Through and Towards

Eternity is a concept that is hard to wrap our heads around. We think in contrast and action, and stories. Stories of change and growth. It’s the only way we can think. It can be hard to focus on life... the pulse, the signal within the noise, the process, the questions, the connection. 

There are ideas we can’t grasp and fully conquer, and questions that we will not find the answer to in any book or any particular conversation. There is a lot of uncertainty. 

As you get older, you realise that there are no real adults in the room. Even 70, 80, or 90-year-olds are just big children that experience the world in a particular way. No one's experience is the same as yours and we are all just doing our best. 

Holding Space is the idea of non-interventional listening. You aren’t listening TO construct a response. Their story doesn’t trigger recognition of their story in your story, and anecdotes from you. You allow them to tell their story without claiming it. You don’t respond to someone’s story about their cancer with a story about a family member of yours with cancer. 

Stilling your own waves, and stilling the waves of money anxiety, doesn’t always mean solving problems directly for someone. There are also challenges around empowerment and allowing people to solve their own problems. If people are best placed to make their own decisions, you want them to make those decisions. 

There will always be waves. Stilling the waves is how you experience those waves. Financial Stillness holds space for you to make connected decisions through the waves. To build through things that pass, towards what truly matters to you.

Studying the Box

Even if you can stop yourself bending to the social pressure of keeping up with the Joneses and Khumalos, you still need to eat. You cannot not care about money by ignoring it. If you do not learn to control money, it can control you. Even if you live very simply, the money must come from somewhere. We do not yet have concepts like Universal Basic Income, where the foundations are strong enough to allow everyone the security to look up and forward. 

The challenge is, no two paths are the same. Part of financial planning is deep pragmatism. All advice is autobiographical. We can only see from our perspective. Listen to others, but your choices will come from where you are. My “source of wealth” was based on leaning into the cards I was dealt, and accepting how money was made. 

I spent eight years doing formal studies. One degree and three sets of professional exams. Not out the box thinking at all. I studied the box. Studying risk, investments, and planning. Studying how barriers are built. How decisions are made. How people are empowered. How capital is built. What options are available and how they are seized. I am still studying. 

The heart of planning is being able to learn as the situation changes. To come from where you are. To control your response. To build the privilege to choose what you care about.

Healthy Disrespect

Whether it is from growing up in Apartheid, or being the youngest of three brothers, I have the common South African trait of a healthy disrespect for authority. I don't, by default, necessarily respect presumed authority. I don’t, by default, do what I am told. Sometimes in quite childish ways. Like if someone tells me that it is my decision, then I will make a decision. And if they suggest that I do something else, and I don't agree with them, I still want to do it my way. Unless they want to say it is not my decision. If they say that, I'll do it their way. Most people can read between the lines and go, “Well, actually, they want to tell me that it is my decision, but it is not really my decision. I just need to suck it up and play the game.” I'm not very good at that. I like clarity of decision-making processes. I like honesty about where the accountability and authority lie. I object to the delegation of responsibility without authority. I like it when decision makers have dirt under their fingertips from sharing the load. But everyone is different. A lot of people don’t have the baggage I do. Doing as you are told often makes life simpler.

Nelson Mandela burning his pass book

 

Creating Platforms

How we see the world is path-dependent and cumulative. We are partly conscious of how the incoming waves of information get processed. Other things have soaked so deep they are just a part of who we are till we return to the dust. My own path started in a place where I believed in wrestling with the truth until I got it. One path that I just had to understand. Then my path crossed that of Yoga, where there is a belief that no one can understand, and we all have our own chosen Ishvara (the closest we can get to understanding). A path of tolerance. The paradox is how much do you tolerate intolerance? Put differently, how do you balance creating space for many paths with boundaries and red flags? Raising alarm when you see danger? Saying no firmly. Popping dangerous illusions. Allowing and empowering people to make their own decisions, and their own mistakes, while recognising that we all affect each other? Being agnostic about other views, but still supporting the viewer and learning from them. Creating and being a part of platforms for empowerment.

Basement of metamorphic rock

 

Build through Empowerment

Wealth Compounds. It builds on what came before. On what has soaked deep. It builds on what we pay attention to, and what we see as relevant. It builds on the meaning we create. Not in a straight line, and within complex systems. It builds through cycles of sleep, death, unlearning, feedback, reflection and hibernation. It builds through memory and perception. It builds through context and comparison. Looking at things that are the same, but not. Looking at what we can understand, and what we can’t. It builds by understanding constraints, and the constraints on our understanding. It builds through bridges and communication. Through buffers and firebreaks. Through places to connect. Places to withdraw. To breathe. In stillness. In gaps. Wealth builds to accommodate the ambiguous and the random. To adjust. To accommodate. To create. Everything is connected. Wealth builds as we see and release the power of those connections. Wealth builds through empowerment.

Zoom in

Powering Decision Makers

People without money aren’t infants. They don’t need decisions made for them. They need money. Money is the fundamental unit of decision making in a market-based economy. Democracy shouldn’t be about making decisions for other people unless it absolutely has to be. Adding conditions to how people make their basic choices costs money. You have to employ pseudo-parents to question real life adults. To strip them of their agency. People who aren’t in poverty tend to have big ideas about how people in poverty should make their choices. Either from a moral or “quality” perspective. All businesses boil down to problem solving for people with money. Good businesses have direct relationships with decision makers. If you want to solve the problem of poverty, create more decision makers. Then watch how the problems get solved. Spontaneously. From the bottom up.

detail from a drawing

by Leonardo da Vinci

Give Cash

The theory behind GiveDirectly.org is that people are best placed to make their own decisions. As Rutger Bregman puts it, “Poverty isn’t a lack of character, it is a lack of cash”. Unconditional Cash Transfers don’t have any criteria about who receives the money, or how it is spent. Cash gives people autonomy over their own lives. All business ideas start with identifying and articulating the problems of people with money, in a way the people with money recognise. Non-Monetary programs tend to impose the views of people with money, on what problems people without money have. The addition of a layer of bureaucracy (people who aren’t in poverty receiving salaries) and costs (of means testing and delivery) means lots of the money allocated to those struggling gets lost in translation. There is an ego cost of giving cash. It means you don’t get to use your wisdom and insight to solve the problems of others. It means you trust that they understand their worlds better than you do.

Dirty Teacup

A good friend of mine loves being micro-managed. He says it means he doesn’t have the pressure of responsibility. He can just do the job to the best of his ability, as he is told, and leave at the end of the day. I hate being managed, policed, or parented. It is all good if I agree, but only without constant saying. An agreed pattern. Rule of law I accept. Like if you see a teacup that needs to go to the sink, and are about to take it, then someone tells you to take it. The stripping of autonomy grates the third of three brothers in me. I crave feedback. I like mentors. I am insatiably curious about where I could be wrong. But at the end of the day I like feeling like I am making decisions. Not over other people. I believe in reciprocity, and not expecting of others what I wouldn’t accept myself. Double Standards are a pet peeve. Consent and empowerment are the foundation of whatever agreements and approaches people prefer in a world with multiple options.

Take your cup to the sink

Turning on the Lights

A reasonable definition for Politics would be “the management of information asymmetries to get the desired outcome of a particular tribe”. I know more than you. I want something different to you. I am going to win. Whether in the staffroom, boardroom, or changeroom, if there is more than one pulse there is normally Politics. It is also very similar, however it is dressed up, because it is the balancing of competing desires. I am in favour of universal empowerment because it reduces the obligation to do stuff for people in the dark. An independently strong foundation to retreat to is a powerful underlying safety net. It empowers the word No, and in doing so, makes the word Yes more meaningful. Enthusiastic, informed consent. When things are swapped (or a thing and some money), value is created if both parties know all they need to know and are better off after the swap. If the story changes when you switch on the lights, it is not a story worth telling.

Edinburgh Torch Procession

Shining Light

Power and Flexibility

My objection to Living Wage and Minimum Wage is the opposite of believing people shouldn’t have sufficient money to, at a minimum, survive. I believe in a world where we vote not just at the ballot box, but with our feet and our wallets. Real time. I believe in the Four Freedoms – Capital, Goods, Services, and Labour. My objection to Living/Minimum Wage is that it puts the burden on employers and small businesses, and makes the calculations of whether to create job opportunities favour machines. It also creates a dependency between the worker and work giver (even and particularly if there are wage subsidies). A Basic Income increases the negotiating power and flexibility of both parties. It empowers from the bottom, but leaves both the worker and the employer with power in their feet and wallets. The ability to say Yes. The ability to say No. The ability to create.

Freedom of Movement

Developing Autonomy

The team at GMB Fitness talk of developing Physical Autonomy through working on strength, flexibility and control. Watching them move so gracefully makes it appear as if the laws of physics apply differently to them. I started Yoga 11 years ago, yet I still have aches and pains which constrain me. I declared Financial Independence 5 years ago, yet I still have costs and pressures which constrain me. The analogies between how we engage with the world physically and financially resonate strongly. Finances aren’t about what you do, they are about how you do it. They are about movement. I love the idea of more people moving through the world with autonomy, agency, and consent. Feeling empowered to make choices. Moving with mastery. It isn’t about having the Financial Freedom to opt-out. It is about releasing the way we engage with the world from the constraints of unnecessary niggles. Then engaging with the pulse, the beat, and the flow of meaning creation.

GMB Fitness - Strength, Flexibility, Control

Delegate Power

Delegating responsibility without authority is dangerous. I have always had a lot of respect for leaders who remain involved in the task. Rolling their sleeves up and leading by conscious example. Unless you are digging holes in the ground or following an algorithmic set of clearly defined steps, there is always judgment required in a world that is complex, ambiguous, and random. Delegation without involvement in these murky situations is the kind of hierarchy to which I am violently allergic. If you constantly second guess someone, they will wait until they are crystal clear on what you want. They will wait until they believe they have the skills to do the task in the way you want it done. Not all knowledge can be communicated up the chain. I am a firm believer in empowering people to make decisions where the decisions need to be made. Then backing them up. Or doing it yourself.

Athlone Power Station - Cape Town

Demonstrable Value

We learn best through instantaneous feedback. Particularly if it is repeated every time we do the same thing. Predictable cause. Predictable effect. This is true even if we aren’t conscious about the lessons being learnt. Muscle memory kicks in. Slow is harder. The 18-year-old still lights up despite the threat of blackened lungs, bloody coughs, and amputated limbs later in life. Particularly because everyone knows a belligerent Grampa who drinks like a sailor, smokes like a chimney, and can still beat you in an arm-wrestle. Single counter-factual stories carry far more punch than spreadsheets and charts of long-term data. This leads to a bias towards demonstrable value. Things you can count, contain, and importantly, understand, get far more resources. Things you can contain make good businesses. At the expense of things that are good ideas, but subtle, nuanced and difficult to demonstrate. A lot of our knowledge is tacit. Communicating it is hard. That is why I believe in bottom up empowerment. Giving people the space and time to do their thing. Trusting each other.

Releasing Yourself

There is something Yogic about the progression of thinking about money. It starts with “What do you want to be?” which is all about you. It moves to “what problems are you solving?” which is all about the problem, but still has you at the centre of the solution. Then it shifts to “what problems are being solved, and who is best placed to solve them?” which shifts you out of the equation entirely (if necessary/desired). Then if the problems are being solved in an Engine that is generating energy, that energy can be used somewhere else that has nothing to do with problems. Not everything needs to be monetised. But we need money. Capital building can create pools of resources to direct at the problems we face. It can also create streams of income to support the things that are good ideas, but not good business ideas. Capital can set Labour free.

Not all good ideas are good business ideas

Know you Know

Tacit Knowledge is the stuff we know without even necessarily knowing we know. It is near impossible to communicate, because it is embodied rather than conscious. We may even tell ourselves an incorrect story about why we are able to do something. Knowing how to do something, and knowing how you know how to do something, are different skills. Being able to put that into words that someone else understands and can replicate is, again, a different skill. “The Future and its Enemies” by Virginia Postrel was first published in 1998, but remains a timeless explanation of why decisions should be made where the knowledge is, and not around boardroom tables. The “Postrel Problem” meant when I was still working for a salary, I spent a large part of my time writing memos, emails, and justifications. I have loved been freed from my inbox. Free to experiment and learn, in a micro-ambitious trial and error way. Thinking big can forget the power in small. Thinking big is imposing. Thinking small is empowering.

Tell my Wife

Thinking in Contrasts

We think in contrasts. Things become what they are in our minds because of how they are different. That is where Benchmarks become useful. They allow a form of score-keeping because you have an idea of the alternative if what you are offering is not available. Like sugar, fat, and salt, they are also dangerous. The goal isn’t to beat the Benchmark. The goal is the goal. In “The Art of Learning”, Josh Waitzkin discusses the principle of “numbers to leave numbers, form to leave form”. The goal isn’t the numbers. The goal isn’t the form. They are simply learning tools in the way a Benchmark is. What matters in investing is (1) being a good custodian of the Capital, (2) the creativity that that Capital empowers. Alpha is the term for how much an investor has “beaten their Benchmark”. You can’t eat Alpha. Eventually you let go of the contrasts and engage directly with what it is that matters.

"The Garden of Earthly Delights"

Hieronymous Bosch

Energising Beautiful Questions

The world is complex, ambiguous, and random. Our capacity for understanding our own world is limited to the experiences we have had, and knowledge we have built. The “Curse of Knowledge” is that it is incredibly hard to unlearn embodied understanding. To see squiggles where now you see words. To remember what it feels like to not know something that now seems obvious. This is why I believe in bottom-up empowerment. Complexity is fine with lots of little feedback loops. The stuff we understand but can’t explain nudges progress along if we cooperate, and consent. A Universal Basic Income would provide everyone with the Financial Security to have a starting voice. Working on the generic concept of Endurance and Resilience means you don’t need big answers. You can just release lots of beautiful questions by energizing the creativity of individuals and communities.

Energising

Empowerment and Fudge

We see the world differently. Max Planck said Science progresses one funeral at a time. "A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.” The hardest thing to do is to unsee and unlearn. Our knowledge builds up till we feel very comfortable with it, and it becomes automatic. It becomes embodied.  We are just fudging our way through life doing our best. Different flavours of fudge harden. We are most conscious of today's flavour of fudge. That is why empowerment beats imposing your beliefs on others. We are all trying to do our best. Empowering people and communities means we get to test multiple solutions.

Hierarchy Hives

I am fortunately not allergic to any food that I am aware of. I don't like messy fruit, but that isn't an allergy... it is a childhood weirdness I struggle to shake. Something about the texture and ability to invade my space gives me 'n klein bietjie kots in my mond. What I do struggle with is Hierarchy. I have always had a chip on my shoulder. I hate being told what to do. I hate feeling like I am just a cog doing a job without any agency of my own.

This includes delegation of jobs. Not if it is "my turn", everyone is taking turns, and it inherently feels fair. I did a few Yoga Courses and we each had Karma Yoga. The hour I would spend washing everyone else's dishes was one of my favourite parts of the day. It isn't the menial side that brings out rashes. 

What I don't like is the disempowerment. My stock example is when a boss delegates a job to a subordinate that they haven't done before themselves. What can happen is that they don't know just how complicated it is. So the subordinate plugs away going down multiple garden paths unnecessarily. Pulling their hair and teeth out desperate to please. The Boss doing the same job would have a tool at their disposal that changes the game. The ability to stop. To say - nah, this is more complicated than it is worth.

It is why I am a strong believer in "Independent Thinking" in the sense of letting people make decisions. As many decisions as possible unencumbered by the really difficult task of having to explain themselves. Joint decision making is very hard. We all come at problems very differently. That is powerful. If people are empowered.

This only works for small decisions. Which is why I like the idea of Micro-ambition. The more a problem can be broken down into lots of little trials and errors, and the shorter the implementation loop, the more empowered a system it can be. If unintended consequences are small, then you don't have to push decisions up the uninformed food chain.

The challenge is that we don't live on islands. Even those who do, don't live on those islands by ourselves. We are connected to other people, and some decisions have to be made together. Joint decision making involves opening issues up. It involves exploration,  discussion, empathy, time, and the ability to bring people along the path with you.

In "The Democracy Project", David Graeber talks about how voting should really be the last rather than first resort of Democracy. If people are empowered, and included, it will seldom need people to split into teams. Entrenched Teams is the first sign of a failing democracy. The point shouldn't be for anyone to rule over anyone else. For any Team to be in power. The point should be to allow people to make as many decisions as they can for themselves.

Delegation requires trust. It requires us to accommodate, adapt, and adjust to other ways of doing things. It requires us not imposing the things we don't want to adapt from on others. Don't ask someone to do something for you if you aren't ok with them deciding how to deal with the ambiguity.

Forced Choice

I believe in bottom-up empowerment. Rather than finding people to represent a theoretical "The People", I believe in empowering individuals and the holey communities of which we are a part. I find it too difficult to understand the personalities, values, and dynamics in my close friends and family to believe I speak for anyone. I find it hard enough to speak for myself. Living in Boaty McBoatface land, I don't put much faith in votes as being that meaningful.

I grew up in Westville, in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. I grew up during the last gasps of a dying Apartheid Regime, and the first cries of a newborn Democracy. I spent my first few years at mixed-gender schools, and my teenage years at a single-sex High School. I was an assistant teacher at a school in Chichester (UK), then went to University in Cape Town. I stayed in a single-sex residence (Smuts Hall), but shared meals with our sister residence (Fuller Hall). I then worked at three different companies. In South Africa, Bermuda and the United Kingdom... where I have also lived. All of these experiences mean there isn't a single other person I know who has gone on the same path. All my Communities are Holey. My friends and family scattered.

I had friends that were at Westville Boys' High with me, then I met up with at University. They were two years behind me at school because of the gap. I had friends that I was at University with, and then worked with, and then didn't. Even within companies, I had a friend that started basically the same job as me on the same day, and gradually our paths split.

I believe what makes being Conscious so powerful is its constraints. We forget things. We see differently. We make mistakes because there is so much we all know, that we don't individually know. One large pot full of tiny micro-experiments.

There is no "The People". There are just a bunch of people pretending to be more confident than they really are, stumbling beautifully in their own version of the dark. Hopefully learning from the sounds and bumps as they picture what it is they can never see.