to instantly save articles
Read at your leisure
Offline mode
Article View
Text-to-speech
Easily Share
Tags (open to the “not tagged” page)
Rethinking Traffic Stops
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Should cops pull people over?
One of the dangers that cops face is when they pull people over on the side of the road
It is dangerous for the cop because:
They might be on the edge of a busy highway
They don’t know how dangerous the person in the car is
It is dangerous for the person because there is always a potential for escalation leading to problems for the person or the cop
It also causes increased traffic because people are trying to get out of the way of the pulled over vehicles or slow down as they approach.
Increased traffic leads to dangerous situations
So why do we do it?
To keep dangerous people off the roads.
To get drivers to slow down
To disincentivize drivers from driving recklessly
Is it worth it?
Keeping dangerous people off the road is probably worth it because they might cause an accident and I can’t think of a better way to do it
Getting people to slow down is questionable because speed has been shown to not be all that dangerous on its own. I think a cop could be just as effective pulling up behind someone and writing them a virtual ticket that will be mailed to them along with their picture.
Stopping reckless drivers is potentially worth it because they might cause an accident. But I think you could use the same tactic as the people speeding to get them to stop.
Problems with the idea:
What if someone else is driving your car (maybe they could take your picture so the owner of the car would know who was driving)(maybe facial recognition could be used though I’m not sure if I like that idea.)
To Act or To Be Acted Upon
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Statistical analysis can predict with scary accuracy what people in general as well as individually will do
What does this mean?
We are predictable
We react according to our circumstances
We are swayed by propaganda and marketing
We should make our own decisions and not just go with the flow
This doesn't mean that we never do what we are predicted to do, we just make sure that it is our choice, that we are the ones controlling our destiny.
When we passively let things happen to us as opposed to actively deciding what we will do, we give up that control and let whoever designed the system run our lives
Pay attention to the mechanisms of control in your life.
Who is trying to influence you and what is their motivation?
It's probably better to by default be resistant to anything that is trying to influence you to counterbalance their tactics.
It doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing, many people are trying to help.
But regardless, we should try to learn and then make our own informed decision, even if that decision is to trust someone
We can't know everything and make every decision so we need to create our own methods to help us make our own choices.
Find people you trust that can make / help you make the decision.
Instead of mindlessly scrolling through social network feeds, make sure you are curating what you actually want to be seeing.
Find people or systems that's goals align with your own as much as possible. Are they just trying to sell something, that doesn't mean that they can't give good advice but it means that they might have a conflict of interest.
Best Virtual Keyboard
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Video of the keyboard in action
https://youtu.be/NK0LddWJ6oY?t=49
To install the keyboard go to this link
https://cobalt232.github.io/blackberrymanager/
click "Download"
You might need to give permission to install it
When it is installed, open it up and find blackberry keyboard from the list
Install that (you might need to give it permission)
Follow the instructions
Let me know if you have any questions or issues
Peer-to-Peer Charity
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The thing that stops many people from giving to charity is not knowing who they should give the money too. I believe that most people would give a share of their money to help people in need if they were only aware of the people that most needed it.
Many people say that the governments should do more "charitable" things. But charity is supposed to be about helping each other, not having our money stolen (which makes us angry) and then given to someone else from the government (which makes them feel entitled and ungrateful). It should be about you giving money from your own free will (which makes you feel good) and someone receiving help from you. (Which makes them feel grateful)
This last month there was a girl in my small town that got in a snowboarding accident. She ended up in a coma and needing brain surgery. A few members of our community put together a fundraiser. They asked local business for donations of food and products for a silent action. Many members of the community baked desserts and had a bake sale. They were able to raise thousands of dollars to help this family. How do you think we all felt as we participated in this event? How do you think the family felt when they saw the community getting together to support them. It became about more than just the money. This is how it should work.
We could've just raised taxes and then sent them a check from our town. It would've been the same amount of money spread across the community. But how different would that've felt?
I have often thought about how we could better bring together the people who need charity with people that want to help. I think that with blockchain technology we now have the tools to make this a reality.
We could have an organization where people can request donations for themselves or others who are in need. Then people can join by donating every month and choosing which people/organizations would get their money.
Then based on who you are donating to the platform could suggest other causes that you might be interested in supporting.
The Permanent Portfolio - Automating your Investing
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Decide which assets you want to hold
Assign each asset a percentage of your portfolio
A permanent portfolio is composed of equal parts stocks, bonds, gold, and cash.
Periodically rebalance your portfolio
The idea is that when one asset class goes up and another goes down, you harvest profits from the one and put it in the other. This way you are always buying low and selling high.
Suggested to rebalance once a year
I have an algorithm that rebalances constantly
Algorithm to determine what price you should buy or sell the item for
You need an average of what the price normally is
The more you have of an asset the lower your price will go
The less you have of an asset the higher your price will go
Your buy and sell prices should have a spread. Mine is at 5% right now.
The lower the spread, the more you will be buying and selling. But you make more money on the swings
The higher the spread, the less you will be buying and selling. You make less money on swings
Chore Program with Automatic Pricing
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I share a few updates to my chore system.
Here is the link to the blog post that introduces the idea.