Professionally, I focus on creating social benefit startups. In my Saturday morning emails I share what I’m learning and thinking. Topics range from better living and parenting to business and philosophy.
Useful Not True. One of my values is truth. I strive to be useful. So, a book like Useful Not True represents a potential clash of values. Because I loved Derek Silver’s book How to Live, I was willing to give it a try. He makes a good case for choosing an interpretation of the facts that is going to help you. He is not arguing that you should willfully obscure the facts or refrain from knowing them. His focus are the personal self-narratives based on facts. For example, am I dumb or not good at learning foreign languages or haven’t learned Spanish yet or am I happy and productive without knowing how to speak Spanish? Which one is more useful for me to believe? (BTW, another angle on this is Byron Katie’s The Work. Even if you don’t want to change your beliefs, it is useful to loosen your emotional grip on them.)
Stories About Money. There’s lots of advice about how to make money, save and invest. Much of it focuses on spending less. Once you have some money, when should you spend or give it away? How do you make those choices? Books like Die with Zero and Psychology of Money offer different perspectives. Recently, I listened to podcasts Moneywise (how do the recently rich think about and spend money?) and I Will Teach You to Be Rich (particularly the couples talking about money). I’m also collecting the principles or heuristics of how to stay wealthy. Any suggestions?
Build Baby Build. The rent is too high. Home ownership is out of reach for too many. A big part of the problem is that we’re not building enough housing [PDF]. Labor is a constraint but a bigger one is regulation. If you’re not sure what I mean read the illustrated nonfiction book Build Baby Build. Or if you disagree, please let me know. I’m looking for the strongest counter-arguments as I’m learning more about the topic. If you do agree, find your local YIMBY group. (Perhaps another part of the reason for housing underproduction is our cultural story that housing is an investment. Homeowners think they should protect their investment by blocking new housing. What would happen if our story were that housing is consumption?)
Until next time,
Miles