What would Thomas Friedman think of Mustachianism?

Toward the end of October, Mr. Money Mustache (MMM) wrote an article called "Obamacare: Friend of the Entrepreneur and Early Retiree." In it, he argues that the ACA has the potential to allow everyone in the US to get affordable health insurance without needing an employer. If so, this could provide a degree of freedom for people looking to start their own business, take a job without benefits, or retire early from mandatory work. As MMM writes:

"With this new law, you can now drop the decades-old tradition of great fear and dependence on your employer for health coverage. You can quit your job, switch to another one, or create your own, with no more worry about who will cover you, because cost is affordable and minimal at lower incomes."

As MMM points out, given that early retirees don't have an outside employer and that their income is often derived from passively-earning assets, it's likely that a large portion of them would qualify for federal subsidies. Though one can argue the rights and wrongs of offering relatively wealthy people subsidized health insurance, the ACA does seem to have the potential to move us away from employer-centered insurance.

Perhaps as interesting, however, is the argument that the changing world of employment almost requires we move away from employer-based insurance. This is the argument made by Thomas Friedman in his column from Sunday, entitled "Why I (Still) Support Obamacare."As we've discussed in previous posts (see here and here), Friedman suggests that the recent merger of Globalization and the IT-Revolution has removed many of the walls, ceilings, and floors on--and within which--much of our middle-class prosperity has heretofore rested. In particular, he points to the elimination of many "high-wage or decent-wage, medium-skilled jobs," characterized as one in which: 

"... many people could lead a middle-class lifestyle — with less education and more security — because they didn’t have to compete so directly with either a computer or a machine that could do their jobs faster and better (by far the biggest source of job churn) or against an Indian or Chinese who would do their jobs cheaper."

Increasingly, it appears such lifestyles will require more skills in demanded fields, such as technology, finance, or services, and a deep commitment to continuing education and constant adaptation. Citing Jame Manyika, a "lead research[er] on economic and technology trends at the McKinsey Global Institute," Friedman suggests that:

"...how we think about 'employment' to sustain a middle-class lifestyle may need to expand 'to include a broader set of possibilities for generating income' compared with the traditional job, with benefits and a well-grooved career path."

For Friedman, this "broader set of possibilities for generating income" could include "...leveraging your skills through Task Rabbit, or your car through Uber, or your spare bedroom through AirBnB to add up to a middle-class income." 

At the heart of this argument is the assumption that increasingly, as traditional avenues of employment disappear, large numbers of people will need to take up some form of entrepreneurship. This will not be easy for everyone, and so Friedman believes, "Having a national health care safety net under the vast majority of Americans — to ease and enable people to make this transition — is both morally right and in the interest of everyone who wants a stable society."

From both perspectives--Mr. Friedman's and MMM's--decoupling health insurance from employers is useful; that whether by temperament or of necessity entrepreneurship seems likely to grow, and ensuring such folks can acquire affordable health insurance is one way of broadly supporting them.

Yet I think the picture Mr. Friedman and Mr. Money Mustache paint here is indicative of larger issues than health insurance, or the new healthcare law. Friedman argues that employment is changing, while MMM argues that people could really benefit by making their own jobs. The former views the decoupling of heath insurance from employment as necessary for future stability, while the latter sees it as an incentive to become financially independent and do work one enjoys. 

Reading Friedman's column on Sunday, I wondered what he would think of Mustachianism, the basic approach to life espoused by Mr. Money Mustache, that eschews convenience and encompasses frugality, positive thinking, and an interest in developing our many sources of strength. My personal view is that in a world without ceilings, walls, or floors--the world Friedman sees developing before our eyes--Mustachianism by all its names (think Stoicism, Self-Help, etc.) could help many to thrive in an environment in which the sky is the limit, but traditional paths to success have mostly disappeared.

When I read about Mustachians, I'm struck by their willingness to question conventional ideas while embracing ancient principles like hard work, honesty, and a well-kept mind. Happiness from their perspective is a nurtured condition, tended with close relationships, optimism, a lifestyle full of life-affirming challenges and interesting work (and of course, less stuff).  It's as though they build a modern life using old-fashioned principles, with a wholesome blend of old and new.

I suspect such a blend will come in handy down the road, particularly if Friedman's predictions about the future of work come to pass. And while I can't say what Mr. Friedman would think of Mustachianism, I suspect it represents a useful approach for succeeding in a world short of secure employment, and long on opportunity. We shall see.

In Pursuit of a Dream: Introducing "Glacier Runner"

It's awesome to hear about people pursuing their dreams, and today I have the pleasure of introducing you to one of them.

A few years ago, my friend Dan dropped off the face of the planet for a few months, only to turn up out west climbing mountains, fighting bears (more like running from them--he is a runner after all, though "Running-from-Bears Runner" is a mouthful of a blog title), and being generally badass.

Glacier Runner is the perspective of a smart young man looking to see how fast he can run a marathon, and how many people he can help reach their own running and fitness goals as a coach.

I hope you will all join with me in welcoming our friend Dan to the blogosphere, and wish him luck in the upcoming Boston marathon.

Good luck, sir!

*Edit: Dan decided he liked WordPress better than Blogger, so note the change in links.

A Remembrance of Robert J. Kiefer (1954-2013), or as I knew him, "Mr. Kiefer"

I was surprised and saddened to learn of the death of my long-time neighbor, Mr. Kiefer, this past Thursday. A constant feature of the neighborhood all through my youth and young adulthood, his absence has proven readily apparent, and even now I cannot believe he is gone. He was 59.

Strange to think that as a youngster, I found Mr. Kiefer rather frightening. Perhaps it was his great size or his powerful voice, but whenever I used to head over to play with my friends Mark, Brett, Wade, and Jason, I tended to avoid their dad if I could.

Such avoidance seems silly now, as many of my memories include him doting on Ashes, the family cat, or putting out peanuts for the squirrels (who no doubt liked them, given the incredible number of shells I've found in the garden over the years) .

Sometimes I would hear him playing the guitar through my bedroom window, noodling away at some ditty or other. In later years, as first my brother and then I graduated from high school and college, I had the opportunity to converse with Mr. Kiefer at our graduation parties. Far from frightening, he possessed a keen intellect, and a great interest in music. I learned he was a teacher, and in fact taught two of my cousins some years ago.

 Remembering those conversations, I wonder if perhaps Frodo felt similarly when meeting Farmer Maggot in The Fellowship of the Ring. Chased off the farmer's land as a youth by Maggot and his dogs, Frodo remarks in later years, "I've been in terror of you and your dogs for over thirty years, Farmer Maggot, though you may laugh to hear it. It's a pity: for I have missed a good friend" (p. 137). While I've never been chased by Mr. Kiefer or his animals, nonetheless I think I understand Frodo's sentiments a little better.

For this I am especially thankful, as too frequently I think we let our first impressions carry undue weight in subsequent meetings. To borrow a term from Malcolm Gladwell, we take a "thin slice" of impressions, and use them to judge the whole; like using a slice of a potato to determine if the whole is moldy or not. However natural, this method is clearly flawed, and it is good to have such impressions modified, especially for the better.

I'm glad I got to know Mr. Kiefer a little better, and appreciate more fully the gifts he possessed, and the life he lived. He touched many people, and will surely be missed.

Peace, neighbor

jc

On the difference between action and agent

It's Election Day here in the US, a "holiday" held annually on the first Tuesday of every November. For those who haven't noticed (and I would not fault you if you didn't), our national politics have lately been quite polarized. More than perhaps at any time in my life, there seems to be a kind of vitriol and visceral anger just below the surface of much contemporary discussion, even on topics only remotely related to politics.

Why this is I cannot say, but its result appears to be the polarization not only of political ideas, but also of the respective people who hold political views of any kind. And while the former may be inevitable--that there are usually multiple sides to and interpretations of every issue--the latter is perhaps not, because an action or idea is not the same as the thing that does the act or conceives of the idea. As the Dalai Lama writes in "Ethics For The New Millennium" (1999):

"When we do something negative, we are capable of recognizing the difference between ourselves and the negative act. But we often fail to separate action and agent when it comes to others. This shows us how unreliable is even apparently justified anger" (pp. 96-97).

Read the comment section of almost any news story from an online paper today, and you will probably see not only a substantive debate over ideas, but also attacks of varying degrees against people who hold them; for example, an advocate of single-payer healthcare becomes, in the eyes of some, a socialist-taker-moocher-leftist-traitor, and a global-warming denier an ignorant-uncaring-regressive-right-wing-tea-party-nutcase. Not one of these labels include "human," which I assume all commenters are, and few seem interested in dissembling a person's ideas from who they actually are. We are thus left not only with divided politics (which has been historically normal and even healthy in most democracies and republics), but also a divided sense of who warrants the basic respect afforded to people in general. So while a difference of opinion and world-view is perhaps a good thing for a country, it becomes less useful when we forget that those with whom we disagree are people too, and are more than the sum of the ideas they have.

Some benefits of keeping a journal

In July of 2011--a few months after graduating from college--I started writing a journal with the intention of recording a page of text everyday. To my surprise and delight, this simple exercise not only became a habit, but grew into a source of inspiration, perspective, and practice. Indeed, whenever someone tells me they want to turn their life around, I suggest they start a journal and keep it religiously. As Mark Twain said in The Innocents Abroad (1869), "Yes, a journal that is incomplete isn't of much use, but a journal properly kept is worth a thousand dollars--when you've got it done."

Why, you ask? Judging from my own experience, few activities are more conducive to processing the past and our own ideas than by putting them into written form. There's likely a scientific explanation for why this so often works, but what I find is that a record of one's experiences and thoughts make reviewing them easier. It helps us see from where we've come, and how our appraisal of events has either changed or remained the same over time. Perhaps as importantly, a piece of writing, even just the word-vomit of a stream-of-consciousness piece, requires a kind of architecture to stay together outside the confines of one's mind. As such, the act of writing seems to have the consequence--intended or otherwise--of making us give our thoughts and experiences coherence and connectiveness it might not otherwise have. Sometimes this process oversimplifies complex phenomenon (see most op-eds for examples), but for an individual building a narrative about, and an approach to, one's life may make useful insights more likely. This could be why I've found several instances of journal writers on the Internet using the exercise to process grief, loss, the end of relationships, or some other major change in their lives.

As Twain's words from above might suggest, while starting a journal isn't difficult keeping it often is. I've had this problem over the years, excitedly beginning the tasking of filling a book with thoughts and ideas each day, later to run out of steam and abandon the effort a few days, weeks, or months later. For some reason the original fire could not sustain the effort, and like a candle burned low, my flame of enthusiasm would wink out each time.

I think the biggest difference between this time and the others involved my openness to simplicity. Journaling can be as simple or complex as you want, and likely no one method will work for everyone. In my case, I had to make the exercise simple, and define success broadly: I could write about anything, so long as I did it every day, and filled a page in my book. Some days I could draw pictures of maps, and others it would be simply text. I could write about news, something I'd read, or a conversation I'd had, anything. Content mattered less than performing the exercise, and while I wrote (and continue to write) a lot of fluff and nonsense, I often feel better after doing it.

And of course it can be good fun to go back a year or two and see what was happening, what things had me excited or worried, or something goofy a co-worker said. It's for these things, among others, that I think made Twain rate a well-kept journal so highly.

Happy Thursday :)  

A few projects presently underway

As some have noticed--and combing through the blog's archives, so have I--there's been a prolonged dearth of new posts on the site. In explanation, I can only think of few that fit, and only in a general way at that; that I have been either too busy, without any clear ideas for posts, or some combination of the two. As it is a cold, rainy day here on the mountain, and at the urging of some friends, I thought perhaps to describe some projects I'm currently undertaking which might some day lead to a post of their own. So here goes.

1.) Relearning the Bassoon:

I started playing the bassoon many years ago in the 5th grade. I enjoyed the sound it made, and felt drawn to its quirky shape and unique place in the elementary school concert band. I didn't take playing it seriously until high school, however, when a grouchy band director with a gift for invective pushed me to make bassooning a daily habit, which I kept more or less until my senior year in college.

Upon graduating, however, I found myself slipping ever more away from the practice, until sometime last year I basically ceased playing at all. Having gone almost a full calendar year without cracking the instrument's case, I recently decided to start playing again.

The results, alas, were not pretty. I sounded awful, and it is hard to keep going when the going is not good. Be that as it may, accepting that things would be bad before they improved seemed to help, and after a few sessions I am beginning to see some progress. The road is long, and it is frustrating sometimes to labor at something which once felt easy. Yet it is also rewarding to step back and fill-in the gaps in one's knowledge and skills, experiencing thereby the advantages of a solid and well-laid foundation as challenges grow more difficult. Which segues nicely into another project...

2.) Relearning Math with Khan Academy:

I've had difficulties of various kinds related to math since about the 5th grade, when we started learning the multiplication and divisions of numbers with decimals. For whatever reason, these topics left me briefly behind. Matters grew foggier the following year with a failure to intuit the concept of negative numbers, which caused all manner of problems with basic algebra. I might go on, but you can probably begin to see how these gaps in understanding and knowledge left me feeling quite incompetent as a mathematician, which over the years compelled me to limit the scope of my potential professional goals by the degree to which they employed and relied upon the math.

About a year ago, I discovered the site Khan Academy (an earlier post on the subject can be found here), and so much seems to have changed since. I used it whilst taking Statistics at the local community college, and again when I took Chemistry over the summer. The video lectures helped quite a bit, and the tutorials provided useful practice and feed-back.

Several weeks ago, with my second crack the GRE approaching, I decided to go back and try relearning math from the point at which I started having difficulties. As it turned out Khan Academy is great for this, having recently launched a new learning dashboard that makes tracking progress easy.

On the day of my GRE test, I'd "mastered" about 90 separate topics, and felt better versed in math than perhaps at any other point in my life. This new-found confidence yielded a smaller improvement on the exam than I'd hoped, yet the improvement and sense of progress compelled me to keep going, such that a few weeks later I've "mastered" over 200 topics, and intend to keep going until every skill on the dashboard is mastered.

It's been very encouraging, and I can't wait most days to jump in and practice some new skill (yesterday's challenge involved converting between degrees and radians). I'm thankful for Mr. Khan and his team for developing such a useful online tool, which brings us to final project I've been working on...

3.) Learning Spanish with Duolingo:

For a little over the past two years, I've had the pleasure to work alongside a number of Guatemalan immigrants. They're hard-working chaps with a great sense of humor, and I feel as though I learn something new from them everyday. In particular, I have picked up a bit of Spanish, a subject I never studied in school. Having never studied it formally, I found the language I was learning to be a smattering of vocabulary governed by the unofficial grammar of "Spanglish," which is effectively the language I and my co-workers use among ourselves. Not surprisingly, when conversing with each other the Guatemalans speak Spanish. Over time I've felt the urge to learn this language, at least to the point that I could understand what they said to me, and communicate in kind.

To that end I've considered taking a class, but that costs money and time which I don't necessarily have at present. With that, I took the lesson learned from Khan Academy and sought an online tool that could help me achieve the goal of learning Spanish. After some searching, I recently came across the site Duolingo, and began a regimen of Spanish instruction.  So far, I've enjoyed using the site, a fairly recent start-up offering free language instruction for English speakers in Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, and Italian, and English instruction in Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Italian. Interestingly, Duolingo is a "crowdsourced text translation platform," such that as students progress through the levels of instruction, they simultaneously help translate other websites over the Internet. So by learning another language through Duolingo, one not only consumes lessons but also contributes to a good cause.

Conclusion:

These projects, along with work and school, have kept me pretty busy since the end of the summer, but I've learned a lot in the interval, and perhaps some of what you see here will inspire you to attempt a new project or take up an old one of your own. There are lots of tools out there on the Internet if you have the time and inclination to figure them out; and finding one that works for you, can make a big difference in the quality and frequency of your practice. Underlying everything, however, is a good attitude that can simultaneously accept feeling incompetent at the beginning of a process while maintaining good habits and patience throughout. I am no expert in this subject, but taking on the projects described above has provided some helpful reminders of how nice it can be to work with a positive frame of mind.

Happy Thursday :)

A Remembrance of Tom Clancy (1947-2013)

I was surprised and saddened to learn yesterday that author Tom Clancy had passed away after a brief illness in Baltimore, Maryland. He was 66.

Tom Clancy (1947-2013).
 Retrieved from (link)

Mr. Clancy's books proved a huge influence on me throughout middle and high school, during which I read almost every work of his on my dad's bookshelf. I enjoyed his story-telling, particularly the dialogue, and the clarity, suspense, and detail of his works drew me in like few books could at the time.

Of Mr. Clancy's fiction works, I think my favorite is a tie between "The Hunt for Red October" (1984) and "Red Storm Rising" (1986). On the non-fiction side, I would say his cooperative work with Ret. General Fred Franks "Into the Storm: A Study in Command" (1997) proved the most interesting.

Finally, Mr. Clancy is among the first authors whose work spurred me to take up writing. The richness of his tales and clarity of his prose provided a useful model of a writing style I liked, and over the years has spurred me to keep practicing the craft. I am very thankful for this inspiration, as the writing journey has proven a most enriching one.

So many thanks, Mr. Clancy, for enriching my life and the lives of countless others. You will be missed.