In relentless pursuit of freedom.
We’ve had 98 wonderful individuals back this book project on KickStarter so far, and we’re just under $1,000 away from our goal to get the editing, layout, design, and publication done.
Thanks to everyone who’s been a part of it so far. I’m excited to send you your beautiful finished copy of, “Why Haven’t You Read This Book?”
If you haven’t yet, join the campaign and back the project.
Thanks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1yovLs7Kho
I just returned from a work+family road trip full of mini mishaps and adventures. I’m behind on tasks, my inbox isn’t empty (which is like hell for me), I’ve come down with a cold, and I’m kind of grumpy.
But I have to write. I have five writing projects now on my plate, plus my daily blog post. I’m out of ideas. And I love it.
I love it because I have learned what it means. I know what it will do for me. It will sharpen my mind, speed up my work, enhance my productivity, and overall make me feel like a badass who can do anything. That’s what writing does for me and why I do it every day. I know I can overcome this because I’ve done it before.
A little trick that helps me and came to my rescue today is the interview. Ask other people to ask you questions and write in response to those. It works wonders.
In fact, I was just asked to write a piece for a publication this morning (project #5) and I thought, “This is the worst time to be asked. I’ve already got four other things to write and I’m not feeling it.” I half punted. I said if they really need me to give me some ideas. I got an email response with three article ideas. It worked. Each one immediately filled my imagination to the point where the new challenge was writing just one article.
That also led indirectly to getting today’s blog post done. Why not blog about this very process which has worked so many times to help me overcome creative blockage?
We all have tons of ideas floating around our brains. The thing is, we’re not always the best equipped to extract them. Sometimes we need someone else to tell us where to look.
If you get good enough you might eventually be able to pose good questions to yourself and not even need to reach out to a friend.
Join the other supporters of the KickStarter campaign to launch and publish the book!
One of the most interesting chapters in “Why Haven’t You Read This Book?” is by Courtney Derr about her adventure with her husband traveling the globe, primarily by motorcycle.
Courtney and H.J. had an itch they’d wanted to scratch for many years, but both were stuck in the 9-5 grind with jobs too good to give up. The timing was never right. Instead of waiting and hoping and delaying, or demanding a perfect list of justifications to go chase their traveling dream, they said, “Why not just do it now?”
So they did.
They saved up their money, quit their jobs, and set out to explore parts unknown. Courtney’s a great writer and there’s no way to do justice to the narrative she shares in the chapter. The ups, downs, twists, and turns are entertaining and inspiring. But the thing that most sticks out about the chapter is this: They didn’t enjoy probably the majority of their trip.
They ended it sooner than planned and had plenty of bad weather, motorcycle and emotional breakdowns, and all the other downsides experienced by anyone on a long road trip multiplied many times. Rudeness, safety concerns, language barriers, food sickness, and many more travails.
This chapter was a really important one to include in the book because this is not a book about rose colored glasses and berainbowed cat poster motivation. It’s about taking charge of your life. One of the things that happens when you choose to “do you” instead of succumb to status quo pressure is that you reap the rewards. One of the other things that happens is that you own the downsides too.
Despite the less than glamorous aspects of the story, Courtney and her husband do not regret their decision. Part of self-exploration is realizing that you’re different than you assumed. Your tastes, preferences, pain and risk tolerance may not be fully found out. The thing is, you can’t really know yourself by reflection alone. You’ve got to act on your desires, dreams, and hunches.
Had they not journeyed out into the wild they would have enjoyed life less back home. They would always have a fallback to play the blame game and claim their struggles or unhappiness were because they were never able to travel like they wanted. They would always wonder if they were missing something big.
Now they have a bunch of memories, some great, and some tough (though the tough ones begin to turn great over time too), and the clear knowledge of what the traveling experience is like and to what extent it can and cannot give them the life they desire.
You can’t trade that.
Check out the chapter, “Why Haven’t You Traveled the World” by supporting the campaign and claiming your copy of the book.
You won’t know until you try!
You can also learn more at their great website, www.wanderrlust.com
What’s the best way to help the desperately poor gain access to a higher standard of living? Let them leave poor countries and go to those with more opportunity.
Alex Tabarrok advocates getting rid of immigration restrictions. In this episode we tackle some of the most common objections to #openborders that concern economic, institutional, cultural, and security issues.
Alex is a professor at the George Mason University and co-author of the Marginal Revolution blog.
This and all episodes are available on SoundCloud, iTunes, and Stitcher.
Here’s an answer I gave to a question on Quora about finding out what you want to do in life.
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I find this question to be too stressful and unrealistic for most people to answer. What you really want to do with your life is a lot of things, many of which probably haven’t been invented yet. How can you pick one and plot a path to it?
Instead, do the opposite. Think of things you know you hate doing or things that bore you or make you feel dead inside. Don’t do those. Try new things and add to that list whenever you find something not for you. Make it your goal every day, week, month, and year to reduce the number of things you do that you don’t like doing.
Don’t think about careers, majors, titles, industries, and jobs. Think about activities. Stuff you do every day. What do you not want to do? How can you create a life where you never have to?
What you want is to not be bored in life. So find out what things you can quit, and find a way to quit doing them. Everything else is fair game.
That’s always worked well for me anyway. Certainly better than trying to find out what I want to do.
I answered a question on Quora (well, I guess I didn’t really answer the question, but spoke to the ideas behind it) about getting into a top university without straight A’s. You can read the question here.
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First and foremost, don’t stress. This won’t make or break your life.
I don’t know what those institutions require for admission but I have another idea: don’t spend your time trying to get approval and acceptance from academic institutions but instead go create value for yourself and the world.
Our world is awash in official accolades and credentials and padded resumes. You’ll realize when you get into the world outside the education bubble none of that matters much for value creation and personal fulfillment.
Identify what you want in life, identify the obstacles to getting it, and create challenges and habits to help you overcome those obstacles. All of this can be done without the official sanction of formal institutions.
If what you want is to be a professor or to work within academia, then of course that’s the way to go. Or if you simply wish to enjoy college as a very costly consumption good, go for it. But the notion that you must jump through the right hoops to earn the approval of X or Y university is backwards. You want skills and experiences and knowledge and a network. You’re the customer. See if you can think of the best, most effective, quickest, least expensive, and most enjoyable way to get them. The question isn’t whether those universities will take you, the question is whether you’ll deem them worthy of your time and money.
Whatever path you take, good luck!
One of my favorite things to do is ask TK Coleman to give me his definition of a word, or some way in which the word is meaningful to him. I’ve done this on the blog in the past, and decided to try it out as a game on the podcast.
I threw words at TK and he riffed on them and it evolved into some interesting conversations. Here are the words we covered:
Fear
Magic
Mentor
Optimism
Suffering
Coach
Data
Distance
Greatness
If you liked this episode, submit some words of your own and we’ll bring TK on and do it again. Submit via the Ask Isaac form along with any other questions you have for me or topics you’d love to see covered on the podcast.
This and all episodes are available on SoundCloud, iTunes, and Stitcher.
You’re going to tell me I shouldn’t advocate making mistakes in the first place. Don’t be silly. I’m not advocating mistakes.
The reality of life is that you’ll make mistakes and deliver sub-excellent results sometimes. In fact, the more you push yourself and venture into new territory (good), the more common imperfection will be (not good). Beyond the obvious, “Just try harder to be perfect”, there’s something you can do that will give you the leeway you need to get away with imperfection and recover quickly.
Here’s the thing. You’re not gonna like it. Especially those of you who are perfectionists and understand the tremendous value of high-quality work.
But remember, this is not a way to reduce mistakes and come closer to flawless. This is just a way to earn the respect, trust, and grace that will keep your mistakes from killing your professional relationships. This is a way to earn a second or third chance.
Ready?
Never be late for anything ever and respond to all emails within 24 hours.
Some of you are mad, some of you are laughing, and some of you are nodding your head and patting yourself on the back as you gaze at your inbox tab that says (0).
Let me defend my claim.
Imagine you’re new at a job. Think of the hardest, scariest, riskiest part of your role. The part you are most likely to screw up a little bit. The part that makes you worry you could lose trust and maybe your job if you don’t learn to master pretty quickly.
There’s a whole lot that goes into what your coworkers or customers feel about you and how much grace they’ll have for you as you learn through trial and error. It’s not just a matter of whether you do that thing well. It’s not about what you do right now as much as what they believe you are capable of doing in time and what kind of person they think you are.
To earn maximum room for error and correction you’ve got to have a pretty decent deposit of ‘social capital‘ in your account. You’ll need to draw down without going into the red.
The easiest way to do this – a way that not a single person is incapable of – is to completely crush it on the simplest parts of your job. Consider that again for a minute.
Earn the freedom to make mistakes in the hardest parts of your job by being perfect in the easiest parts.
What are the easiest parts? Always being on time and responding to all emails within 24 hours. It requires no special knowledge, skill, or experience.
If you’ve been somewhere for a month and everyone has come to rely on your punctuality and lightening fast response time, they’ll feel a glow just thinking of you (Somewhere there’s a crooner inside me, struggling to escape). They’ll never have to dedicate mental space worrying about you, and they’ll have a default belief in your ability to handle things.
When you respond to 10 emails perfectly on time every time and meet your deadlines, people will want you to win. When one of those 10 responses has a mistake, they’ll cut you a break and give you a chance to improve for next time.
Contrast this to the perfectionist who is sometimes late (‘I was putting on the finishing touches!’), even if just a few minutes, and makes people wait around to get a meeting started or causes mental stress because no one is positive when they’ll reply to an important email. When they come back with a mistake the already thin ice gets thinner. Tension mounts, the pressure to be perfect increases. If you’re at all unreliable with the small, easy things, you’d better be damn-near perfect quality with the big, hard things.
Don’t put yourself under that much pressure. Give yourself some wiggle room so you can learn by making and fixing errors.
Never be late. Always respond within 24 hours. You’ll be glad you did next time you make a mistake and someone says, “No problem, let’s improve for next time.”
Support the KickStarter campaign and help bring this book to life – and claim a copy!
I’m thrilled about a new book I am editing called, “Why Haven’t You Read This Book?”
It’s about flipping the burden of proof to open up a world of possibilities. It’s about asking ‘Why not?’, instead of, ‘Why?’
This episode includes a bit about the book and teasers from 5 of the 11 authors about the content of their chapter.
Support the KickStarter campaign to get this book printed and claim your copy!
I’m so excited about this book. The basic idea has been one that infected me about five years ago and I haven’t been able to ignore it.
It’s simple. Instead of demanding elaborate justifications for doing some big, crazy, out of the norm thing, demand reasons why not. In other words, flip the burden of proof so that the status quo demands damn good reasons and that wild dream of yours is assumed to be a good idea until proven otherwise.
The project has been a blast to work on. The book is made up of 10 chapters written by 11 different people, all of whom stopped assuming their dream was too impractical and just went for it. It’s part personal story, part inspiration, part information, and part how-to.
Drop out of school? Move to a new city? Write a book? Quit your job? Start a business? Travel the world? Audition for American Idol? Have a bunch of kids? Fly first class? Climb a mountain?
Why not?
This book is very personal for me because this question is the breakthrough that led me and my wife to move away from a place we didn’t realize how much we hated until we left to a place we love. People would ask us, “Why would you move to a city where you know no one? Why would you leave your roots?” Our answer became simple and immediate. “Why not?”
We realized that if we demanded perfection from any change we’d never make one. If you need a long list of guarantees before you make a move, you’ll probably never do it. Instead of demanding good reasons to move to a specific city, we started demanding good reasons to stay. When we scrutinized the status quo we realized it didn’t have much going for it. Why not leave?
I’m excited to get the eBook, paperback, and hardcover finished product on the shelves and in your hands. But I need your help!
There is a KickStarter campaign live now to raise the funds to pay for turning the draft into a beautiful book. We’ve got everything lined up and we want to do it right. I hope you’ll be a part of bringing this book to life!
Why not?
I jumped in for a fellow podcaster and had a conversation with Jeffrey Tucker for Albert Lu’s podcast “The Economy”.
Jeffrey and I tackle some interesting questions from Jeff’s own experience with the police and criminal law, how it surpasses the divide of left and right politics and why it’s a key human rights issue.
Hear my previous interviews with Jeff on the IM podcast and follow him on fee.org and liberty.me.
Find Albert’s other episodes at www.powerandmarket.com.
This and all episodes are available on SoundCloud, iTunes, and Stitcher.
I should know better
But every week I believe
Lions fandom hurts
I’m a big believer that boredom is the greatest evil to be avoided in life. Fortunately, kids make it hard to be bored if you step back and observe them for a moment.
Kids are weird. I think they’re a lot weirder than the average human. It’s best when they’re just doing thier thing unaware of the broader, more normal world. I was struck with this again today when I finally stopped getting irritated that they pretty much tear up everything in the house and surrounding area and just watched them.
My son was playing Mario Maker and shouting, “This is Sparta!” by himself in the living room. I didn’t want to interrupt this important activity, so I stepped outside to see what the girls were up to. They were selling things. On the curb. On a cold, sleepy Saturday morning in late October.
The older was sitting in a chair behind an overturned storage bin that had a display of assorted garbage from the garage and a few leaves and a giant pitcher of water. The younger was sitting on the wet grass beside her with one arm through the neck hole on her T-shirt. They were apparently waiting for customers.
No one knows why kids do such weird things. It’s best not to ask but just take it in. I won’t find it so interesting and fun later today when I’m trying to negotiate the cleanup. But right now, I can’t help but marvel at the not-boring oddness of it all.
Don’t run for class president. Don’t go to HOA meetings. Don’t join a committee. Don’t get involved in political campaigns.
All of these activities are about reform. Get into the institution, play by its rules, and try to make it behave differently than it wants to.
Forget this approach. It sucks. Here are four reasons why.
It makes you less happy
Have you ever been to a town hall meeting? Life’s too short to endure such horrors. The worst life to live is a boring one. The machinations of every political institution are stale and boring and full of self-serious processes, procedures, and practitioners. Your every moment is too valuable to suffer through it. It’s inhumane. If Roberts Rules of Order are relevant to any effort you’re involved in, get out and go build something new.
You can’t change the game by playing
Political institutions do one thing best: restrict individual fun and freedom. It’s natural to want to reduce the role of these rule-happy entities. But you can’t win playing by their rules. You can’t vote your way to a system where votes no longer curtail progress.
Trying to reduce the role of the state by engaging in politics is like trying to put a casino out of business by playing blackjack there. “Oh, I have it figured out. I’ll beat the house!” No. You won’t. They want you to think that. They want you to keep playing. Abiding by house rules is no way to protest or change them. Especially when the house gets a little richer every time you do.
If you don’t want the casino to keep luring people in don’t go in yourself. Build something better that people want to go to instead.
Progress always comes from without
Political institutions are reactive. They wait until the world forces them and then they change. If humanity is a car these institutions are the brakes, able to stop progress but never create it. If you want to get to a new destination you need the accelerator.
Accelerators are new ideas and products and services that forge ahead, paying no mind to the consensus-seeking bureaucrats nested in the status quo. Accelerators don’t care about argument, nor protest. They care about creation. They build the world they want to live in instead of hoping to prevent its decay.
There is no permanence
The great thing about innovation is that it only needs to happen once. That painful, gruelling, child-birth like experience of the creative act or eureka moment is born out of imagination, hard work, and courage. If the result is of any value to the world it lasts forever and serves as the stepping stone to still greater innovations.
The wheel was invented once. No one has to re-invent it. It’s world-improving powers are permanent and irreversible.
Any apparent victory within a political structure is fleeting by definition and design. You align all the powers and elites and interests just so after years of butt-numbing meetings and pompous proclamations from people you’d never want to have a beer with but now you must woo and coddle. You have your mandate or constituency or whatever other serious sounding label you slap on the gaggle of interests vying for a win within the house rules. You get your way. Hooray!
Until the next month or year or election cycle when the new interests group outmaneuvers you and the tables turn in an instant. Everything you created in your coalition vanishes, along with all the money you convinced people to throw at it. The same tiny sliver of ground must be re-won, each time as if from scratch. Only then do you realize that broader social forces created by the outsiders accelerating humanity are the master, not the servant, to these stale political institutions that apply their rusty brakes against all odds.
Go out and build something
Build something instead. Exit. Go your own way. Forget the suits and speeches and posturing and canvassing and internal climbing and deal-making. Go build your wildest dream. Imagine and create things that excite you. Move to a place that doesn’t suck. Create a job that’s not boring. Live a life you want to live.
Don’t wait for the world to change or beg for permission to let it evolve. Go change your own world. The rest will follow.
In this episode I answer a very simple but incredibly important question from listener Steve Thomas:
Through riddles and illustrations I try to make the ideas of value subjectivity and marginal utility easy to understand and recognize in everyday life.
Got a question? Ask here.
This and all episodes are available on SoundCloud, iTunes, and Stitcher.