5th Notes on progress - Oct 30 2024
What is education for? Today I read a post by Simon Sarris about agency. I also saw photos of his house, an old new house in northeast US. It seems idyllic. A rural New England house, built by himself, where he works as a software engineer and then cooks and enjoys life with his family, walking in the woods, planting fruit trees, making spoons, cooking. That's the life I want to build, a wholesome life. Systematized education, the one I have been reared in, doesn't teach you to do things. It teaches you to follow rules. When I write essays, I just imagine what the grader wants to hear, in the way they want to hear, in the format they want to see it. When I study for maths, I try to practice problems to pass the exam, I'm not in it to learn how to think. No matter, I take responsbility for myself. I want to learn to think. I want to learn to like work. So far, work is something externally imposed. Where it's graded. But this is absurd. What is the point of putting a grade on gymnastics, like in the Olympics? Submitting yourself to semi-random standards made by other people. The point is to be useful to other people. TO get out of one's self. To work for others. To stop being selfish. That's what I want, I want to stop being selfish. I want my life to be for others. Through business. I want to solve a need through business. To have a rural house in Germany where I plant fruit trees, and read classics, and spend time with my family in the garden eating fruit trees from the garden. Some thoughts while I was exercising: 1- path dependency is real. Little changes can have big changes in the direction of your life. Be aware of these opportunities. But also of the danger of letting small things slip. If you cheat on small things, you will cheat on big things. Maintain integrity. Values are important. Work hard. Be agreeable to work with. 2- algorithms in head. Your days are made of repeated decisions. Habits. You can program your brain to make decisions based on algorithms ( optimize for money, always go to class, wake up at 7 am and go to university). 3- Steady state. If you have no routine, then any little detour in your day makes you fall into a rabbit hole. No deadline? Then an innocuous twitter link will send you a rabbit hole where you waste 4 hours of your day. Steady states are real. A little detour, a little more of the ball going down, and it goes all the way down. Have checks so that the ball doesn't fall all the way. Have routines that keep you focused. Sleep, exercise, nutrition, meditation.
Focus on the day to day. Not on prizes, not on credentials. Those are adornment. Easily faked.
What cannot be faked? Being or showing up and working day in and day out for 15 years building a company.
Never complain. Take responsibility.
We are just a bundle of biology that respondes to stimuli and environment. Choose the right environment, choose the right stimuli to get to your desired state: flow.
I want to build. I want to produce. No more consumption. No more credentials. No more passivity.
No more classism, or prestige seeking. No more yes-man. No more blind obedience to an obsolete system like university. Time is limited, so don't waste it submitted to other people's systems that don't necessarily accord with your view.
No need to be in an expensive city. No need for restaurants. No need for spectacle.
I can be in an affordable city. work as an engineer remotely, plant fruit trees, repair a rural house in Italy, gather berries, have a family.
I don't need a high salary at the moment. I need to learn, quickly, how to work hard. I can call people and ask to be an apprentice.
I don't need large salaries, or a benefits package. I need to learn from builders how to work intensely. How to focus.
Be proactive, not reactive. Don't consume, produce. Focus. Not on whatever is hot. Work in what brings in value.
I don't want someone else to cook me food. I want to cook my own food. I want to ferment mu own vegetables. I want to plant and eat the food I grew in my garden. I want to build a part of my house.
Even my desires and wants are not mine. I can change what i like. I want to like hard work. I want to like coding. I will build.