This is the story of our Endless Weekend. For a combined five-ish decades we dealt with the usual high tech rat race: alarms, cubicles/hobbit holes, TPS reports, productivity indicators/red lab coats. It was a good run (though Dilbert is more accurate than not), but it was all … Work Days, Week Days vs. Week Ends. No more Week Days. In the summer of 2019, we, husband and wife in our 40s, decided to embark on an Endless Weekend (read: early retirement). Come share our journey, it starts here.
Where do we find the light? The inspiration? That spark of genius, even if only for a fraction of a moment? In In Praise of Disorganization, Wynne and I discussed a brilliant (pun intended 🙃) source of such wonder: the collision of different worlds! Think about it, fire materializes when 3 very different components come … More Where Do We Find It?
Have you ever been in one of those meetings that are so excruciating that they threaten to suck the marrow from your bones? I have. During one of those long and tortuous meetings, I noticed that we were making no progress at all despite several hours of intense discussion on the topic, let’s call it … More Words, Words, Words
If you’re asked to describe a courageous person, what comes to mind? A firefighter, dashing to save a life? Galileo Galilei’s defense of the Earth revolving around the Sun? Roald Amundsen’s expedition to the South Pole? In each of these cases, there’s a need to face danger, so courage is present. But is this the … More Can You See Different Shades of Courage?
Well-formed adults, I believe, are critical thinkers, curious, empathetic, and have a basic knowledgebase. I expanded on what that means in How Many Fully-Formed Adults Do You know? I believe those four characteristics or skills are what the goal of a good education is all about, as in the paraphrase of Einstein to the right. … More Can Creativity be Cultivated?
There are many industries, many occasions in our lives where size does matter. And while it’s probably too late to stop the smirking, examples of that can be the size of a brownie that you’d choose or the size of an asteroid in all those disaster movies that’s threatening life on Earth. What are we … More Is it the Big or the Small for You?
A friend told me that he feels he needs to move to a new job every couple of years or so. Of course I asked him why. He said that he “can’t see things” after two years. He said he that after a couple of years he starts to live in fear that he’s missing … More Are You Ignoring a Dragon in Your Midst?
Remember when we pondered if we Are We Wired for Fairness, with a surprising video showing… an unexpected story? (No point in ruining the surprise… It wouldn’t be fair :D) It came to mind when Esoterica brought up in a discussion of What Do We Have to Lose that bad things are going to happen, … More Is Life Fair?
Most of us have had the opportunity to see street performers. A musician, maybe a magician, maybe a pantomime. Here’s a 2ish minute video of a violinist playing classical music in a subway station in DC in the middle of rush hour: During the 45 minutes the violinist played, more than a 1,000 people passed … More Do You Stop and Smell the Roses?
Or rather, have you seen money ready to be plucked off of trees? If you have, please do share the experience! If you haven’t, please watch the video below, or at least its first minute. It’s a total of 5 minutes including all the credits, no audio needed, sfw. Yes, it turns out money, actual … More Have You Ever Seen Money Grow on Trees?
Before you roll your eyes, let me explain why this question does make sense. It came up in a recent conversation with a friend. No, neither one of us raises or plans to raise donkeys; it’s related to a retelling of an old Aesop fable that goes something like this: A grandfather and his grandson … More How Many Donkeys are you Carrying on Your Back?
The Heart of the Matter 