I have been “separated” from Microsoft for 18 months. It feels longer. I have forgotten so many of the little things like the phone number I had, peoples email addresses, etc. This is all reasonable and unsurprising.
I have also been working for myself for long enough and with enough variety that it feels normal. It is still a much less regular life. And considering what happened in that 18 months, it surely wasn’t “regular.”
Working for myself has been gratifying, but certainly it has not replaced my salary. Fortunately, I have been willing to forego some of that in the hope that I am building something that will sustain us in the future as our lives continue to change and we approach our 7th decade.
It is very clear to me, now, that nothing is to be taken for granted. There are fewer years in front of me than behind, and that is motivating too. I don’t have a bucket list mentality, but I do have a clear picture of what I don’t want my day-to-day life to be.
Given the current political climate, and also the regular climate, I recently had the thought that I don’t think mankind is going to make it. Funny enough, it didn’t bother me. We are in an age called the Anthropocene: the age of humans. But all good things come to an end. For all of our celebrated brain power, we don’t have what it takes to continue. And you can’t really feel bad about that, can you? It’s like hating whale because they can’t walk. They just can’t.
Chomsky said that there are two big, human-created changes that push us closer to doomsday: the invention of nuclear weapons and the human impact on climate change. The nuclear weapons thing is easy to understand. Everyone understands on the potential devastation of nuclear war. The lack of agreement on global climate change is the proof that humans are, on average, not smart enough to continue to be the dominant mammal on earth.
That might seem pessimistic, but I move from the extremes inward. There is little that I can do about either thing. Sure, I can and will vote. But that’s a tiny drop in the bucket. And I can pick an issue or two and advocate on that. Personally, my preferred issue is an end to the electoral college. I prefer the idea of a popular election because it is more democratic. If we are going to go down in a fight, I’d rather it not be on a technicality. None of the arguments for the electoral college make sense when cast in the light of democratic outcomes.
I like Robert Reich and I don’t like neo-liberalism if you want to know where I stand. Climate change is real and caused by humans. It is not hubris to think it is human caused, as religionists would have you believe.
Beyond that, it seems advisable to live a life where you are trying to minimize stress. Creating stress is not hard. And yes, some stress is necessary in order maximize one’s long term outcomes. The story the grasshopper and the ant comes to mind.
I’m not setting aside dumb luck either in my thinking and conclusions. I was lucky enough to have a good paying job for a long enough time that I can even ask these questions and take this time to think about it. I’m not starving and living a life of just surviving. But failing to see the stress that was in my life and not changing course, as I was doing, also seems quite dumb in hindsight.
Minor changes to fix some unclear points and mistakes from ealier – July 10
