#110 End of a Decade

I calculate there is a good chance I’ll see the start of at least 1 more decade, probably 2. 3? Hmmm … we’ll see.

The last blog article of the decade. I hadn’t really planned to do an article like this, but so many of the podcasts that I have been listening to have been doing reviews of the decade. So, out of curiosity, I went back in my journal to 2010. And I’m glad that I did. The last 10 years have been a period of massive change, discomfort, and growth for me.

At the start of the decade I was in poor health, horribly unfocused, trying to swap back and forth living between two different countries, trying to run a new business (and failing), while ignoring the important one (business that is), and in the middle of a spectacular fail of trying to have a girlfriend. I was a mess. At least, to my mind. Reading my old journal entries was actually rather stressful.

It was slightly gratifying to realize how far I’ve come. My health is quite good, I no longer drink, I no longer party, I have lost, and kept off, 15 kg, I have gone back to studying, and I have consciously taken up Stoicism as a life philosophy. Not to mention, it looks as if my ongoing business endeavors will be undergoing a sea change in the following year, leading ultimately to a reduced workload, and an exit strategy.

Not that I want to stop working, but I would definitely like to not be part of multiple 24 X7 businesses (even just as a minority partner). And that looks like it is going to happen.

I took a look at what I’ve been studying over the last 4 - 5 years, once I started on my education kick. Long list. Spanish, Economics, Drawing, Astrophysics, Engineering, Construction, History, Stoicism, touch typing (not great but I can now at least 30-40 WPM), Behavioral Psychology, Linguistics, refreshing my Mathematics and Statistics … to name but a few. I’m not trying to get a degree or anything, I’m just enjoying the study. I’m happy about this.

I made the mistake recently, yet again, of thinking that if I just put forth a logical viewpoint to somebody, that they would see the sense in it and agree. I was reminded, forcibly, that the vast majority of people in the world today are not self-aware. They exist in a very narrow worldview, and as long as they are comfortable, they have little, really, no, desire to ever change. And the least little bit of pressure on them results in pushback.

It was sad really. About myself, I mean. I have to keep re-learning what I already know. Well, I will try to do better in the next decade and leave people like that well enough alone.

I have mentioned before in my blogs that a friend of mine once said “Nobody will change until the pain they are experiencing drives them to it.”

Upon reflection, although I agree with that, I think now, at the same time, it is bullshit. [For the guy who told me this 😊 … that is not a shot at you … not at all] – There is a corollary to this.

I feel, the corollary to the above, is it becomes just an excuse for most people to just keep going along and doing the same old crap, and not changing, simply because they are comfortable. I wouldn’t say that I’m angry, at least I’m trying not to be. But I would say that it is any intelligent human being’s responsibility to step outside of themselves, look at the bigger picture, and act on it, especially if they are too comfortable where they are.

Ah well. ☹ I look at myself and wondering if I am a hypocrite about this, but I truly hope not. I do try to look at the big picture and change if it is necessary. I may not always succeed, but I think I do at least try. And waiting until one is experiencing pain seems both stupid and a cop out. I like my comfort zone as well as the next person, but there is VALUE to stepping out of it. No matter your age, gender, or situation. As I quote on my home page – “To me success means effectiveness in the world, that I am able to carry my ideas and values into the world—that I am able to change it in positive ways. —Maxine Hong Kingston” – I find it hard to understand how one can do that if you step outside of yourself and be willing to change.

I discovered an interesting set of lists by a guy called Tom Whitwell. I’ve included the link below, but it is several years where he is listed 52 things that he learned during the year (along with links as to the source). Interesting lists. Well worth taking a look at.

https://medium.com/fluxx-studio-notes/52-things-i-learned-in-2018-b07fc110d8e1

From Espresso at the Economist, there was an article from their science section about Pleasure And Prejudice: Drug Policy. Link below, interesting reading, and indicates the insanity of current drug and alcohol policies as far as legal classification goes. Something, as most of you know, I have always thought is stupid to begin with.

https://espresso.economist.com/32cfe1632e63ffeea8bd9f57d652cc34

I have in the last year attempted to use some outsourcing services.

My experience with the first virtual assistant company I tried was stupid beyond belief. These idiots would not talk to me because I did not have a LinkedIn account. What egregious stupidity. So, I have let that option be.

I tried about two or three months ago to have somebody on Upworks redo my blog website. So far, it hasn’t been done. I’m trying to be patient, but I am really not understanding what is taking the guy so long. If you read this, no offense, and nothing I wouldn’t say to you in person, I’m just trying to give you time to get it finished. Hopefully in the next month or so this will be complete and you (my readers) can let me know what you think of it.

I was teaching myself to use Microsoft Access so I could implement, rather, re-implement, a logistical tracking system. But I soon realized that I could spend hundreds of hours working on this and probably still not get the application where I wanted it to be. So, I have decided to contract with a firm in the Philippines to take care of it for me. I did an initial consulting contract for 10 hours with them and the lady they assigned me was extremely capable. Hence, I decided to just offload what I wanted to do to them. That will start the first of the year, we’ll see how that goes.

Part of that involved, since I wanted various people to be able to access this database from anywhere via the Internet, buying a new domain (I chose HostGator) to house a Microsoft SQL Server database. Going through HostGator was enervating. I ran into, yet again, a fraud department, that is utterly convinced of the rightness that is them. I did eventually satisfy their prurient curiosity about that which is none of their business, but I am again going to waste $40 or $50 sending a formal letter of complaint to the CEO of the group that owns HostGator. Well, we all have our windmills at which we like to tilt. This is one of mine.

I’m heading back to Argentina in a few days. I’m stopping in Spain for a few days to visit my brother, whom I’ve not seen for way too long. I’m looking forward to that. Not to mention an opportunity to speak Spanish in Spain. Unfortunately, as is usual when I’m in Asia, I have spent zero time studying my Spanish. I started a few days ago to try to refresh it, we’ll see how that goes. I am planning to take my oral Spanish exam in Argentina for citizenship towards the end of April.

Well, I wish everybody a very happy new year, spend it safe and secure, and I look forward to talking to everybody in the new year.

And thank you very much for subscribing to and reading my output. I hope you are enjoying it.