Why am I here?

by DavidChouinard • 13 years ago

205 103 13 years ago

benched• 13 years ago

I don't ask this too hard, because not only do I know ahead of time that I probably won't like the answer too much, I don't have much reason to suppose I'll get it 'right' next time, either. Without any one all-consuming passion in life, the best I can do is change stuff and see what happens. Also, it's unclear what Mr. Sivers' financial independence status is, but I think that for most of us, wherever we go basically has to be for a job.

djfergus• 13 years ago

Mr Sivers is very transparent about his financial situation: http://sivers.org/trust

Summary: CD Baby was transferred to a trust then sold for $22m, the trust pays Mr Sivers 5% per year.

In his own words he has "enough".

sivers8• 13 years ago

Part of the reason I haven't been writing much the last couple years is because I thought, "Ah, it's not fair for me to write about this stuff like moving countries on a whim."

But everyone's got their own version of this. My example is just one example.

utunga• 13 years ago

This comment is not really fair [1] but when he writes "I get the safety of knowing I won't be the target of a frivolous lawsuit, since I have very little net worth" I had to wonder. I did the math to see that translates to an annuity of over a million a year. I don't know about you but I tend to think that if one lives simply with just 'a good apartment, a good laptop, and a few other basics' then (even after taxes) one's net worth would probably be increasing fairly rapidly over time. Even on only a million a year! Guess I'm feeling very Mrs Bennett right now, though fortunately I have no daughters to thrust in his direction ;_)

More power to Mr Sivers who has made a great choice of new location in my humble, but biased, opinion.

[1] This is not really worthy of our hero D Sivers because as he notes 5% a year was apparently the minimum allowed.

wrongc0ntinent• 13 years ago

Usually I don't give a crap about scalability, but that trust post got me to. (Edit: sticking to facts ;)

brianwillis2• 13 years ago

Apologies for our second-rate internet connections. Hopefully we'll see > 5 Mbps download speeds to residential buildings within my lifetime.

sivers8• 13 years ago

I got 30 Mbps (actual, on speedtest.net right now) fibre to the home from Orcon. Thanks to subsidized fibre rollout. :-)

brianwillis2• 13 years ago

It should go without saying that I'm incredibly jealous fibre isn't available in my part of the country.

11001• 13 years ago

I have just finished an excellent online course called "The Brief History of Humankind"[1]. It was really an eye opener for me. I always loved history, but all the arguments people made about why we need to study it never really resonated with me. The stuff about "not repeating the same mistakes", "not re-inventing the wheel", "learning from the past" just never made much sense to me. The real reason to study history, as it was brilliantly presented in the course, is not to learn from the past, but to get liberated from it. We study the past to learn about our present. How did we get here? Why are we here? Often, things we accept as "natural" or permanent, or "optimal" are just a result of decisions and events that occurred long ago in very different context.

This post is an excellent reminder that sometimes we need to do the same on the personal level. We need to look back at our past in order to understand our present and decide about our future.

[1]https://www.coursera.org/course/humankind

gdwatson• 13 years ago

History is also great for providing intellectual perspective. A lot of people take as universal ideas that are actually peculiar to our own era; since no era gets everything right, the ideas and attitudes of the past can help you evaluate those you took for granted.

Of course, studying the future would probably work just as well, if that were possible.

pagliara• 13 years ago

That's exactly why I love this TED talk about the history of the universe in 18 minutes:

http://youtu.be/yqc9zX04DXs

Understanding where we fit on the timeline of the universe is quite amazing.

scrrr• 13 years ago

I'm not sure it's really what Sivers means, but I agree with what you wrote. I even think that if (after learning how to read and write) children only studied history and maths, they'd be better educated (and even better people) than the average today.

I encourage everyone to pick a slice of history this christmas and study it for a bit. It's entertaining, too.

bsirkia2• 13 years ago

Are you there with friends at all? I'm just curious because for me I always want to be near friends and family, but know that for some people they would rather do something new and exciting.

sivers8• 13 years ago

Married with a baby. But other than that, I don't know anyone here. That was part of the appeal. I prefer solitude right now.

bsirkia2• 13 years ago

Ok cool. Yep, not something I would do :)

quaffapint• 13 years ago

Wow, and your wife was cool with that :)?

Couldn't even imagine being able to move around with my family like that. I've lived in the same area basically my whole life and it's quite boring. A change would be nice. Always wanted to try out Montana.

brianbreslin2• 13 years ago

I love the idea of getting out of your normal habitat to focus. I went down to central america a month ago to spend a few days, got so much more work done in 3 days than I do in 2 weeks at home. I didn't have constant distractions or people pulling for my attention all the time. Am planning to do something like this quarterly in 2014.

excid3• 13 years ago

Something to keep in mind is that you can likely do this at any time. Hopping a bus to another place you've never been and working from there for a couple days can likely have similar results.

brianbreslin2• 13 years ago

Yeah, but I like the idea of being out of immediate reach if possible. Not a bad idea, I've thought of renting a cabin or house somewhere a few hours away.

pikachu_is_cool• 13 years ago

....Yeah, I can't do that. I like long-term friendship.

AngrySkillzz• 13 years ago

Then you've found your reason to be "here."

sivers8• 13 years ago

Exactly! Great answer! The point is NOT to always move!

Usually the "Why am I here?" question just reminds you why you are where you are.

Being somewhere for great friendships is a great reason.

rsobers4• 13 years ago

I enjoyed the post, but I find it to be such a vast departure from the way I think and feel, mostly because I have a family.

Sure, I would love to sit on a balcony in New Zealand, coding and listening to the birds, but I couldn't possibly rip my daughter away from her friends and the school she loves.

Again, I appreciate the spirit of the post, but reality for most of us precludes this level of whimsy, and I don't necessarily think that's bad.