[WITI No. 75] Momento Mori via time mgmt, a quote & writing advice from Spain's JK Rowling, fraudulent higher education financing

Back at it, another week, where five of my friends learn what George is reading and thinking about. Who amongst you has read or has shared What is the Information? I still know most of you personally except a couple who joined this journey via Twitter.

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I started reading Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman who was recommended by one of our dear readers. The book makes a couple assumptions, namely that you’ll live to an average of about 76 years old. I did my own calculations and I’m staring at about 1,450 weeks left. I’ve spent the majority of my 4,000 weeks. It’s time to make these remaining weeks count.

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya

Another realization that the book spelled out is that I won’t finish everything on my to-do list - no matter how much I want to, no one ever does. It’s like the apocryphal story attributed to Warren Buffet about making a list of the 25 things you want to do in life, rank them by importance and strikethrough the bottom 20 items. You cannot do them all. It’s impossible - you cannot find more time.

Of course, pondering one’s mortality is a worthy exercise. Here’s a signal from the universe via my wife from a show she was watching on Netflix called Midnight Mass.

Myself. My self. That’s the problem. That’s the whole problem with the whole thing. That word, “self.” Thats not the word. That’s not right, that isn’t…How did I forget that? When did I forget that? The body stops a cell at a time, but the brain keeps firing those neurons. Little lightning bolts, like fireworks inside and I thought I’d despair or feel afraid, but I don’t feel any of that. None of it. Because I’m too busy. I’m too busy in the moment. Remembering. Of course. I remember that every atom in my body was forged in a star. This matter, this body is mostly empty space after all, and solid matter? It’s just energy vibrating very slowly why there is no me. There never was. The electrons of my body mingle and dance with the electrons of the ground below me and the air I’m no longer breathing. And I remember there is no point where any of that ends and I begin. I remember I am energy. Not memory. Not self. My name, my personality, my choices, all came after me. I was before them and I will be after, and everything else is pictures, picked up along the way. Fleeting little dreamlets printed on the tissue of my dying brain. And I am the lightning that jumps between. I am the energy firing the neurons, and I’m returning. Just by remembering, I’m returning home. And it’s like a drop of water falling back into the ocean, of which it’s always been a part. All things… a part. You, me and my little girl, and my mother and my father, everyone’s who’s ever been, every plant, every animal, every atom, every start, every galaxy, all of it. More galaxies in the universe than grains of sand on the beach. And that’s what we’re talking about when we say “God.” The cosmos and its infinite dreams. We are the cosmos dreaming of itself. It’s simply a dream that I think is my life, every time. But I’ll forget this. I always do. I always forget my dreams. But now, in this split-second, in the moment I remember, the instant I remember, I comprehend everything at once. There is no time. There is no death. Life is a dream. It’s a wish. Made again and again and again and again and again and again and on into eternity. And I am all of it. I am everything. I am all. I am that I am.

Today of all days, as I’m gather my thoughts to write this missive, I encounter the book, Die With Zero by Bill Perkins. The main idea here meshes with the 4,000 weeks message. You have three resources to draw from time, health and wealth. When you are young, time and health are abundant. When you are older, hopefully you have wealth, and enough health to enjoy it over a diminishing amount of time. In the critical middle period between youth and retirement, are you delaying too many things to build wealth you may not be able to use?

I’m nearly done listening with The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley. This isn’t my typical listen, I’m not a murder mystery aficionado. The audio version is excellent, it is narrated by 5 different narrators and they do an excellent job. The story took a couple twists I wasn’t expecting but I feel like in the end, it will be a like a successful game of Clue - Col. Mustard did it with the candle stick in the study.

I reviewed notes from the Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon and shared them with my 12 year old. It’s gratifying she accepted my recommendation to read it.

“Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person of the who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens.” - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I did some further research on Zafon. When I was reading the 2nd book in the Cemetery of the Lost Books series, The Angel’s Game, I missed the alternative reading of the story where he shares his experience as a writer who hasn’t necessarily found success like Zafon - listen here.

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School starts again in a couple weeks, so education is on my mind.

I read this article on slate.com about college financial aid and it confirmed a gut feeling I’ve had a while about financing higher education. It’s another thing to add to the list in the US that gets corrupted by corrosive capitalism. So far this list includes healthcare, higher education and politics.

There isn’t an easy fix to the situation for people who want their kids to get a college degree/higher education especially when considered a requisite for social mobility. A student can’t simply delay or try to get job to help defray the cost of higher ed. My plan is to have my kids opt out by completing their education abroad.

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Word of the Week: Obstreperous

Find of the Week: I found this hilarious, I hope you will too.

Buitengebieden @buitengebieden

Massage.. 😅

Has the universe hand-delivered a message and dropped it on your lap? Like that Zafon quote? Zafon’s is Spain’s most published modern author and the material is magical kinda like Harry Potter. The guy behind him is Spain’s version of Dan Brown of Da Vinci Code fame. Something to say?

Would you do me a favor? Please send the newsletter along to someone who might like it!

That’s all I got. Have a good week!

-George