Month: March 2019

Chow Mein and Lo Mein

The Chow Mein Conundrum

I love chow mein, but not all Chinese restaurants serve the same type.  It’s either a 10/10 meal for me, or a 2/10 meal, depending on which version they serve.  Lo mein, on the other hand, is almost always a respectable 7/10.  It’s never amazing, but it’s never awful.

Since eating Chinese food is such a rare treat I’m left with what I call The Chow Mein Conundrum.  Do I play it safe and order lo mein, or do I risk it and order chow mein?  In other words, do I go for what I really want and risk having an awful meal, or do I play it safe and get the guaranteed pretty good meal?  This is a lot like life.

Life itself is a rare occasion.

Sometimes we’re faced with the decision to either play it safe or really go for it.  The rarer the opportunity the higher the stakes.  Do we turn down the steady job that we don’t really love in order to pursue our dream job?  Do we gather our courage and ask our crush out risking embarrassment? OR do we stay safely on the sidelines content to have a 7/10 life?

I recently came to a realization in regards to my Chinese food conundrum:

For years I only ordered lo mein because I was afraid of the awful feeling I’d get when I was served bad chow mein.  The thing is, I never really remember the times I got lo mein.  It was a fine, but forgettable meal.  I was choosing lo mein, not out of love for lo mein, but out of fear of bad chow mein.  I almost always remember the places and meals where I got good chow mein.  I’ve had enough forgettable meals.

From now on, I will always get the chow mein.

How many times have you wanted to put yourself out there but didn’t because you were afraid of failure?  Failure in our day to day lives is often blown out of proportion.  We sit on the sidelines because we’re afraid of failure. Ultimately, failure is sitting on the sidelines never playing the game.

I say get up on stage and sing the song, share your poem, write the book, ask your crush out, apply for that dream job.  Maybe you fall flat on your face and it’s embarrassing and it sucks, but if you don’t even try it’ll be just another forgettable moment.  Don’t live a life of forgettable moments.

When you’re making decisions it’s important to ask yourself if you’re choosing chow mein or lo mein.

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Here’s a few more thought-provoking articles you might like:

Redefining Success and Chasing FI- The Boat vs. The Shore

The Best Bite of Ice Cream

Ketchup and Lettuce

 

The Veil of Ignorance Thought Experiment

For whatever reason I like thought experiments, probably because I was homeschooled.  Anyway, I recently came across a thought experiment where you imagine making a new society.  It really gets your thinking motor running.  It’s called The Veil of Ignorance and I first heard about it on The Making Sense Podcast with Sam Harris.  The originator of the idea was an American philosopher named John Rawls.  

The basic idea is you get to make a society from scratch, but you don’t know who you’ll be in that society.  Pretty exciting, huh?  Let’s explore that more since so far this isn’t long enough to be considered an article by itself.  Continue reading “The Veil of Ignorance Thought Experiment”

Debt, Compounding Interest, and $50,000 Truck

Compounding interest is the eighth wonder of the world.  He who understands it, earns it. He who doesn’t, pays it. Compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe.- Albert Einstein.

Despite my track record, this is a real quote.  It teaches us a few things.  1) Albert Einstein was clearly a little sexist- women can compound interest too.  2) He was clearly prone to exaggeration-Really? Compounding interest is more powerful than anything in the universe? Oh I’m sorry…black holes. Slap. Really, Albert. 3) Understanding compounding interest is important. Continue reading “Debt, Compounding Interest, and $50,000 Truck”

You Might Not Exist- Simulation Theory

“One topic I feel the financial independence community hasn’t really tackled is the idea that we all might not exist.”- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Have you heard of simulation theory?  Great.  That’s really great.  This is important information in your pursuit of FI specifically, and a better life generally.  The basic idea is we could very well be living in a simulation and we’d have no way of knowing.  We aren’t real humans, just a simulation of humans.  “Real” humans might not even exist, or they might be watching us as their entertainment.

You might be thinking that this is an asinine topic. I don’t blame you.

Anyway. Continue reading “You Might Not Exist- Simulation Theory”

Things We Should Stop Doing

As humans we do a lot of things.  We’re always doing things, and some of them need to stop.  Here’s a quick list in case you were interested.

Also, here’s a non-sweary version of this post so my mom can share it:

Things We Should Stop Doing (G Version)

Things We Should Stop Doing (G Version PDF)

Continue reading “Things We Should Stop Doing”

Redefining Success and Chasing FI- The Boat vs. The Shore

Success is a Gold Boat

A lot of us go through our lives feeling unhappy.  Much of our unhappiness stems from not feeling successful enough.  We don’t make enough money and we don’t have nice enough things.  People never want our autograph unless we’re buying something from them.  In short, we’re worried we don’t measure up, and it leaves us feeling unfulfilled.  A lot goes into feeling unsuccessful.

Part of our unhappiness comes from comparing ourselves to others, and part comes from chasing the wrong things.  What actually makes us happy, and what we chase, are too often very different.

In order to fix this we need to do something.  Two somethings, actually.  One, we need to stop comparing ourselves to others.  Two, we need to start chasing the right things. Continue reading “Redefining Success and Chasing FI- The Boat vs. The Shore”