Conversation

My week at 33: nominally work 9-5, 5 days a week, chores on day 6, R&R day 7 My week at 46: 7-day cycle - Shitpost and warm-up day - Writing day - Part-work part half-ass-something day x2 - Tinkering day - Outing day - Recovery day Chores only in crisis mode
5
142
Every philosophical idea you like pairs with a problem you’ve decided to live with in your life So the more philosophical you are, the more problems you’ve decided to live with
6
69
Actually working is mainly problem solving for white-collar types, so going from 40 to 20 to 4 is mostly about just deciding to live with more problems. You’ll notice unphilosophical people aren’t willing to do that. They’ll attack all problems rather than live with any.
1
33
Money is only peripherally involved. It determines your floor, not that you’re headed there by deciding to live with more and more problems. Non-philosophical types who get too much money create problems to fill their time.
1
25
Deciding to have kids is probably the clearest case of makework. That’s why if you want a problem solved rather than just lived-with, give it to a parent.
4
33
This was my breakthrough insight that launched my consulting— the realization that clients want to solve problem I’ve decided to just live with. So I just had to get theoretically mad at my own philosophies to generate advice and reactions.
2
30
Replying to
This is why with enough wealth, people with low patience for philosophical rationalization end up tackling the ultimate problem — mortality. Me, I’ve accepted living with that problem until I die 😆 The ultimate philosophical accommodation of a problem.
1
19
Mediocritism is mainly about solving problems just well enough to be able to live with them but not well enough to be rid of them
2
31
This is why executives are willing to pay for consulting but ambitious rank-and-file prefer coaches. Most problems at exec level are cheap to live with (“manage”), but really expensive to truly solve. You pick your “solve” battles by mediocritizing everything else.
1
22
Coaches teach you how to work hard and solve problems in an area. That gets you promoted up to a point. To rise higher, you have to learn to half-ass every other problem. And most problems that rise to exec level are not fully solvable, only half-solvable, half-philisophizable.
1
24
The true failure mode is picking the wrong 5% things to put in the “actually solve” bucket. The corresponding consultant failure mode is venturing into that 5% zone by accident and draining full-solving energy with unhelpful philosophizing.
1
15
Pick your battles. Everything else is a half-assed philosophy problem, so talking to somebody full-ass philosophizing it helps sometimes.
2
18
A lot of this comes down to being a bad influence in the right places. Being conscientious everywhere means either being a successful perfectionist at a trivial life, or ineffective at an ambitious one.
1
18
This thread is kinda half-assed. Some sloppy inconsistencies and loose ends I’m just going to live with for now unless I decide to turn it into an essay. Caveat emptor.
2
14