Defending Problems

In well-functioning markets, things get cheaper. This is a key reason you should not define your worth by your salary. Your salary is the price of your labour, it is not your worth. No one, anywhere, gets paid what they are worth. In markets that are clearly broken like education, health, law, and housing, prices do not go down for the honest reason that we do not really want them to. A high price can also be the product. Like the record prices paid for paintings. The product is the signal of what the buyer can afford. If we want affordable housing, you do not need to be Elon Musk to figure it out. Build more houses. We misname skilled and unskilled labour. It is not about the level of skill. It is about the supply of people who can solve the problem. Spread the skill and the price comes down. The second level problem with problem-solving, is what do you solve next? What do we do with our time and sense of self if the problem we solve gets solved permanently? We live in a world where we need problems to eat, and have a firm handshake. We manufacture problems and defend the walls around the containers we solve them in.

"Salvator Mundi" by Leonardo da Vinci

Most expensive painting sold in 2019

$450 million

Being Able

“The Forwards win the match. The Backs determine the scoreline”. Sometimes what is true in Rugby, is true in life. In 117 appearances for the Springboks, prop forward Tendai Mtawarira (“The Beast”) scored just two tries. That wasn’t his job. The Corona Virus has brought to the front of our consciousness the importance of Endurance and Resilience. The importance of a strong Base. Being able to hold still. With strength. It has highlighted the importance of being able to take the hits. Being able to push forward a few centimetres at a time. Human Beings aren’t simply productive assets in a chain of pass-the-parcel hand-to-mouth living. The foundation is simple. The foundation is being. Being able. Health, Housing, Education, and Food win the match. Meritocracy, Property Rights, Incentives, Passion, Trade, Free Movement, Supply and Demand determine the scoreline.

First, Secure the Base

All Fall Down

Building Buffers creates the ability to press pause. When you are living on the edge, drawing breathe is difficult because there are too many moving parts. Life carries on, and you are forced to carry on with it. Fixed, recurring expenses arise even if you want to “do nothing”. Waking up in the morning has a price tag. “It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place” says the Red Queen. In Yoga, Tapas is the practice of austerity. The “warmth, heat, or fire” of doing something difficult or extra. We possibly get holidays wrong. A few weeks a year of “better”. If we took Tapasdays, we could see, and get used to, just how little it is possible to be okay with. To embrace Basic. To discover what “fixed expenses” are truly necessary. To make sure everyone has those basics. Then, in those moments when everything needs to stop for a moment, we won’t all fall down.

A-tishoo! A-tishoo!

Big Changes

In Europe, in the mid-18^th Century, parents lost between 3 and 4 of their children before the age of 5 (See, OurWorldinData.org/child-mortality). I know only a handful of people who have suffered the awful tragedy of a child not reaching their fifth birthday, yet then (and now in really poor areas) it was commonplace. As a single, summary, measure of progress, a fall in global child mortality from 43% in 1800 to 4.5% in 2015 tells the story of a fundamental shift in the type of life we live on this rock flying through space. Big families were partly a human Buffer against this loss. The global fertility rate is 2.5 children per woman, while in the pre-modern era 4.5 to 7 was common. One brutal way to look at this is that about the same number survive. People as Buffers. The same is true of people as productive assets. As we shift from survival as the goal, we get released from the crudest of incentives. The cruelest of numbers. Have spare children. Earn money to survive. We can build Capital that can provide base security. That can empower us to be the author of our stories.  

World of Scarcity

The cost of things separates us. If we progress, the cost of things should go down. Price is a crude clearing tool in a world of scarcity. The numbers should get smaller as we get better at doing what needs doing. If they don't, something is broken. If they don't, it means we are artificially keeping numbers up so we can signal our superiority over others. Health, Education, Transport, and Housing should be getting cheaper. To a point where the basics are abundant. In a world of abundance, the rules are different. Perhaps we are scared of that? Perhaps we are scared of a world where we can't signal our success with a bigger number?

But Please

A friend moaned the other day about his lack of discipline in the face of 'But pleeease Daddy's from his little daughter. All resistance is futile, and she has him wrapped around her particularly little, little finger.

Self-Discipline is something I find much easier than knowing how to navigate through disappointing other people. Not meeting their expectations. Being misunderstood. The tools of financial discipline, in particular, are much easier to apply to yourself than others. Delayed Gratification can just seem nasty. We grow up with very different ideas about money, and have very wildly different tastes and perspectives of priorities. The biggest battle is typically between now-self and later-self. Kids pretty much live in the now-self.

Another friend was working in Bermuda, having grown up in South Africa. He worried that his daughter would think everything came easy. He was from the school of hard knocks. He tried to arrange for a Summer/Weekend job for her as a shop assistant, but the Manager was appalled. 'We don't believe in child labour!'. This was a far cry from my friend Wooly Willy Wilson ploughing up and down the steep hills of Westville on his bicycle delivering newspapers in the early hours of the morning.

There are three big-ticket 'But Please' ways we spend our money that have exploded. The 'now-self' v 'later-self' argument doesn't even apply since the need is obvious. (1) Housing, (2) Education, and (3) Health seem to have gotten completely out of control. We are Price-takers, paying whatever we have to.

Housing, Education, Health

I am a big believer that not every good idea is a good business idea. I also believe the rules that make money work can have horrible side effects when applied in the spaces of Law, Health, and Community. What all these have in common is the ability to be manipulated. When you have 'no choice', prices skyrocket. The thing doesn't actually change. The price just goes up. Particularly if there are lots of loans available for these things because they are essentially valuable services. Value and Price are not friends. Value is personal, emotional and meaningful. Price is just a way of swapping things.

If you want cheaper houses. Build more houses. If you want cheaper quality Education, make more of it accessible. If we want to be healthier, live lives that don't make you sick.

These 'But Please' chains are incredibly hard to break, because they are a communal problem. As a community, we have to be able to choose.

Child Mortality

Child mortality is like a thermometer for the general health of a society. It is just one number, but in order for it to go down, a lot of things have to be going well. In most industrialised countries, less than 5 children per 1,000 don't reach their 5th birthday. As the world has become richer, and more people have shifted from absolute poverty to middle income, this incredibly harsh trauma has visited fewer and fewer of us. It is easy to get caught in the negativity of daily news. This is slow (rather than breaking) news that has taken 200 years and fundamentally changed almost all of our lives. It is worth celebrating. The country with the worst child mortality in 2013 (Angola) has half the child mortality of the country with the best in 1800 (Belgium). More than 30% of children in Belgium in 1800 did not live till their 5th birthday. The global average has reduced from 43.3% to less than 3.4%. It is worth celebrating.

Choosing Now

Some time ago, I read Jared Diamond's explanation of how geography and biogeography, rather than race, led to human history playing out so differently around the world. The thesis is what it says on the tin. 'Guns, Germs & Steel' gave various civilisations a significant advantage at different times. The way we see the world simplifies things somewhat.

I saw South Africa's history as being different from America and Australia because Africa is very much part of the old world. I had heard about Germs doing significant damage in wiping out large chunks of humanity as explorers started sailing into foreign ports after months of being sick at sea. It was in Martin Meredith's 'The Fortunes of Africa' that I learnt how similar the history of the Dutch Cape Colony had been. Originally a trading post, disease had also jumped ship and wiped out chunks of the local Khoi and San people. The original settlements were small and they also got hammered. Setting out for foreign lands was often a last trip with many of the 'colonists' effectively being exiled criminals or poor people.

It wasn't just the Americas, Australasia and Africa either. Disease used to smash all of us. The Black Death killed an estimated 30-60% of the European population 1346-1353. About 75-200 million people. This ranged from about 20% in England to about 80% in Italy. That is the sort of thing that doesn't get forgotten. It must be a frightening World War like experience to have so many people you love get torn from you. I have never had to fight in a War. Most of the people I have lost have been old when they left.

The Black Death

  

Life is still fragile, but I struggle to imagine how it must have been to have lived in the not to distant past. Global Child Mortality fell from 18.2% in 1960 to 4.3% in 2015 (Our World in Data). Losing a child before they reach their 5th birthday is one of the most tragic things I can imagine. It used to be common place. Every hundredth birth used to result in the death of the mother. That too breaks people, but used to be common. All incredibly harsh experiences that we are conquering.

In 'Darwin's Dangerous Idea', Dennett explains how rather than evolution being 'survival of the strongest', it is more about resilience. We don't know in advance what life is going to throw at us. We just know it is going to throw a lot. Evolution happened through making lots of slightly imperfect copies. All with different imperfections. Mostly the same. Evolution isn't about grand plans of progress, it is about building resilience.

When a new challenge comes out of nowhere, sometimes most of us got wiped out. If 95% of a population fell to a disease, a different 5% may have survived had it been a different disease. No one group can withstand everything.

If history was played again a thousand times, we would have had a thousand different outcomes with different winners and different losers. I am just glad to live in a time where we are working towards the lottery mattering a little less. Where we are smashing poverty, decreasing violence, and getting healthier.

If I had the choice of when to live, I would choose now.

Revising Exam Answers

If we stay private till we plonk, we can't see the thought process people have gone through in order to come to their conclusions. We only see the end result. The path is more important than the conclusion. People change their own minds. The way we see the world changes as we see new things. The curse of knowledge makes it very difficult to ununderstand things. If you know that squiggles make words, you can't see squiggles - you can only see words. We are often forced to vote on things we don't understand. I think we should do more thinking in public, and be more open to changing our minds. We should be more critical of our own ideas once they are out there. Like being in an exam. You have a limited time to answer. You do your best. Then afterwards you see where you made mistakes, and you improve your answers for next time.

A friend and I are having a debate about some of the topical political issues. I am no expert. I have attempted to answer ten of his questions exam style. I sat down, and answered them in one sitting. Fancy marking my answers? More questions or direction to resources that would lead to better answers would be appreciated.

Exam Time

1. Should people have access to universal (free) tertiary education?

Various countries have different approaches. I am not familiar with the evidence. Intuitively it feels like learning shouldn't be a privilege, but I feel similarly to education as I do to housing. You can make things almost free by increasing supply. Water is almost free and incredibly valuable. Providing loans for people who can't afford it increases demand, but not supply, and so just makes things more expensive. I am hoping Education Technology makes education significantly more democratic. I am for a Universal Basic Income. That would allow people to make their own choice on what to spend money on, which would include education.

2. Should people have access to universal healthcare?

Primary and emergency healthcare does seem like a basic human right. Some cultures are better than others at holistic health, which also includes what you eat, how much exercise you get, whether you make time to relax etc. Work environments that are healthy etc. are as much a part of health as paid for treatment. Market forces struggle in healthcare and create perverse incentives. I suspect if a Universal Basic Income could free people who are natural carers from worrying about how to survive financially, more of them would focus on caring for free. Free healthcare does lead to very difficult moral questions around available, but very expensive treatments. That shouldn't stop us providing for the basics though.

3. Should environmental regulation be informed by the recommendations of environmental scientists or by the industries such regulations would affect?

Both. I think anyone who feels they have something to contribute to regulations should be listened to. Science, by definition, is open to to evidence that can prove it wrong. It should be rigorous in its approach. Regulations should direct activity away from wealth capture and towards wealth creation and attempt as far as possible to quantify and allow for negative unintended consequences. Industry  will be best placed to articulate their interests, and then government should be able to incorporate that, and the interest of society, into the rule of law.

4. Should we have a global carbon reduction target based on the recommendations of science?

Yes. That is what the consensus of the world's experts is. That should be factored in to creating the best possible steps to start targeting the various problems the world faces. Problems can't be looked at in isolation, and so negotiating these things at multi-national level can get ridiculously complicated. I am a fan of micro-ambitious measures. Things that the man in the street can do. Things like eating less (or no) meat, using public transport, and being aware of individual impacts of what we do. Any plans that stop us having to depend on negotiating big plans. Small bottom up plans are better.

5. Should the majority of the land at the ground plane in our cities be publicly accessible?

I am a big fan of shared spaces. I love parks and paths. The best cities I have visited have all seemed open to all, allowing all those who visit or live there to be cultural billionaires. The biggest menace for me in cities is cars. I am looking forward to more efficient transport that removes the need for private vehicles and opens up more of the tar to walking, bicycles and shared vehicles. Cities are our best chance to create communities where we can break down barriers and learn to live together. That needs space.

6. Should we sell public assets to fund public services?

I like the idea of Community Wealth Funds. Where public assets are held in custodianship not just for the current generation. The analogy of the fruits of the tree being fair game as long as you look after the tree, and use some of the fruits to grow more trees. Selling the asset to fund services doesn't sound like a good idea to me. Rather make the asset work and use the fruits to fund services... or put the money in people's hands to decide what services they buy.

7. Should political parties be allowed to receive money from companies?

I don't like partisan politics. I do think the US is an example of where money and lobbying have gone awry. An arms race where both sides spending cancels each other out in a Zero Sum Game. Transparency probably helps. In the Financial Services Industry, there has been a big change in terms of what companies are allowed to spend on intermediaries. I think that has helped. I think it is a problem that fundraising and sharing of ideas are so linked. I prefer the idea of us all being interested in building consensus and listening to all parties. We can do a better job with democracy. The mix with money is one of many problems.

8. Should governments fund research more or less?

There is always a trade-off between research and current expenditure. Some important areas of research are under-funded and others over-funded. The question for me is how do we ensure we are working on the most important problems? There is a tendency for people to build up the importance of their expertise in order to get funding. The funding becomes the focus. As we get richer, we can start stripping away these kinds of incentives through increasing Universal Basic Incomes etc. Combining improved incentives with better communication, I believe the community itself can find the right balance between how much is spent on the future, and how much is spent on now. The community itself can best decide how to be good custodians. 

9. What is more important, freedom or dignity?

I don't think it is a competition and I don't think values can be quantified. Values change as society changes and different communities make different moral trade offs. I believe most people value both freedom and dignity. Constraints on freedom make for better co-ordination and co-operation. Rule of law makes things work smoothly when everyone agrees on the rules and plays by them. Dignity gets fuzzy. Adam Smith spoke of money being put aside to maintain leaderships dignity. I think leaders can live simply. The Pope shows that. Most Monarchs, less so. Dignity also gets fuzzy with things like free speech. I am for different communities coming to different agreements about how to deal with these things. Allowing for a variety of combinations of moral ingredients.

10. If we have a global carbon reduction agreement, should trade be a vehicle for its enforcement?

Yes. In a world of scarcity, I do think markets are the most efficient vehicles (within agreed rules) to allocate things. If there is a limited supply, demand can push the price up till the demand decreases. The rules would need to allow for any unintended consequences, so should operate within a democratic system.

Different World

Urbanisation

We know that 200 years ago, only 12% of the world's population could read. We know there were less than 1 Billion people till 1804. Now there are 7.4 Billion. We know they mostly lived on farms and we mostly live in cities. 'No country in the world has a lower life expectancy than the country with the highest life expectancy in 1800' says Our World in Data. We know most of the nations we now live in didn't exist then. California & 6 other states were mostly part of Mexico. The German Confederation only happened in 1815. The British Empire hadn't even started kicking into its stride. Shaka hadn't created the Zulu nation. If our reality is created by the way we see things and what we have seen, we have far more in common with each other than any one alive in 1800. The identity we claim from our ancestors is not the identity they claimed. We are starting again.

World Population

A different world from that of the Nation Builders

Let It Be

I was out of action for almost two days on Sunday and Monday with a bug of some sort. My favourite form of medicine is sleep. It tends to get rid of most ailments. I find the bodies ability to fix itself magical. While it does it's thing though, and I tried to sleep, my thoughts tend to go awol. I wasn't knocked out for hours. It was closer to that broken, distracted sleep mixed with dreams that were all over the place.

I feel almost in control of most of my dreams. Like I am directing the story. The problem is the 'almost'. When I am anxious, my dreams will often hit dead ends or caught in a plot twist I do not like at all. They include various relationships - friendships, family, teachers, colleagues, and various other people that I have come across in my life. Normally the anxiety ends up revolving around some sort of misunderstanding. I feel like people just don't understand the truth. If they understood the truth, then everything would be fine. But the dream won't got the way I want it too.

Because I am typically in and out of sleep at these points, I sometimes catch myself. I tell myself I am dreaming. It is not a pleasant dream. Just stop it. But I feel like I am on the cusp of solving some momentous problem that will make everything fall in line. Just letting it be is hard. I dive back in.

After two days of various of these types of fights, I really didn't feel like doing my normal reading trying to understand the various conflicts around the world, and how we chip away at some of the big problems. I do think you need to make space for the mind to switch off. Two ways which, now that I have more time, I find really useful are cleaning and cooking. It is amazing how chores when you are busy, become pleasures when you have space. A lot of things increase in quality when you add space.

Yesterday I made BBC Good Food's Tomato Soup. Not rocket science to follow the recipe. With some music playing and lights on the Christmas Tree, it is much easier to let it be.

Releasing our Numbness

I regularly get little boosts to my Mojo from Max Roser from 'Our World in Data' who uses evidence to visualise how living standards have changed over the last decades, centuries and millennia. You have to regard statistics as questions rather than answers, but Max's questions really put a spring in my step. There are big problems in the world - but they are solvable. In many cases we have solved them before, and so can do it much quicker the next time round. The magic of being able to learn from each other. Max creates graphs relating to poverty, violence, health, education, the environment and much more.

He released this graph yesterday...

It is difficult to fully take in the progress in this chart. In 18th century Sweden, every third child didn't make it to the age of 5. In 19th century Germany, every second child died. Today, in industrialised countries child mortality is below 5 in every 1,000 live births. This is incredible.

Faced with enough trauma, we become numb to it. Anyone who has had a friend or family member lose a child before the age of 5 knows how awful this is. It has become quite rare. At 1 in 3, pretty much everyone with a reasonable circle of relationships must have experienced this regularly. It is no wonder many cultures choose to only name children once they have made it through the danger period. Expecting tragedy makes you prepare yourself through numbness. I have heard this given as a reason for depression in the first weeks after a child is born. Parents expect to immediately fall in love with their kid, and get very confused by a combination of ambivalence to the newbie and their lives being turned upside down.

Take some time to wander around ourworldindata.org. We do have lots of things to sort out. We do have lots of things that get us angry. It is very sobering realising how much we have to celebrate.

We are really, truly, deeply, fully, literally, legitimately and unequivocally lucky to be alive. Only by releasing our numbness, can we be free to experience the good stuff.

Real Risks (by Jared Licina)

Guest Post: Jared Licina

Jared is one of those guys that believes sleep is for when you are dead. I got tired just by hearing stories of what he was up to or seeing his name pop up repeatedly on lists of organisers at university. Very involved in debating at school, I was hoping he would be keen on sharing some of his thoughts on this blog, and that is the case. Jared thinks about life deeply and seems to pack in enough for three or four people. On top of that, he is good people.

Jared and I are bottom right, less a decade, some hair and some weight

Real Risk
by Jared Licina


Some of the posts within this blog have looked at how people are notoriously bad at calculating risk in their daily lives, to make logical decisions about what really impacts them. But why, and how can you overcome this? As a public service, we can look at what REALLY is threatening you these days. I started this article as a backlash against some recent adverts for various superfoods, but what I found was interesting...

To begin, why are people so bad at knowing what threatens them? This would seem an important trait at keeping people alive. But while we're good at being aware of immediate danger (e.g. fire, wild animals, GIANT SPIDERS AAARGH) and our reflexes react as such, much more complex problems bring on a problem called attribute substitution. Essentially, humans are bad at correctly calculating complex problems, and so when presented with the challenge, frequently substitute a simplified version of the problem in order to solve it.

For example, when asked "A bat and a ball together cost $1.10. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?" many people wrongly answer $0.10. Attribute substitution explains this by showing that, rather than work out the sum, subjects parse the sum of $1.10 into a large amount and a small amount, which is easy to do. Whether they feel that is the right answer will depend on whether they check the calculation with their reflective system. This extrapolates to larger and more complex problems by sometimes replacing the numbers altogether. You may not know the exact probability of being killed in a car crash versus a plane crash, but a plane crash seems more horrifying and violent, and so the mind responds by analysing the negative outcome and using that to make the decision, rather than looking at the hard numbers.

Psychologist Daniel Kahneman ran a study where some Americans were offered insurance against their own death in a terrorist attack while on a trip to Europe, while another group were offered insurance that would cover death of any kind on the trip. The former group were willing to pay more even though "death of any kind" includes "death in a terrorist attack". Kahneman suggested that the attribute of fear is being substituted for a calculation of the total risks of travel; fear of terrorism was stronger than a general fear of dying on a foreign trip.

A more recent example of this was the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, which raised huge amounts of money to fight the disease; but it's interesting when comparing it to actual mortality numbers in the graph below using numbers from the CDC. To be fair, some diseases like ALS are not simply about mortality, but also about the quality of life impact people have when they are living with it. But it shows the interesting discrepancy between the death something causes and how much we spend to fight it.

So when it comes to actual risks, what are out biggest threats? There are many sources to take a deep dive, but the NHS in the UK as a tool for evaluating probability of mortality and putting it in a way everyone can follow. On the site (http://www.nhs.uk/Tools/Pages/NHSAtlasofrisk.aspx) you can cut your own data by gender, age and location (in the UK) but the consolidated numbers are below.

So in our public service conclusion, we can focus on 3 easy rules for avoiding death that look at the actual probabilities:

1.      High blood pressure: Do not, under any circumstances, watch the South African Cricket Team play at the Cricket World Cup (I’m kidding AB, you guys were amazing and I’ll be watching as usual next tournament, with a pacemaker). But learn how to be zen in difficult situations that normally lift your blood pressure, and have it checked regularly.

2.      Smoking: Quit now. For every Rand or Dollar or Yemeni Rial you spend on anti-smoking aids, you’re likely to see a massive saving on funds, and a huge reduction in mortality.

3.      High cholesterol: Get this checked every year and be very wary of high cholesterol foods.

Some other categories spike higher based on individual factors; for example, suicide is a large contributor to males in their 30’s who live in London (which is mostly international). So I guess be careful of sad music (and the Cricket World Cup). But rather than focus on dozens of different ways to cheat death, focus on these three and you’ll add a massive boost to your probabilities. So now you can make better decisions. As you can see from the low probability of death by diabetes versus the high one from heart and circulatory disorders, if that chocolate bar helps keep your blood pressure down, it’s the smart choice. All in moderation though.

References:

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/infographic-shows-differences-between-diseases-we-donate-and-diseases-kill-us

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-things-most-likely-to-kill-you-in-one-infographic-2015-2
Wikipedia as always

The Loss of Accountability (by Samir Bhana)

Guest Post: Samir Bhana

I took two years off between school and university while my brothers finished university. When I got to Smuts at the University of Cape Town, there was a great bunch of guys from various years at Westville Boys' High. I often wonder how awesome it would be if schools didn't divide people up by year group. A lot of learning in my class went on between students helping each other. It would be great if that could be extended across years. At university I once had to repeat a rather tough subject and by helping tutor my younger classmates, my second attempt was a success. Those struggling may learn more by realising how much they have conquered.

One of the great guys I got to connect with again was Samir. Samir now lives in Dublin and works for Twitter. Fortunately we don't have to wait to be plonked in the same building to connect with interesting people anymore. I am glad he seized the day and chose to write a guest post.

9 Westville Boys in Smuts 2001 - Gary must have been 'busy'

The Loss of Accountability
by Samir Bhana

When my old schoolmate Trevor asked me if I was interested in writing a guest post for him, I automatically said yes. The idea of writing a regular blog has always been interesting to me, and yet I've never actually done it.

So, as we do with so many things, I said "Sure!" without committing to a specific deadline or topic. It was in itself a commitment without a tangible penalty. I'll write something at some point, I thought. And then promptly forgot about it.

Trev then messaged me a few weeks later, asking if I was still interested in writing a post and I realised the penalty had just become tangible. I was being held to my fleeting commitment by a friend whose respect of me would diminish if I reneged.

When I think back to how I achieve my goal in life, it is generally driven by accountability to someone else. My boss, my parents, my friends, my girlfriend. I don't like letting people down and so a lot of the time I find this easy (for a separate therapy session).

But what I lose in that way of thinking is accountability and, more importantly, accountability to myself. Don't wanna brush your teeth tonight? Well no one will know except me. Want to wolf down a slab of chocolate? No problems if no one is around. Stay up till 2am watching movies on a weekday? Who will know?!

This loss of accountability to myself has led to an interesting pattern in my life over the last few years. In a year where I start a new role or job, my health goes out of the window because all of my energy and time goes into not letting my boss and colleagues down. But once I've settled in and have my routine down, I try to reclaim what I've given away. A type of sinusoidal existence that surely can't be good for me.

The graphs of sine and cosine are sinusoids of different phases

Which all brings me to the other critical element of personal accountability - balance. Balance is one of those things that you can't truly understand until you haven't got it, but its so critical to making sure you last the marathon, and not just the sprint. Balance only comes when  you truly hold yourself accountable because you know its important for your own physical well being and mental health. When I was in my 20's, balance seemed like an unnecessary distraction - get the most of life! Carpe Diem! But now in my 30's, balance seems like exactly the thing I need to do that.

Seize the day

Understanding what I really need in my day-to-day life - my relationships, my job, my hobbies - has always been the hardest part of figuring out "happiness" for me. Holding myself accountable could be the biggest key to that.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In writing a blog about several topics in which I admit to being a complete beginner, I am going to have to rely heavily on the people I am writing for who cumulatively know most of what I am likely to learn already. I would love it if some of you found the time to write a guest post on the subject of happiness or learning. The framework I use for thinking about these things is what I call the '5 + 2 points' which includes proper (1) exercise, (2) breathing, (3) diet, (4) relaxation, (5) positive thinking & meditation, (+1) relationships, (+2) flow. Naturally if you would like to write about something that you think I have missed, I would love to include that too. If you are up to doing something more practical, it would be awesome if you did a 100 hour project and I am happy to do the writing based on our chats if that is how you roll. Email me at trevorjohnblack@gmail.com 

Against The World

The story of Bobby Fischer launched the American love of chess, but it is not a happy one. Lance Armstrong are Hansie Cronje are my two greatest fallen heroes. Fischer's story is a little different.

Bobby Fischer: Winner of the 1972 World Chess Championship

Mental illness is already tough to handle. When someone has Cancer, AIDS, Pneumonia or any other clearly identifiable disease, we know how to handle it. When someone has a mental disease, it is much harder. All our affection for people is wrapped up in the relationship we have with them, and that is essentially with their mind or emotional capacity. The relationship may be based on a sport or interaction you have with them - and that may end. Then you have the memory. You keep that. The challenge with mental issues is your perception of 'who they are changes'. Who they are and your most recent memory of them are very hard to separate. Deciding to separate them to maintain a memory is in a way acknowledging a death of sorts. Nicholas Fearn talks in his book 'Philosophy' on how someone can arguably be 'dead while alive' with certain mental illnesses (e.g. advance Alzheimer's).

I don't know much about Bobby Fischer beyond the documentary 'Bobby Fischer Against The World' which I just watched. What I found disturbing here was that his descent wasn't even necessarily an identifiable mental disease. In his case he was famous, so people knew about his slow alienation and although he ended up being 'adopted' by Iceland (with affection for his 1972 victory there), even that ended badly.

We spend a lot of time thinking about what we eat, what we do, and how much we exercise in our search for happiness. This documentary is a great example of the importance of mental health - for ourselves, those we care about and for our heroes.

 

New Habits

I have recently returned from a month long Yoga course. It is the second of its type I have done and on both occasions I have come back feeling awesome. Life is not as controlled an environment as I was in, and the challenge is adjusting back but keeping some of the good habits. Life is a collection of habits after all. When we repeat things, we start doing things automatically so we can focus on other things. Stating the obvious, it is easier to keep good habits in environments that lend themselves towards good habits.

"Those who showed the greatest self-control reported more good moods and fewer bad ones. But this didn’t appear to linked to being more able to resist temptations — it was because they exposed themselves to fewer situations that might evoke craving in the first place."
Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2013/06/24/self-disciplined-people-are-happier-and-not-as-deprived-as-you-think/#ixzz2bxGMMAm4 (HT - Marginal Revolution)

I have written posts before about attempts to create simple good habits like making my bed and eating more fruit. On those two accounts, I continue to be atrocious. When I came back from the first Yoga course, I tried being a weekday vegetarian to cut down my meat intake. I lasted about 6 months but then fell back into my normal routine.

My plan now is to try adding things rather than consciously taking away. To try and create new habits rather than trying to stop old ones. Part of that plan is in cooking. I am going to try making healthy cooking a hobby. Perhaps the simple act of being excited about learning a new meal will reduce the habit of curry and pizza.

Let's see.