My bath salts did little more than add a bit to my normal everyday shower routine. My usual urge to eat faces was no higher afterward. So unless these Texas barbecue joints that I can never get enough of are actually of the "Texas Chainsaw" variety, I don't see cannibalism popping up in my wheelhouse.JohnErle wrote:Have you considered cannibalism? All the kids are into it.NSpan wrote: Who wants to impulsively chime in on some major life decisions via an internet message board devoted to our collective obsession with cinema?
Seriously, though, in my experience it's a lot easier to make money when you're young and healthy and a lot easier to chase your dreams when you have money in the bank. My advice to anyone would be make your money when you can, invest it wisely, then retire early and do what you want to do.
Or, you know, spend the rest of your life watching movies. Whatever works.
If you choose the latter, I'd start with Inside Llewyn Davis, Zero Charisma or All Is Lost.
And I forgot all about Somebody Up There Likes Me. I might have to check it out someday.
Regarding your more serious advice, that seems to be the practical/logical/pragmatic/proven conclusion. The "green" energy business has proven to be something where I am proud of my work and believe that it results in something that is not only good for the "customer" but for *everybody*.. An analogy would be getting paid big bucks to simply promote exercise, safety and healthy living. It's all an easy sell because it's good and true and effective (and, in the case of peak energy load reduction, it's government incentivized so the customer ends up getting the goods for free). It's easy to sleep at night when you're proud of your work. All that said, I feel that I stumbled into a market that is booming by necessity (and inversely correlated to the success of most traditional industries). The answers, though benevolent and good for all, are obvious. I'm not an engineer, so I am only expediting the delivery of low-hanging fruit to the populace. If I stopped work altogether, somebody approximately as effective (and hopefully approximately as honest) as I am would take my place in an instant. In that sense, I'm not personally needed. I am personally involved because of the financial benefits it reaps for my LLC. Helping struggling young people (especially those with families) by providing steady work and paychecks is immensely rewarding. But it's a broken system. These guys are overqualified yet eternally thankful for the relatively mundane work. All that combined with the fact that neither I nor my fiancee (nor the other people intimate to me) have ever shown any success in the SAVING/INVESTING portion of what you describe. I can make six figures and drink better drink, eat better food, do better (more?) drugs, get better seats at concerts and shows, etc etc. but my quality of life isn't REALLY that different from being only partially employed and only making enough to cover rent and utilities. Living closely with loved ones, family, and life-long friends/lovers/confidantes/buddies/PICs, etc trumps any material rewards. And, at the end of the day, making money has never been a struggle. Not to toot my own horn (because, God knows, I can fuck this up pretty easily), but I'm well educated, white, male, smart, extremely tech savvy yet with a mind that is obsessed with the non-technical (humor, art, philosophy, etc.), the only thing that held me back from making even more money over the last few years was my (relatively) young age and even younger appearance. I probably missed a big contract or two simply because, even at 31, I still look like a "kid" to the heads of the industry. If anything, I'm leaning toward following my passion now: learn, consume knowledge, immerse myself in an environment surrounded by geniuses, and then day-by-day, year-by-year, integrate what I learn into my personal and business lives. The ultimate goal will to be as informed as I can be regarding the most fundamental issues that concern me, THEN return to large paychecks by performing jobs that I am most confident are utilizing my own potential, creating (or allowing for) the most utilitarian good for all, and fall into line with my personal ideology in such a way that I don't endlessly worry about how I could/should be doing more with my resources to help those around me (including myself), those I interact with, and everybody else in the most efficient way. Saying it like that makes it sound like I just need to get over the hesitations about "am I doing enough" and just DO. But, nonetheless, I think there is something to the concept of immersing yourself in knowledge, education, life experience, etc. while you're "young" and spending your remaining days implementing it. I think it's fairly obvious that one (knowledge) without the other (implementation)--or vice versa--is arguably worthless.. or certainly worth less. But that order (knowledge->implementation) seems somewhat critical in my mind.
I'll find a date with whom to catch Inside Llewyn Davis in Austin at Alamo Drafthouse this week.
