GOOD MORNING !

WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR 2025?

ANY HOLIDAYS ?

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SHARE IN A SHORT NOTE 😉

A lot of people look down on blue collar work, which I think is misguided. Especially for skilled blue collar work (and most type of work does benefit from skill/experience).

Basically, there’s a popular notion that it’s objectively better to be a CEO than a plumber, or an engineer than a barber, and that’s pretty off base. So it’s not that they criticize blue collar work in any overt way; it’s that they assume that that people in “lower” jobs would all want to be in “higher” roles if they had the choice. A technician would want to be an engineer. A janitor would want to be a CEO.

There are a lot of studies on job happiness and one of the most consistent correlations is that people are happier when they get more immediate feedback. Like if you cut people’s hair or fix mechanical issues or wire up electronic boxes, you often resolve things in minutes, hours, days, or weeks depending the specific task, and with progress along the way, so you get that quick feedback loop where you see the positive results of your work quickly and tangibly. Nothing lingers, unclear and vague.

And for those jobs, often when you’re outside of work hours, you’re truly out. You don’t have to think about it. You can fully devote your focus elsewhere. There’s not some major thing hanging over your head, other than sometimes financial stress or indirect things.

Now, obviously jobs with more complexity and compensation and scale give people other benefits. More material comfort and safety, more power to impact the world at scale, more public prestige, etc. and for some people that’s important for happiness, and for others it is not. And the cost is that it’s generally highly competitive, rarely if ever turns off, and usually comes with much slower and more vague feedback loops in terms of seeing or feeling whether your work is making things better or not.

There was a time in my life where wiring up electronic boxes was really satisfying. Each project had a practical purpose but then also was kind of an artform since I wanted it to look neat for aesthetic and maintainability purposes. I would work on these things like a bonsai enthusiast would sculpt bonsai. And then eventually I would design larger systems and have technicians wire them instead, but for some of the foundational starting points I’d still set up the initial core pieces to get it started right. I wasn’t thrilled when I realistically had to give that up when I moved into management for a while.

I have a housekeeper clean my house every couple weeks. She’s a true pro; she used to clean high-end hotels for years and now works for herself cleaning houses. When we travel, she can let herself in and clean our place, since we trust her.

She doesn’t speak much English, but her daughter does, and that daughter recently graduated college.

Notably, she consistently sings while she cleans. She could listen to music or podcasts but doesn’t. She just sings every time she cleans. I can tell she’s generally in a state of flow while cleaning. She’s good at what she does, and it’s kind of a meditative experience involving repetition but also experience to do it properly and efficiently and then a satisfying conclusion of leaving things better than how they were found. Turning chaos to order.

Last year she was hit by a truck while driving, and had to be out of work for a few months to recover. When she came back, we just back-paid her the normal rate for those few months as though she cleaned on schedule, so she wouldn’t have any income gap from us. Full pay despite a work gap. She was shocked when we did that. We weren’t sure her financial situation (I assume it’s pretty good actually based on her rate), but basically we just treated the situation as though she were salaried with benefits even though she works on a per-job basis. Because skilled, trustworthy, and happy people are hard to come by and worth helping and maintaining connections with.

If I were to guess, I honestly think she is a happier person than I am on a day to day basis. It’s not that I’m unhappy; it’s that I think whatever percentage I might be on the subjective mood scale, she is visibly higher. I experience a state of flow in my work, and my type of work gives me a more frequent state of flow than other work I could do, but I think her work gives her an even higher ratio of flow.

Anyway, my point is that optionality is important. While it’s true that some jobs suck and some jobs are awesome, and financial security matters a lot, for the most part it’s more about how suited you are for a particular type of work at a particular phase in your life. And you’re not defined by your work; it’s just one facet of who you are among several facets.

Find what gives you a good state of flow, pays your bills, lets you save a surplus, and lets you express yourself in one way or another.

I'll say it again for people in the back that didn't hear it.

We're all here because we recognize what's wrong with legacy social communication.

Nostr is an open protocol. There is no correct path forward. There are only user choices.

You can also tell me to go fuck myself if you don't believe me or like what I said.

That's the beauty of all of this.

Keep building.

Going back to wired headphones was one of the best decisions I ever made

How government steals your money:

Good morning, #nostriches!

I'm knocked out with a stomach bug. Nothing much to do except move quickly from the rocking chair to the toilet and hydrate. Ugh.

Hope all of you are having a better day than I am.

#gm #goodmorning #plebchain #grownostr #theruns

GM,Nostr!

☀️☀️☀️

The median family income in the US has gone from 10K in 1971 to 55K today, a gain of 5.5x

however,

The median cost of a car has gone from 4K to 48K, an increase of 12x.

The median cost of a house has gone from 25K to 357K, an increase of 14x.

The median cost of an ivy league college has gone from 3K a year to 87K, an increase of 29x.

The average cost of healthcare per person has gone from $400 to $15,000, and increase of 37x.

Basically, the average person in the US is worse off today than in 1971. So much for "progress"

GM #nostr family, from what I hope is my last-ever Sunday shift in the fiat mines.

GOOD MORNING NOSTR.

LIVE FREE. 🫡

GM

This is Elon replying to himself on his alt account.

What a sad empty life.

All that money. All that power. All alone.

Going all in on Bitcoin was the most important decision of my life. Not for the money it would become, nor for the purpose and meaning that it would deliver to me, but because it was a decision that was truly mine.

The whole world and everyone in it has ideas of who you are suppose to be, and most of the time we conform with that in some way or another. While I did not know it at the time, I knew in my heart of hearts that Bitcoin not only had a chance to save me from a life of mind-numbing pointless work, and nihilistic existence; but more than that, it allowed for me to believe in what I saw for myself, and my own understand of it before what everyone else was telling me. It let me stand up for myself against a world that just wanted to use me and keep me in the suppressed, small role it had relegated to me. Bitcoin allowed for me to decide something else against this system that could not see the light and love that I really am.

This decision came from my own strong conviction within myself that I knew from the deepest levels within me. Even though it seemed crazy, irrational, and like it wouldn’t work to everyone else; just like most major decisions that can change your life for the better, I knew it was what I had to do for myself. There are no other people who can make these kind of decisions for you, and that is why they are them in their lives and you are you in your life. Only you can make the decision for yourself about how your life is going to be, where you are going to put your energy and how you are going to save yourself against a world that wants to exploit you like a machine, and give you worthless paper in exchange for it. You can choose something else now, but that decision is on you alone.

While I cannot promise that you’ll get rich from Bitcoin, or even that it will be a profitable decision with your timing of the markets, you will learn to have a new kind of conviction and faith in yourself which is a kind of wealth in its own right. You will learn that you can decide to take a risk on your own thoughts and decisions, and that is worth something in and of itself.

Just some food for thought going into 2025.

GOOD MORNING

I AM NOW 2 YEARS ON NOSTR

AND IT IS JUST GETTING STARTED !

#coffeechain

funny innit