I wrote this tounge in cheek essay for an ezine around 2005 or so. Enjoy!

Knowledge is irrelevant to the mystic. The true mystic strives for something greater than knowledge. Knowledge is but the logic connection of information about random facts, but logic is beyond the mystic, who even at an early age sets out on a life-long journey seeking a deeper and more personal understanding of his internal universe. It usually starts with fantasy novels.

Mystics revel in their deep understanding, because it avoids the unpleasantries of thinking about the real world; yet despite a life long journey of healing their damaged selves and professing their conclusions in chat groups and weekly group meetings, what have they really said?

Well, currently mystic philosophy has turned into a word game in which mystics achieves a fuzzy inner feeling by confusing themselves and each other with obscure combinations of spiffy multi-syllable words handily borrowed from popular science books. This frequently elicits responses from territorially threatened scientists, who on the other hand are rather narrow minded people – easily corrupted by facts and logical explanations. Such simple people lack the enlightenment to see beyond their senses, because they take everything too literally. And while mystics frequently take pity on these lost souls, the salvation of a scientist is usually a lost cause, so mystics usually turn to a more understanding and sympathetic audience, who are always ready and obliging to buy yet another self-help book to win even more friends and influence.

As has been the case for the past few hundred years the current generation recently realized that the world is going to end due to some great evil! Depending on who you are, this great evil either takes the form of Microsoft operating systems, comet strikes, resurrected rampaging dinosaurs, or in the case of mystics a lack of universal love and paradoxical quantum consciousness or whatever. This is partially due to the usual human tragedy of attaching the greatest importance to whatever is directly in front of one’s nose at the present moment. With their inwardly turned attention, the modern mystic easily disregards the real world in a manner which is only possible for one who lives comfortably sheltered and never had to face any constraints of nature. Naturally mystics, like economists and politicians, tend to deal with the world of human relations where anything is possible as long as you can argue your point convincingly. If you believe this, you can fly! Actually flying may not sound too far out considering that mystics are not exemplary for keeping their feet on the ground save for prolonged tree hugging sessions.

However, it is exactly that inwardly turned attention and understanding that mystics can contribute to the world. A world, where scientists are pursuing destructive goals, because they are ‘interesting’ and soldiers are ‘just following orders’. A world where employees strive for the next increase in relative status; and consumers, who used to call themselves citizens, are satisfied with voting only for whatever choices they are handed from above. Such a world devoid of values, indeed, is ripe for mystic wisdom which is defined to be correct merely because it feels right.

Originally posted 2010-03-03 23:21:09.

The word “retired” as it is commonly used and defined in the dictionary belongs to the industrial world, say the years 1920 to 2020, where it is understood in the sense of disposing of a worn out piece of machinery or employee. We can call this the social security era. This is one understanding of the word retirement.

When the world was poorer with less access to information of different solutions and all followed the same solution, as seen on TV, beginning some 30 years ago, there was a transition period wherein only some old people would reach the financial independence stage. We can call this the 401k era. This is another understanding of the word retirement.

However, with the aid of the internet people are learning how to reach it much sooner. What we have now is the beginning of a post-industrialist concept where the need for work becomes optional for those who have saved enough money and a mandatory life-sentence for those who haven’t. This is a third understanding of the word retirement.

So we have the same word trying to describe three different concepts. Having multiple concepts described by the same word is very confusing to some people. If someone reaches for the dictionary in order to think about something, you gotta realize that you’re talking to the philosophical equivalent of a wall. These people are incapable of thinking outside the box that is their “phonebook of words”.

When bloggers talk about “retirement” concepts with the intent to REACH other people, they HAVE to use the word “retirement” even if their concept doesn’t match the concept of the majority(*). They then have to explain it in detail.

However, many people don’t try to understand before they start complaining. It’s way easier for someone to say that they “somehow can’t wrap their heads around it, so therefore it’s impossible.” Now that’s a fairly ass-clownish attitude, but surprisingly it’s commonly accepted—like being bad at math is cool (rather than embarrassing like it should be…no one brags about being a bad speller for instance), having an opinion based on ignorance is cool to.

(*) If it was referred to a “Concept X” people would never find them.

As a blogger it’s not funny being on the receiving end of that. YMMV. Hence the “damnit, I wish some people would stop being so closed-minded”-responses, like the recent MMM vs the IRP post.

When MMM and I use the word “retirement”, its meaning is closer the third meaning.

Interestingly, the third meaning is actually close to the pre-industrial meaning. Back when people where more self-reliant and not the helpless consumers they are today. From a comment from Simply Rich Life on the post above:

“Retiring is a good word if you consider its other meanings which include “withdrawing from something” (in French, retirement is almost the same as “retreating”). For example there are great philosophers who “withdrew from” their primary occupations to think and write more which is how we ended up with all those books.”

MMM doesn’t think about software development anymore. I don’t think about physics anymore. At all! We’re permanently retired (withdrawn!) from that short but intense career. Just like Franklin retired (check his biography, it says retired) from book publishing only to pursue science, geography, politics, …

I’m currently pursuing trading and MMM pursues construction/general contracting, but the difference between us and most people is that we don’t need the money. Most people do. We pursue it as a hobby. They pursue it as a career. We can leave at any time. They can’t.

Tip: Don’t limit your pursuits to only those activities that industrial-world has classified as hobbies. I would be far to boring to spend 60 years under those (type 2) constraints.

We don’t need to make money because we already made enough. This is akin to the second sense of retirement—being financially independent—with the main difference of not being “old”.

We still have energy to do stuff, just not any interest in what was the career where we made our money. We’re not too worn out to do nothing ever again, like in the first sense of retirement.

We’re generally very resourceful (how do you think we figured this stuff out?!). Such resourcefulness, last seen in the pre-WWI generations, which, barring an extremely high salary, is what makes it possible at a young age for the majority of the people who “buy into it”. Hence resourcefulness is a sufficient but not a required condition.

Of course, those who keep claiming that extreme early retirement is so impossible that neither they nor I can do it will not have read this far… and with this inspirational conclusion, I sign off again.

Originally posted 2013-02-19 09:33:04.

By lifestyle consumption I mean seeing lifestyle, which is a pattern of behaviors, as a product to be consumed. This product can be a book, celebrity shows and magazines, clothing, and so on.

Effectually, the lifestyle is idolized and people then flock to the given lifestyle and buy into its associated behaviors.

What is happening here is simply people invent another concept to consume. You can be “a millionaire next door” which is appealing to people who are into careerism and frugality, or you can be a “lifestyle designer” if you’re young at heart and like to travel the world on a budget. You can even be “un-something” together with thousands of other people. Read the blog. Buy the book.

Much as I try to insert caveats even this blog seems to have acquired its own brand called ERE. I suppose it aptly summarizes what I’m trying to say even though what I say is not particularly novel. However, there are several ways to relate to this (see book, end of chapter 4 ;-P ). The simplest is to copy what I do. This is not what I intend because only the simplest actions can be copied with the same benefit. Copying complex motivations and actions usually fail. This is why I am very reluctant to give out too much info about my investments fearing that my portfolio will be copied and I consequently will be blamed for poor performance regardless of whether I in the meantime bought protective puts, covered with calls, or outright sold positions.

Fortunately it is possible to relate to information in many different ways. I am primarily interested in “causing” knowledge which is an understanding of the information. Information itself is not useful other than as a source of knowledge generation. I submit you can have a huge library, of for example, peer reviewed scholarly journal papers. However, if you don’t have a horde of professors and grad students able to understand these papers, the papers are essentially worthless. First, the papers are often written in a special language, but worse, they can not be boot strapped. What this means is that the knowledge does not exist exclusively in the papers. You actually have to be an expert to understand what is written; often what is not written is as important and you have to be aware of this. In particular, send 3 generations of academics to the plow fields and you might as well burn the libraries for fuel. Written knowledge exists only in a context.

This is the same reason why it is practically impossible to write a book with “actionable” items if the action requires deep understanding or even understanding. It is impossible to write a book which will turn anyone into a super investor. Likewise, it is impossible to become an investor by reading a book.

A lifestyle is by definition a way of life. It is much more than a book. Unfortunately, we have become a society of the quick and easy. It is subconsciously presumed that by buying a product like a book, we can become whatever the book or blog or t-shirt tells us it represents.

It is not so though. It is said that the written word is powerful. However, this is only the case if you can understand it and no understanding can come from the mere act of consumption. Production in the form of thinking must be present.

---

Jacob comments: What I am trying to say is that, say, getting a degree in X (biology, say), does not make one an X. Working in the field as an X may make one an X. Then again it may not. There is a saying goes something to become the master you must do what the master does (first). However, replicating is a low state of understanding. The why’s must be understood to actually become the master. There are several intermediate steps on the road to mastery.

Originally posted 2010-05-09 14:33:09.