Just read Malcolm Gladwell’s article on Nasim Taleb in What the Dog Saw.
It basically talked about 2 different investing strategies & psychology behind them. Most people prefer to win a little everyday even if their investing strategy exposes them to lose everything in a day.
Nasim Taleb has figured out how to make money by losing a little everyday but making a fortunate in a day. He is basically making a bet on the world being a lot more unpredictable than predictable.
I definitely prefer second strategy, sometimes I miss bi-weekly paycheck but mostly I don’t mind losing it for much bigger reward.
I think I read in one of Malcolm Gladwell’s books that humans trust stubbornness. Humans don’t like leaders who change their mind often. In fact, humans will continue to trust a leader even if he is proven wrong as long as leader himself doesn’t say that he was wrong.
Humans are strange creatures indeed. I rather have a leader who admits that he was wrong and fix it than a leader who stick to incorrect decision because of his ego. Okay I don’t like confused flip flopping IN-decision maker either but decision made later will always be better than decision made earlier. Simple math here. Later you will have more data than before, hence, better decision.
Okay it is possible that later data is bad or data is not processed correctly. So anyone acting too quickly on new data without verifying it, can make a worse decision than before. Such hasty person is probably a flip flop-er.
I guess you gotta find a happy medium, change or adapt your plans but don’t react to every little new information.
Most people drive like as if they are invincible but spend like like as if they will die tomorrow.
Those long lines of slow moving cars on are usually funeral processions. The right Southern etiquette is to stop and get out of your car when you see one.
Sometimes, it is hard to tell if cars are just moving slow or if they are part of procession, be respectful & take the other street.
I was skeptical of Tim Ferriss‘ The 4-Hour Workweek as it just sounds too ridiculous to me. However, when I saw this book in audio format at my public library, I decided to check it out. (Oh I am in love with audio books). So far I finished 1st CD, and I must say there are a lot of gems of wisdom spread in there. Then I checked Tim’s blog and it is even better. There are so many ideas for outsourcing your life, it’s wonderful.
From the 1st CD, the best advice I heard was that regular people buy stuff for sake of buying or their goals are to buy things like expensive cars or gadgets. Whereas “New Rich” as Tim Ferriss calls people who follow his philosophy, have goals of doing things and in the process if they buy something great. In other words, instead of owning stuff, do stuff. It is more fulfilling.
This philosophy affects me a lot as I am a gadget collector, whenever I see something cool I buy it, even if I know I will never ever really use it or get good at it, like my guitar. Sometimes I even buy books that I know I will not read in immediate future but would like to read sometime if I have free time. From now on I will only buy what I need to do something that I want to do.
Sometimes I wonder if there is any point in being good to people when most of them are just selfish assholes, but then I meet one good person and I realize that you have to be nice to people because there are some good people.
Everyone loves flowers but only few love the thorns that protected flowers.
I talked about an epiphany in Fulfilled vs Excited post. What epiphany was that partying all night or vacation would leave me feeling empty next day or week. But working on a project or reading a book on a new API makes me feel fulfilled. But I wasn’t so sure what it meant. Tynan posted a great post on his blog about same subject but he makes a lot more sense:
Who’s happier at the end of the day: a guy who spent twelve hours restoring his Mustang or a guy who sat on the couch and watched TV all day?
It’s so true. Movies, video games and other such activities are like energy drinks, a crash follows. But doing what engages you is like a going to gym everyday and getting in better shape. Of course, everyone needs some energy drinks now and then but they should not become your only source of energy to stay awake. Similarly movies or video games or even sky diving are great to give you a high but you need something more engaging to feel fulfilled or happy.
A lot of people say that they are indecisive but I don’t think they are. They always know what they don’t want, they just don’t care what they get. For example, typical conversations with my friends who don’t know what they want but know for sure what they don’t want:
Me: I don’t care you decide what you want to eat.
Friend: I don’t care either. Whatever you want.
Me: Okay how about Jack in the Box? It’s quick & cheap.
Friend: Nah, come on man, it’s unhealthy!
Me: Well then let’s go to Subway.
Friend: Nah, Subway is the blandest food ever!
Me: You said you don’t care…
Friend: Any place but not fast food or Subway…
Me: Okay how about we do starvation challenge, let’s see who lasts longest without eating?
Friend: Okay let’s go to Subway
Me: Let’s do it 
As you know I have been outsourced, and I will have no job in September. My company is doing all these feel good classes for us, as we train our replacements. During one of the class about dealing with change, they had this circle with 8 slices & each slice representing different part of your life. The 8 slices were:
- Career
- Health
- Friends/family
- Self improvement
- Spouse/Significant Other
- Spirituality or religion
- Physical home/environment
- Financial stability
Our job was to fill in each slice representing our satisfaction in each area. My circle was almost empty. This was suppose to be a private exercise but I really didn’t care so much, so I showed it my friends. Luckily, they made me realize that although I am not really satisfied with any aspect of my life but I am doing much better than most people. For example, I workout regularly, eat healthy, my resting heart rate is 50 bpm. That is really good health! But I gave myself 1 (lowest score) in health slice. Similarly, in every category, I am not only doing better than average but in most categories I was way ahead of curve. (I don’t want to brag, and my biggest thank goes to God for it. Without His mercy, I would be nothing). But I am not satisfied with anything in my life. My actual performance had no correlation with my satisfaction level. I am super critical of myself. When I accomplish a big project at work, I don’t think of things that went well. I think of things that went bad & how I could have done better.
Basically, I yearn for perfection & anything less than that has no value to me. It also pushes me to work hard & keep improving myself. Perhaps, I got these qualities from my parents. Pakistani parents are just like Asian parents; any grade less than 100% in school will get you in trouble. 99% is no good, seriously.
But is it healthy?
Probably not.
But I still rather be unsatisfied & work hard than be satisfied & be a lazy bum. I guess the best thing in the world would be, to be satisfied but still work hard. I guess I am afraid of satisfaction.
Perhaps we should teach kids that perfection is not a state but rather a process.
For me, I need to see various shades in between perfect and imperfect.
It’s been a while since last post. I have been busy working on my start-up idea. Right now, I have very clear vision of it and I know exactly what I want to achieve. Everyday after work, I spend 2-3 hours planning and researching on my project. I can tell you what my project is, its not really a secret. It is a book swapping website. Its the specific implementation ideas which will differentiate it from current book swapping websites. I will launch it on June 1st.
Here is something amazing I realized, I feel fulfilled after spending hours on reading some boring APIs. My project has become my exclusive activity lately. It seems boring but almost worth it for the satisfaction I get at the end of day. Back in the days, when I used to stay up all night partying, it was exciting but next day I will feel empty. Even when I go on vacations, vacations are nice and I have a lot of fun. But when I get back I feel like crashing sort of sugar rush fading away. I don’t know if everyone feels this way after great rush of adrenaline & excitement but I feel empty.
I was just looking at my goals for March, and so far, I am doing great
Now I know what phase one means. Its planning and defining exactly what my product will do. There are still many unknown but the big picture and features are well defined now.
- Workout regularly at my dojo until my account is canceled. Then at 24 hour Fitness.
Okay didn’t stay with dojo as it was interfering with my after-work plans to work on my project. However, every morning I go to 24 Hour Fitness and workout with Karl. I am already able to see some difference.
- Spend less than $400 on food, entertainment and other non-essential stuff. This month I was way above my set budget, so next month I plan to spend way under my set budget.
Not bad at all this month, $200 so far on food. Most of the time I have been eating outside.
