sci-fi author, beatmaker

Month: May 2015

How to Solve Your Money Emotions and Achieve Financial Freedom

You couldn't pay me to own a yacht, but they do look real fancy.

You couldn’t pay me to own a yacht, but they do look real fancy.

I recently read MONEY Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom by Tony Robbins. The book shifted my thinking and emotions around money to such an extent that it warrants a post. While the book does get into technical details regarding types of investments, asset allocation, and diversification, the most impactful sections are those that address the big emotional and value questions around money, such as:

  • What is money for, for you?
  • What emotions do you have around money and the accumulation of wealth? Guilt? Anger? Greed?
  • What is enough for you, in terms of a savings/total assets amount? Why?
  • What level of financial security or financial freedom is your ideal?

What’s Up With OLD NAVY’s Jeans for Girls?

WTF?

WTF?

Kia recently wrote a letter to Old Navy which I think is worth reprinting here. In contrast to the boy’s jeans lineup which features reasonable options (Skinny, Straight, Boot-Cut, Loose), the girl’s jeans feature four types of “skinny,” and one option that implies the jeans could have been borrowed from the nine-year-old model’s boyfriend. I’m as socially liberal as anyone, but if she’s borrowing his jeans, what else are they doing? As a parent I’d like to be able to buy clothes for my grade-school age daughter that are comfortable, facilitate unrestricted running around at recess, and don’t have the word “boyfriend” in the name.

Try again Old Navy.

Old Navy! Really?!

What are you thinking naming your jeans for kids, Boyfriend Skinny? And why oh why do three out of five styles actually call themselves skinny? And one of the others is even skinnier than that??

I just want to buy some nice comfortable clothes for my seven year old to run and play in. To go to school in. I certainly hope she is very far from having her first boyfriend, and even further from borrowing his jeans.

Boys get a relaxed fit choice, and that’s what my daughter wants too.

And nix that boyfriend name in the kids jeans. Now. It’s really, really wrong.

Sincerely,
Kia Simon

“First they came for the musicians … “

Yesterday I read a thread on ambient artist Biosphere‘s Facebook page that made me reflect on the ongoing economic revolution centered on replication and automation. Biosphere posts that he is weary of his music being pirated and feels resentful (a natural and understandable sentiment) and is met with a flurry of comments.

Screen Shot 2015-05-06 at 7.02.39 AM

Most of his fans are supportive, but many roll out the same tired arguments attempting to justify their own stealing or somehow blame the artist, including:

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