Every so often, I get the objection that ERE means that one has to live like a student.

I don’t understand what was so bad about living like a student and why this objection is so common. Am I really in the minority because I liked living like a student?

Each weekday my (undergraduate) student life had 4 hours of lectures (which interested me), 2 hours of homework (which I could have done without), I knew all my neighbors and we often hung out, we had a weekly game night and parties once a month. Sometimes we had movie nights and sometimes we had a spontaneous soccer match or a trip to the beach. We often cooked dinner together. There was little worrying about anything financial. I remember this time as one of the best in my life.

Conversely, when I’ve talked to people who have “grown up”, they mostly talk about bills, how their job sucks, how their colleagues or boss suck, and how tired they always are. They miss getting together with other people every other night (nobody seems to have the time), their last party was the annual company dinner, nothing happens spontaneously (when did anyone last arrange a soccer match with the people on your street?) and everything must be given 3 weeks notice so people can coordinate their scheduling. Outings are no longer free road trips to Canada or the haunted house, but must involve either a Raiders game, a cruise vacation, etc.

Some probably enjoy their non-student life, but I hear these complaints too often.

I liked living like a student and in many ways, I still try to. The only difference is that today I’m maybe a little wiser, my stuff is a little better, I’ve eliminated homework, and I got money in the bank for a change. In fact, my main lament is that many of my friends have turned into the people described in the paragraph above.

I wonder what other experiences people have had that make working life seem so great and student life seem so horrible.

Originally posted 2011-10-28 14:27:30.

Experience without intelligence is just information or a walking encyclopedia. Intelligence without experience is knowledge and knowledge without experience is unwise.

Experiences can be bought (and some say they are better than stuff). Intelligence can not be bought with money (but some say it can be developed through effort and time).

Ideally one should strive for a balance. The strategy of education is loosely to add experiences until they match our intelligence. But what method if any exists to increase intelligence to match our experiences? Expert advisers?

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Comment: Incidentally, I am not completely happy with this diagram. I am thinking of switching information (objective) with experience (subjective) to have objective variables but subjective fields and balances.

Originally posted 2010-05-13 00:05:01.

What I read in books form a large part of the material of thinking and probably a large part of my thoughts as well. I have noticed that some authors, particular those who write investment books, have books they read annually, that is, they read the same book every year. (I rarely read the same book twice which is why I am liquidating my “library” save for reference books.)

This makes me wonder whether I should start an “annual reading list” so as to form my thoughts on a consistent basis and remind myself of certain things. In particular, would it be better to reread and reinforce existing thoughts rather than seek out new ones? This is certainly the case when it comes to investing.

Incidentally, if you had such a list, what would you include?

Originally posted 2010-02-12 00:06:35.