Do the Opposite - the Second Life Thought Experiment, Automation-Proof Skills, Saving and Early Retirement
Greetings Friends,
Welcome to the newest issue of the Do the Opposite newsletter, sent every Monday! If you like it, please forward this email to your friends or share this link with them: tinyletter.com/dotheopposite - this helps the newsletter grow!
If you want to share any resources, articles, books or anything else with the community, please reply to this email with your recommendations!
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How To Appreciate Life And People More: the "Second Life" Thought Experiment
This is something I came up with last week. It's a pretty basic idea, but I found it to be very powerful. Here it is: In order to start appreciating your life and the people in it more, imagine that you have already lived up to 90 years old, and then were given a chance to re-experience your life again.
What would you do differently? Would you be concerned with having to wait for the bus for 20 minutes, being bored, or would you enjoy the moment? People walking by, light autumn wind, sounds of the busy street; you, being able to see, smell, hear all of this?
Would you ever take offence to something a friend said that slightly upset you? Would you wait for days after having an argument with someone you love before you tear down the walls your ego has put up and say that you're sorry? Every day with the people you love would be precious to you! Maybe even with the people you dislike or have a competition with! That makes life more vibrant, unexpected, like an adventure!
It might seem silly that the "second life" thought experiment would have such a deep effect on your thinking, your decisions, emotions and behaviour, but it does. The more times you remember it in any life situations the more chances are you will make a wiser choice in that particular life situation. When you keep the thought experiment in mind, it's almost like you have a wise old mentor that's guiding you through life.
It's as if you changed the common question people ask themselves to help manage stress and worry: "Will I care about this in 5 years?" In our case, the question is "Will I care about this in 50-60 years?". When you answer that, your priorities will change ― they will reflect the full body of your life (where you want it to go, what kind of person do you want to become and be known as, how you want to influence other people's lives) and not the spur-of-the-moment worries and wishes.
Let me know if you try it out and what the results were! I am very curious and I hope this technique helps you live a more meaningful and less stressful life!
Project Updates
I was planning to release some news about one upcoming project in this newsletter, but the timing was a bit off (still have to work on it to polish the details) so I will post the news here next week ― and you, as the newsletter subscriber, will be the first to know! :) Also, the secret project I mentioned a couple letters ago is alive and well, just takes a lot of time to move the needle forward on it. I will keep the updates flowing, starting with a more info-filled one next week :)
Articles:
1) " 'I Gave Away Our Stuff': The Minimalists Doing More With Less" by Jo Thornhill
Continuing on the topic of minimalism that has become quite the trend in the recent Do the Opposite letters, I want to share this article. What it gets right is the fact that you don't have to "become a monk", i.e. live an extremely ascetic life, to benefit from the ideas of minimalism. Jo shares stories of people who have downsized their apartments, possessions, etc quite a bit (sometimes by as much as 75%) but still remain people you would consider "normal". Thus, they reap the benefits ― more money saved, less useless possessions, less cleaning/storage space needed, more freedom ― all without having to live with fewer than 100 items, or other extreme cases like that.
2) "Are You Developing Skills That Won’t Be Automated?" by Stephen M. Kosslyn, "Harvard Business Review"
I am sharing this as an invitation to take some time to think about the skills you currently have in your profession, the skills you are working on developing, and the money/time you are investing into your education. Think whether these skills will be automated in the near future and if you are in the risk zone, explore other options. You can do some research online to see what options there are, but being a bit biased I want to recommend learning to code. Again, if you are on that path or want to start on it, reply to this letter with any questions or DM me on Twitter, and I would love to help out!
3) "Getting Rich: from Zero to Hero in One Blog Post" by Peter Adeney ("Mr. Money Mustache")
This is a new topic I want to start covering in the Do the Opposite ― saving, investing and early retirement. All of these things are definitely "doing the opposite" of what the majority of people are doing, and are a good place to differentiate yourself and make your future more secure. Here's a starter post that talks about these ideas in broad terms and in the future we will cover that topic in more detail. I will also share any personal updates if/when I get to doing more of these things myself :) One of the short-term goals of mine is to optimize our budget and start saving more.
However, I want to make it clear that with all the minimalism and saving - the goal is not to shrink yourself and your existence to the absolute minimum. Rather, we will be working towards giving ourselves more time and space to work on our own projects and sources of income, finding creative ways to grow, to learn and to become wealthier.
Videos:
1) "What Happens In Your Brain When You Taste Food" by Camilla Arndal Andersen
In this equally fascinating and hilarious talk, Camilla educates us on the power of bias we have when it comes to food and drinks, and how easy it is for our brains to fool us into thinking we like or dislike a certain food item or a dish. I really enjoyed Camilla's stories about experimenting on her husband :)
2) "Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds with David Goggins" [Podcast Interview]
As you know I am a big fan of David Goggins and I am always trying to learn more from him - I think I've watched 90% of all his podcast/interview appearances on YouTube so far :) This one stood out to me as a window to learn more about the way David thinks and how we can use his insights to change our lives. Enjoy! (As usual, a disclaimer: David swears a lot :)
Tweet that resonated with me
Quotes:
All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger (it's impossible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.
― Niccolò Machiavelli
"Are you paralyzed with fear? That’s a good sign. Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do. Remember one rule of thumb: the more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it."
― Steven Pressfield, The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles
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TELEGRAM CHANNEL: Do the Opposite has a public Telegram channel. The content there is a little different than in the newsletter: faster to consume, a bit more random - basically anything weird or interesting that catches my eye - articles, tweets, videos, images, etc. Hope to see you there as well! :) Here it is: t.me/dotheopposite
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Keep doing the opposite,
Alexander Kallaway
Website: dotheoppo.site
Twitter: twitter.com/ka11away