J.D. Moyer

sci-fi author, beatmaker

What Does Financial Freedom Mean to You?

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On November 9

In Creative Work/Career, Money/Personal Finance

Not the skylight in my house.

Not the skylight in my house.

As the water poured into my house from two leaky skylights, I had a thought …

What does financial freedom mean for me, personally?

It’s a phrase Tony Robbins uses in Money, Master the Game. I considered the question on my first read through the book, but I wanted to come back to it. I’ve been thinking about how high net worth can limit time, lifestyle, and relationships. This is especially true for expensive possessions which require management and maintenance (houses, cars, boats), but money itself requires management, and a whole lot of money requires a complex network of people and institutions to manage taxes, investments, trusts, insurance, and other aspects of wealth legality and retention.

Net worth can also influence social relationships. It’s harder to form and maintain relationships with people who are in completely different economic territory, especially at the extremes of poverty and wealth.

Possessions, including money, can be a pain in the ass.

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30-Day Experiment: Daily Idea List

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On October 27

In Creative Work/Career, Lifestyle Experiments

photo by Adriano Agulló

photo by Adriano Agulló

For the last month or so I’ve been practicing James Altucher’s habit of writing down ten ideas every day.

I agree with Altucher that you can exercise the “idea muscle” and improve your idea-generating abilities. Almost any kind of intellectual activity can be improved with practice, and at the same time degrades with lack of use. I’m not even sure that I believe in “general intelligence” anymore. Human beings are either good or bad at doing particular things. 95% of that ability is determined by the amount of active practice (not just practicing but actively trying to improve your skills and knowledge). But what about innate ability? Sure, we all have genetic proclivities, but babies who might become geniuses still can’t do anything except cry and shit their diaper. Life takes practice.

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Why I’m Joining the Maximizers

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On October 19

In Creative Work/Career, Life Purpose & Goals, Mental Health, Metaprogramming, Personal Updates

Maximize your sound ... and everything else.

Maximize your sound … and everything else.

I first became familiar with the term maximizer from Penelope Trunk’s blog. According to Trunk, a maximizer always wants the best, and spends a great deal of time and energy trying to make the best decisions, acquire the best things, and have the best life. Maximizers are competitive, ambitious, and according to Trunk, have more interesting lives.

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Update on the Facebook/Reddit Nuke Option

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On October 12

In Culture Rants/Shares, Lifestyle Experiments

No half measures.

No half measures.

I deleted my Reddit and Facebook accounts back in July and August respectively. I quit Reddit because they don’t do enough to fight blatant racism and misogyny. Also I was wasting too much time on the site. Thirdly, I found that the anonymity often encouraged mean or disparaging comments (though, to be fair, there were just as many clever, helpful, and/or friendly comments).

I quit Facebook because 1) I was seeing too many posts from random people I didn’t know, 2) my time on the site wasn’t strengthening or enhancing the relationships I cared about most, and 3) I wasn’t enjoying time on the site. Also because of various privacy violations.

So I went cold turkey. Nuke option in both cases, account deleted, no going back (unless, of course, I decided to go back and start from zero karma and zero friends, respectively).

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Preparing for No-Car Month (and a Driverless Future?)

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On September 28

In Alternative Economics, Lifestyle Experiments

Thanks Fiat! You were great (except for the falling-off hubcap and bumpy passenger ride).

Thanks Fiat! You were great (except for the falling-off hubcap and bumpy passenger ride).

In a few months we’re coming to the end of our lease on the Fiat 500 (our family’s only car) and we’re committing to getting around for at least one month without owning or leasing another car. We’re considering using any and all of the alternatives below:

  1. Bicycling, transporting goods in either panniers/saddlebags, or backpacks.
  2. Using Lyft and/or Uber and/or Flywheel.
  3. Using City CarShare and/or Zipcar (both have locations within walking distance of our house).
  4. Increased reliance on local public transit (BART, AC Transit, MUNI, the ferry, etc. — using Clipper cards for universal payment).
  5. Purchasing or renting a small motor vehicle like motorized skateboard (see demo below).
  6. Using a grocery delivery service like GoodEggs or Instacart.
  7. Renting a car for day trips and road trips.

Transportation challenges will include visiting friends in Marin (difficult to get to via public transport) and Santa Cruz, transporting groceries and other bulky/heavy purchases, dropping off/picking up our daughter at play dates and time with her grandparents, getting to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco (challenging even with a car) and client visits all over the Bay Area. While in some cases we’ll solve transportation dilemmas by having things delivered, meeting online, etc., in most cases we’re planning to take the challenges head-on: how to do we physically get ourselves and our things from one place to another without owning or renting a car?

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