Book: 20230218 to 20230503, "Early Retirement Extreme" by Jacob Lund Fisker

20230218 - 1. A different frame of mind

20230218 - Is this for me?

Can we really see through Meme? Think ahead, think hard about time and attention.

Memes are the chain in Plato's Cave. Money is one of the major Memes.

20230218 - Barriers to change

Vision is the major barrier to me. If there is no vision, there is no plan to reach it.

How to find my real vision? What do I want?

20230219 - 2. The lock-in

20230219 - Education and training

Most of the knowledge I learned in Year 10 to Year 12 to University are wasted. Surely I learned some skill about how to solve problems, how to learn, and how to be patient, but, does that worth 7 years of time? Is there any better way of doing it?

Recently Elon Musk also mentioned similar thoughts. Is it really necessary to go beyond Year 12?

Education and training should be life long activity. Most of people believe that's unnecessary, and they don't enjoy it. I guess they confused the education in formal school, and the learning driven by our interest and satisfaction.

20230220 - Career

Most of people don't like their jobs. They do it because there is no better opportunity to make money.

Most of the goods and services are not necessary. They don't really make us happy in long term.

There is something more important than career and money.

Why attention is so important?

20230221 - The pursuit of stuff, status, and happiness

Stuff and status is not related to happiness for long time. Where does real happiness come from? Based on the desire from our gene, real happiness helps our gene to survive and grow. This includes helping other people.

Owning more stuff creates an illusion that our gene get more likely to survive. But that's not true. Sooner or later, our subconsciousness would realize that. Conversely, helping kids and even strangers work well.

20230221 - The problem with personal finance

Investment is more about the understanding of the world.

In Sydney, real estate in some area and SP500 index fund could be the best choices.

20230221 - Retirement

Retirement is more about what we do after getting finance independence.

We cannot travel around the world when children are still in school, but traveling around the world should not be the only choice for retirement in the first place. There are a lot of meaningful things we can do while looking after kids. Reading and gardening are not bad.

20230221 - Breaking out

Three points in summary.

1. Reduce wasteful expense.

2. Multiple passive income.

3. Find something meaningful to do.

They support each other.

20230304 - 3. Economic degrees of freedom

20230305 - Economic classifications

Businessman, salary man, working man, Renaissance man.

Working man is more like contractor. For example, writers.

Renaissance man is the one who don't need to worry about money, and have strong interest in some activities.

20230305 - Succession and the cycle of change

I doubt that renaissance man is so important. For example, computer chips cannot be invented by renaissance man. Although Albert Einstein was renaissance man, Elon Musk is not, and none of the engineers in Telsa or SpaceX is renaissance man.

20230306 - Our current world

20230306 - The next generation

Chaos -> Stable -> Innovation -> Chaos

Everything evolves this way, including states, companies, individuals, perception, theories, etc.

As a salary man, we need to do something which leads to innovation, and we should not be afraid of chaos. Stable means comfort zone, which is not good.

20230307 - 4. The Renaissance ideal

20230307 - Human capital and necessary personal assets

It takes 1000 hours of focused effort to be considered competent in a subject, 30000 hours to master it, and 10000 hours to become an expert. p63

300 hours to be OK in a subject. But that means one hour per day for a whole year. For art subject, that's reasonable. But for a sport like swimming, or plumbing work, or electrician work, it should not take that much time.

The key here is, how to keep myself focus on the practising?

20230308 - The Renaissance education

Education widens the focus while training narrows it. p72

Education give us better perception of the world. As we can get help from other professionals when needed, education is much more important than training. We don't need to master many skills, but need to be OK in many skills.

20230308 - Gauging mastery

Copying, Comparing(there are more than one solution), Compiling(collect tips), Computing(plan and execute), Coordinating(lifestyle), Creating(the first principle through identity forming) p74

Is copying always the first step when we learn a new skill? Then it's good to strictly follow instructions to play Rubik Cube, or painting, etc.

20230308 - Decoupling and increasing complexity

Why the first principles are so important? Because there are too many principles, but not that many first principles. Stick to the first principles can drastically reduce the complexity of our perception of this world.

For instance, at any one time I have four to six simultaneous projects going......Hence, not allowing yourself to do anything but focus on one specific task will actually not increase productivity for creative work. p78

Is this what Elon Musk is doing? How should I adopt this strategy? Apart from reading, what other projects can I do simultaneously? A new language? AI?

20230401 - 5. Strategy, tactics, and guiding principles

20230401 - Strategic principles

It's more about our perception of the world. If we rely on products to solve problem without understanding the problem, we are in trouble. Just like learning the latest computer language without understanding the mechanism of computer, it's hard to keep up the latest computer technology.

It's another field that we can apply the first principles. If we do understand the properties of a new product, we would not be confused by its advertisement, and we can utilize it in smarter way, if we do decide to purchase it.

I think backup plan is very important: if something (tool) stopped working, we need to know alternative way to solve the problem.

20230401 - Tactical principles

Most of people waste their time in entertainment. Most of the rest spend too much time in one or two fields. It's relatively easy to beat 95% of people in most of the areas, but it's not worth spending all available time to be the best of best.

Health, money, family, friendship, satisfaction, meaning, personal growth, etc. These are important. But the most important thing is stopping wasting time.

20230412 - 6. A Renaissance lifestyle

20230412 - Things

It's good idea to give it 30 days cooling period for any non-urgent purchase.

Specialization is the key to improve productivity. However, there are too many unnecessary specialization. For example, it's good to have low cost stainless steel, but it's not good to have 3 cast iron pots at home.

I don't like the idea of home made toothpaste or detergent. The ultimate benchmark is time.

The chapter how to use time wisely, but most of people waste all time they saved from some smart moves.

How to avoid wasting time? DIY toothpaste is another way of wasting time.

20230413 - Shelter

I am convinced that convenience is more important than view or status.

We don't need big house.

20230414 - Clothes

Quality is normally more important.

20230415 - Health

Use healthy food and exercise to avoid expenses of medicine is the right choice.

20230417 - Transportation

Bicycle is good, but doesn't help much in hill area.

Bicycle with motor and battery is much better, if no need to carry much stuff.

Bicycle with motor, together autonomous driving taxi is the ultimate solution, I think.

20230418 - Services
20230418 - People

The aim is not getting more fun everyday. How much time should we stay in comfort zone?

Laziness is the major barrier.

20230503 - 7. Foundations of economics and finance

20230503 - Financial cash flow cycles
20230503 - Working for money
20230503 - Making money work for you

Just common sense to me.

How much is needed to retire? All about daily expenses.

Does higher yield means better? Need to think about risks.

20230503 - Epilogue

The author have postdoc degree in physics, but only worked for 5 years then retired?

Is it a huge loss to the society?

What is freedom?