Dear Graduate,

You have now obtained a degree. While this doesn’t show you to have any particularly useful skills, save for a few notable professions, it will make you employable in the corporate world. You now have a choice to make: You can join the majority, have a career, and work for the next 30 years while dreaming of retiring to Florida someday, unless prematurely stopped by a heart attack, or you could retire in five years.

For the former, the cookie-cutter lifestyle, allocate 15% of your income to a so-called retirement account (401k, IRA, etc.) and invest it in an index fund (I suggest 50% world and 50% US), and buy a house in the suburbs so you can start itemizing your deductions. Get a mortgage you can understand (e.g. 6% fixed for 360 months). Pay attention to the resale value. Also, buy a car that will survive the commute. Equip the house with furniture, entertainment electronics, and a barbecue. Don’t make any modifications to the house. While it may be cool to have a fireman’s pole from the attic, this will not help the resale value. If you get married, don’t get divorced, or at least get a prenup. Hire an accountant, a lawyer, a gardener, a plumber, a babysitter, a personal trainer, etc. for the things you don’t have time or skills to do yourself, and you’ll be set.

For the latter option, you’ve got some learning to do. It is very likely that you do not know how to cook (especially if you went to a fancier school where dinner was served), which foods are good and which are bad, how to mend socks and patch clothes, how to fill out a tax return, how to evaluate businesses and invest in them, how to fix a clogged sink, how to raise kids, how to clean a house, how to stay in shape, how to wash clothes (while making them last), how to change a car’s oil, how to ride 10 miles on a bike, or how to grow your own food. So regardless of how tempting it is, learn this instead of crashing in front of the TV all the time. Get a job, but don’t get the house in the suburbs. Furthermore, find somewhere to live within walking or cycling distance of your job and the nearest supermarket. Get your furniture used and get a roommate or two. Cook your own meals. Buy a very small but classic wardrobe. Buy quality, not quantity—this may require some research, as most things today are not built to last. Stay healthy, watch what you eat and take care of your teeth. Avoid owning a car, or get an old beater if you absolutely have to. Never pay interest on your credit cards. Save 75% of your income while learning the difference between gross profit margin and net profit margin, then start investing slowly for income.

If you choose the second approach, then after five years you will be a fairly competent and independent individual, and you will have enough money from your investments to pay your living costs, forever. Don’t forget–life is an adventure, not a race.

Good luck!
Jacob@ERE

Originally posted 2008-06-17 07:08:34.

Some time ago I bought an old (like grandparents-old) Disston for $50 on eBay (if you’re lucky, you might be able to buy one at a yard sale for a few bucks) and I have slowly been accumulating and building the necessary tools to sharpen it. Specifically,

• A saw vise — you used to be able to buy these, but since no one sharpens their saws anymore, these are hard to find. Fortunately, you can build your own. It’s just a wooden clamp you insert in your vise. I used a Tage Frid design, except I don’t have a hinge at the bottom of mine.
• A 6″ slim taper saw file.
• A jig that goes on the front of the file to hold the edge at a 98 degrees to make an 8 degree rake(*).

My saw was filed crosscut (to cut across the grain) but I decided to file mine rip to saw along the grain. This will allow me to split boards more easily.

I followed these saw filing instructions. The set looked pretty good to me already, so all I did was to joint(**) it making sure all teeth were the same height, and refile it for rip. Rip saws have no fleam which cut my filing work in half. While this is my first attempt at saw filing, the result was a definite improvement. It really eats through that pine now! Compared to a $20 big box store saw, its performance is amazing.Touching the teeth with a finger it literally grabs the skin. I’ve never felt something like that except in in my $200 Lie-Nielsen panel saw. (And now I wonder why I spent that much for the LN when I could have made it myself.)

(*) An 8 degree rake is a highly aggressive angle which makes for a very fast saw. I don’t think you can buy this for money. You have to make it yourself.

(**) This is where the term “out of joint” comes from. If a saw is out of joint, not all teeth are working. Your saw could potentially jump around and be a general pain to work with.

So instead of buying a new plastic saw, you just might want to consider getting an old saw, a $6 file, and fixing it up. It’s not hard. In fact, it’s somewhat depressing/disturbing to realize over and over that while modern solutions are usually cheap, quick, and easy, they are usually inferior to the tools and skills they replaced. It’s just that nobody knows this anymore. Those who are old enough to know have forgotten and those who are too young to remember never knew it in the first place.

Lessons learned: Saw filing for rip is easy, so making your own saw vise and buying a file and an old saw is an inexpensive way to get a superior saw and keep it running for life. If you need a saw, do it this way instead of heading down to the home improvement center to buy some plastic handled piece of stamped sheet metal that will end up in a landfill in 10 years.

Originally posted 2011-06-26 18:42:31.

Many interpersonal misunderstandings originate in parties not having the same goal of the discussion. I do not wish to go into detail of which underlying psychological motivation e.g. ego that drives these goals, but it is certainly noticeable that if two people do not have exactly the same goal, at least one party will inevitably be disappointed by the outcome.

The four goals are

1. Agreeing.
2. Winning.
3. Truth.
4. Ignorance.

The last, ignorance, is not a goal per se, rather it reflects a non-caring attitude.

Now, it should be fairly obvious what will happen when any of the 10(=4+3+2+1) different combinations happen in face-to-face encounters. It could even be expanded upon to meetings and conferences of several people. What is more interesting is how each type deals with his own decisions. I know as a “truth”-type that I carry an internal dialogue at all times never being particularly pro nor con. I suspect a winning-type carries a lot more certitude, is less flexible, and more permanent, in other words, a winning-type will not grow. An agreeable type will not grow by himself but could be pulled along, especially by a winning-type. An person who doesn’t care is unlikely to be moved by anything and provides the constant or reference point of the system.

Originally posted 2009-03-01 21:57:25.