Proximity to Money

MIKELeave a comment

Reading The Art of Spending Money by Morgan Housel inspired this thought. And it felt like this was the heart of, not the book, but my interpretation. It was like, this is the idea to organize your actions around.

The closer something is to money, the less value it contains.

Like a Venn diagram, the more a thing overlaps with money, the less ultimate value it has.

Money as the first example. Money is money. Complete overlap. Money is good but because of the things it allows, not itself. You can’t eat money. You can’t stick your toes in money, well you can but it doesn’t feel like sand at the beach.

Nouns can be a second example. Money buys food, which leads to sharing meals. Money buys pickleball paddles, which leads to time exercising, laughing, and seeing friends. Money buys cars, which travel to beaches where there is sand.

Verbs. Money pays people to landscape, which leads to time with family. Money pays for tax services, especially this time of year. Money pays for haircuts, which help us feel better.

This frame of money is so heavily tilted by JTBD theory and Early Retirement Extreme I can’t get away from it.

Both JTBD and ERE point past the initial assumption and ask what’s really the goal?

And both rely on creativity to find a solution which leads to that goal.

Now, thanks to Morgan Housel, there’s a question to ask when making choices: What is this proximity to money? If it’s close, it’s probably not what I want.

Two Problems with Net Worth

MIKELeave a comment

In the early days of blogging, the Rational Walk was an easy entry to investing. Focusing on Buffett and Berkshire, they made an intimidating topic accessible.

One of their suggestions was to track net worth (this was early in my education in finance and investing). Rather than income or savings, net worth was how much a person was actually worth. It was the proper way. The intelligent way. And who doesn’t want that?

So I tracked it.

It’s been great! To see a number rise thanks to mortgage payments, investing gains, and raises feels wonderful. It doesn’t go up every time, but the number goes up over time.

However, like a lot of numbers, it provides a false sense of authority. It’s just a number, and it has two problems.

First, it’s not cash. Our net worth includes a house, 401k, and brokerage accounts. To convert all to spendable money is a task. Selling a house is an ordeal, a 401k included penalties up to a certain age, and brokerage accounts need liquidity. Someone has to buy what a person is selling. Plus, you know, crypto.

Second, it’s not the solution. Money may lead to a solution, but it’s not the goal. This is the heart of one of my favorite books, that there are many creative ways to live well and we stink at coming up with them! We can pay for services – or do them ourselves. The latter just takes some time and the right YouTube instructions.

It’s nice to be reminded of these things. Life is dynamic and asks for balance. Have things boiled down to a number? It might not help, but it’s probably not the answer.

The Need for Finish Lines

MIKELeave a comment

“I learned this in SEAL training,” said Chadd Wright, “the evolution that we lost the most guys on during hell week was this: the instructors set two cones out on the beach. They put the class out there and they said, ‘All right, run from one cone to the other‘, it was a one mile stretch.

“And they just said, ‘keep doing that until we tell you to stop.’ It was just a one mile run back and forth up and down the beach there in front of the ocean at your own pace. We got a couple hours into this thing and guys just were just quitting like in droves. And I’m like, “What is going on? Why are all these dudes quitting?” Like, well, the reason they were all quitting is because the instructors didn’t tell us that this is a 4-hour evolution. They just said, “You’re going to keep doing this.” And we were in hell week, so we knew it could go on for 3 or 4 days if they wanted it to. They couldn’t see the end. Everybody’s looking for a finish line, and there’s no finish line in life.”

We have ambiguity aversion. There’s an innate dislike of the unknown. It’s part of our system.

But we know this. We can use this.

Last fall my dryer was “crying”. It was making a squeaking noise that got louder each cycle. I’ve never fixed a dryer before and felt the ambiguity: what if I break this more, what if it’s challenging, what if it’s electronics, what if I hurt myself, etc.

There were two problems: the broken dryer and my feelings around it.

Well fixing my feelings (and the dryer) was just a YouTube video away. Of course there was somebody, fixing the same washer (the only difference was the color of the machine), who posted an amazing tutorial. Thanks to u/Bearded Appliance Repair, and one Amazon parts order, the dryer got fixed.

For those things floating from to-do list to to-do list because they don’t get done, there are really two things to address. The thing, and our feelings about it.

Heartfelt Excellence

MIKELeave a comment

One of the main points of Four Thousand Weeks is that being present and feeling alive in the things we do is more important than what we do or how much.

Brad Stulberg described this spirit as heartfelt excellence.

“Excellence is a process of becoming. The goal is to become and to grow and to evolve and to learn about yourself along the way. Like, that is genuine, heartfelt excellence.

And for some of us, it’s going to be five NBA champions. For others, it’s going to be a completed marathon. And for other, it might be a wooden table that no one sees but us in our living room.

But the process of making that table brought us satisfaction and aliveness. And the other people that come through our house and they eat on that table, it brings them joy too.”

How many though is easy to count, is I count it.

Social importance is easy to see in culture, and it calls me.

Aliveness and heart are harder to hear in the cacophony, but these are the most important.

Don’t bring information to a design fight at the gym

MIKELeave a comment

One of the themes around here is that design matters.

Want to change something (*ahem, resolutions we thought about making)? Change the design around it.

It’s easy to think that information is what leads to change. But it doesn’t seem to work that way. It’s not that we don’t know we should [save money/ eat this not that / take these actions at work] but that those actions are easy as not to do as they are to do. It’s only when the circumstances change that the action changes itself.

People who work with a physical trainer bench more, eat better, and have fewer injuries compared to people who work out alone or with a partner. We all have the right information for forms and styles, for foods and fibers. But there’s something different about the circumstances around having a trainer.

There’s progress you want to make. There’s progress I want to make. Things that haven’t happened yet. We need to change the circumstances.

Talent

MIKELeave a comment

It’s good to be precise in our language. It means we aren’t speaking one thing but meaning something else. 

It means we are impeccable with our word. 

A lot of times we talk about “talent” like it’s a thing. So-and-so is so talented. They’ve got a god-given talent. 

When we talk like this we forget that success is really a talent stack. Success isn’t a number, it’s an addition problem. When someone doesn’t quite make it, it means they were missing a level of the stack. When we don’t quite make it, it means we missed something. Sometimes life is baking and sometimes life is cooking – and we better know the difference when it comes to the talent stack. 

John Cena spoke about his to Joe Rogan (# 2423). 

Every four months, 200 potential wresters enter the WWE development program. Can you imagine if your industry had that treadmill? Want to be on top? Cool, good luck, we are hiring eleven people every week who want the same thing. Some simply won’t make it. Some will have a talent but that’s not enough. 

To make it you need to be an acrobat and a fast talker. 

“But that’s not the only attribute that makes one special. You may be a great joke writer. But man, if you don’t master stage presence, I mean, being a great joke writer with stage presence, but if you can’t lug the tour, you’re not talented for it.”

Lug the tour – what an expression. 

Cena’s a good interview even for non-wrestling fans. His talent stack came from two choices. 

First, always make the harder choice. Don’t do the easy things. It will feel worse first, but it will be better later. 

Second, take risks. It’s easier to take risks when you’re small and no one is watching. And if everyone is watching and you take a risk – and fail – that’s fine. It’s a learning moment and a chance to practice the first, doing hard things. 

How does information flow? 

MIKELeave a comment

As a family we used to play this Nintendo game called Overcooked 2.  The goal was to make food orders. My high school experience at Wendy’s was never this fun. 

In Overcooked, your team must notice orders (they look like thought bubbles), prepare the order (cook meat, chop vegetables, wash plates clean), and deliver the requested combination. 

Like all good games, it’s was just hard enough. That ‘hard enough’ meant there was no doubt about the order. The NPC doesn’t fib or change their mind. 

Life’s different. 

Life is a game of telephone.  

“The goal is to flatten the org structure, not to the point where no one knows who’s in charge, but flat enough so ideas move fast,” Brad Jacobs wrote. 

“I’ve seen org charts where there are nine layers between the customer and the CEO. That’s bureaucracy. The shorter and more direct the line from problem to decision, the better.”

We also tend to measure the easy thing not the right thing. It’s the easy metrics that get us in trouble. 

In my high school class it’s easier to see “time on task” or “quietly working diligently” than learning. So teachers, me included sometimes, get lost and track who’s not doing their work. 

That can be a good proxy. If someone is watching YouTube all the time, they probably aren’t learning. But, man, I’ll tell ya, these kids are an enigma wrapped in a riddle. You just don’t now. 

So sometimes, usually after a calm Sunday, I head back to work wary. Wary of telephone and wary of easy metrics. 

Difficult? Hardly!

MIKELeave a comment

“I was the fastest person in my regiment to be promoted to corporal. And I was in the marching band and I did an excellent drill as well. And, you know, something I take away from some of the commanding officers whom I grew close to, they would tell me that, you know, the ethic of the army was that whatever you imagine is the most difficult thing, you should simply re-conceptualize it as the easiest thing and then you just do it.”

From Conversations with Tyler: Dan Wang on What China and America Can Learn from Each Other, Dec 3, 2025

Do NFL players have the right opinion?

MIKELeave a comment

Each year, the NFL Player’s Association surveys their members (the players) about the quality of each team. Players rate things like the owner, the facilities, how a team treats player’s families, the strength coaches, the training staff, the food and cafeteria and head coach.

“One of our core jobs as a union,” the NFLPA notes, “is to improve the overall working conditions for our players, which includes the daily experience of players at the team facilities away from the lights and cameras.”

But, do working conditions help a team, just win baby?

Not really. With a Pearson’s CORRELation of .192, rely on something else.

Here’s what it looks like as a chart. The Miami Dolphins had the highest rating and Chiefs had the lowest.

There are some shortcomings: change of coaches, change of players, etc. We also don’t know how many players submit the survey. However 1700 respondents out of about 2000 players is a great survey return rate.

Enjoy the game!

Something to Play For

MIKELeave a comment

The new year is a fresh start, time to think about and assess our lives, direction, relationships and so on.

However, if you need a little extra framing, Bill Simmons spoke about how the Celtics are doing so well and why. It might be because…

“Every single guy has some sort of hunger for something. So it’s like Jalen Brown, Tatum’s not here. I’ve always thought I could carry a team like this, so he’s in. Derrick White. I’ve always thought I could do a little more offensively. Here we go. Same for Prichard. Simons, contract here. Cada, I’ve never gotten a chance.Hauser, finally getting more minutes. You’re going down line. Jordan Walsh. I would fucking kill somebody to play 25 minutes a game. Hugo, I’m 19, I’m a rookie. Josh Minot, thank God I’m finally playing basketball.”

It’s great. Each guy, no matter what level, has something to play for.