5 Things

There's been a fun thing going around Twitter for the last few days where people paste in "5 Things I can talk about for 30 minutes without preparation" and then they list the things they can talk about. I saw some interesting things, one funny one that stuck out was someone being able to talk about the misery of being a Mets fan and a doomer optimist gave us a list of head scratchers including reality tunnels/memetic mediation. I have no clue what that is. 

My immediate reaction to the idea is to think of this as benchmark or measurement for being an interesting person and/or having a balanced life. I think this sort of thing is important. Not necessarily being able to talk for exactly 30 minutes without prep on five things but being interested in enough in several-many things to be somewhat knowledgeable able to share with someone who knows less than you and able to absorb information from someone else who knows more. 

This doesn't have to be polymathism level expertise but maybe polymath-lite? The idea is having interests that you want to learn about that might lead to other related things to learn about. Maybe a weak example but if you leave near the beach and like to surf, maybe that leads to learning about sea kayaking or something scientific related to the ocean or sea life. One hobby leading to an offshoot of other interests even if not full blown hobbies. 

Hopefully you enjoy what you do for a living enough that you enjoy learning more about it as well as sharing what you know. Hopefully you have a couple of hobbies like maybe at least one where you do something outside and maybe one where you learn things like, reading about something in the scientific realm, maybe even a third hobby where you create things. If you volunteer your time somewhere then chances are that is something you know about, want to learn more and share what you know when appropriate, you don't want to go Cliff Clavin on anyone in unsolicited fashion.

There are probably very boring, often but not always useless topics that you are well versed in. I've mentioned that the parcel down hill from us sold and was split into four parcels, we bought one and just keeping it as unimproved land for now but that houses are going up on the other three parcels. 

Winters here can be tricky especially where it comes to driving. The snow compacts into ice in such a way that it is very difficult to drive. No one believes it, they have to see/fail for themselves. Part of the equation is that during the day things melt some but then freeze back up at night and the ice gets progressively worse every day until it starts to finally melt away. 

I clear our road with my ATV and plow assembly. That usually pushes most of the snow off the road but some storms are too big. The plow blade does not scrape down to dirt though and based on the trouble everyone here has, even people who hire big yellow equipment to plow can't scrape down to dirt. In a six inch snow storm, if I can plow away 5.5 or 5.75 inches of snow away, I am shortening the time it will take to melt. Shady spots next to the road that go unplowed and have snow stay for weeks. 

There are other things though besides plowing to be able to drive up and down. ATVs seem to be able to drive just fine most of the time. I've only had an issue one time on my road with the ATV. The county road department leaves huge piles of crushed lava cinders around the community for people to take for improved traction on tricky spots. This involves filling up five gallon buckets and then spreading them on your road or driveway. The parts of my road that I need to do is usually 10-12 buckets full. Some of the time though, when you put cinders down on ice the ice melts some and the cinders drop down into the ice then it freezes that night and any traction benefit is lost and you need to do it again the next day. 

Once you plow down to what becomes a couple of inches of ice you can put snow chains on your vehicle and come and go easily enough. Putting chains on isn't exactly fun but it allows you to wait out the melt. 

I've mentioned before our next step with road stuff would probably be buying something bigger like a smaller back hoe or skid steer, something that I could put a bigger plow on so we don't have to wait a week for someone to get to us to dig us out when we get a storm that my ATV can't handle. Last January we had 30 inches over the course of a few days, with 18 inches of that coming in a couple of hours on a Monday and I could not keep up. I could go on from there about techniques for plowing.

Are the above five paragraphs boring? Most of the time yeah but to my three new neighbors, especially the two who will have very long, steep driveways down to the road I plow, it will be important information...if they ask. One already did, he was just up here meeting with the local utility about getting power to his lot having driven on the road I just cindered, noting that he couldn't get all the way onto his lot because there was too much snow/ice.  

This is something I need to know about but could still learn plenty more. If you manage your own money, I think that last sentence would also apply. You need to know about it but can always learn more. If you read stock market blogs then you are probably the person in your circles that people come to for investing advice. Chances are you can share quite a bit, unprepared because it is information you need to maintain a proper engagement in steering your own financial outcome.

Another connection that I've made before is problem solving in one area of interest helping solve a problem in another are of interest or even your work. My day job and fire department involvement has been a two way street of lessons learned and lessons shared for years. Same with blogging. Someone one asked me, would I rather be a money manager or a blogger. I will tweak the question to would I rather be a money manager or a fire chief? Would I rather be a money manager or run an Airbnb? Would I rather be a money manager or take pictures of fire trucks? 

The answer is that all of my interests, as they exist in my life combine to make me who I am. I think this is true of everyone. All of our respective interests balance us out. One dimensional people whose sole dimension is obsessing about their portfolios are in my opinion far less likely to be happy and far more likely to make bad decisions. Obsessing is the opposite of ergodicity, letting the market and the portfolio do its thing for you. A balanced life is likely to be a happier life and lead to better results in the things you care about.