Pentru mine, între cele două extreme:
Casă la oraș vs Casă într-un sat
Mai e una, deloc de neglijat – casă într-un orășel.
Stau acum în Năvodari, care are beneficiul aerului curat, o distanță nu foarte mare de Constanța și facilitățile unui oraș.
Mi se pare un echilibru bun între viața unui oraș mare și plăcerile unui cătun mic.
I recently read somewhere that it’s a good practice that you always start with the same energy, enthusiasm, and motivation whenever you start something.
I was once asked, “Do you wish to work for us?” (it was an online agency).
I knew some negative implications of these (more effort for less money, high dependence on a single employer, lack of diversity, losing my current clients, the bureaucracy of either closing my freelancing company or juggling a dual status – employee and having a personal company at the same time).
My answer was a hesitant yes. When confronted with the question, “Hmm, are you enthusiastic about this?” I gave some possible reasons for not being enthusiastic. As you might imagine, the talk ended there.
The thing is, I still don’t know what I did wrong. I did have fears, and they were reasonable. Did I like the new job? Yes, but with implications, and considerations, and doubts.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this, and logically and rationally, I prefer a person who thinks about the consequences of their actions to an always-happy-always-joyful person who might get disappointed.
When I start something new, I think of what might go wrong and take measures against this.
When trying to foresee what could happen, I put the evil first and take action against it.
Am I constantly happy? Generally, no, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this.
I prefer success to being happy.
Do I take risks and start things? Yes.
Am I always happy? No, and I think that is fine.
I remember an HR person at a conference in college, something like 22 years ago, who talked about a potential employee. That person said in a shallow, monotone, slow, dull voice: “I’m very enthusiastic!”. I like that person’s solution more and more as time passes.
Let’s say I want to research a topic. What are some ideas for writing a document?
Generally, I would do before ChatGPT is research the topic extensively – looking for an exhaustive list.
The problem is that I’d have to read many documents, and most exhaustive lists tend to have a lot of low-quality content.
With ChatGPT, I only need to write “Give me a list of 100 …” and voilà!.
The list is imperfect, but it’s generally much easier to read than through dozens of tabs.
I still need to intervene and use my best judgment, but ChatGPT’s low points are better than I can generally find online.
I read some posts on living frugally on online forums.
Examples include:
There’s nothing wrong with trying to cut costs.
But there are some other rules than legal rules – ethical rules.
Even if you can fool a service provider with no apparent direct consequences, this doesn’t imply everything is moral and acceptable.
There are other laws than State laws.
If I can share my Netflix account, this doesn’t mean I should.
If I threaten to leave a service provider without real intention, I can definitely reduce the bills. But I’ll also decrease the value I place on personal integrity.
There are even platforms like GoSplit – you give them money to pay less than Netflix. You pay a commission for having smaller costs with Netflix. And lower integrity, of course.
Unsubscribe.
There are generally just two types of problems:
When people come to me with various issues, the latter type of problem is more common.
When I went to the market (to buy groceries; there were open markets) in Bucharest, sellers would sometimes try to cheat on me.
When I go to a market in a small place (town, village), the sellers are much more honest.
What’s the difference?
In a big market, there are many sellers and many buyers. If you can’t remember them all, build a connection, and always treat people as being “one in many,” you tend not to care if you cheat or get cheated.
If you have a personal relationship with a seller, it matters whether they are honest.
Thus, if possible, buy from small markets with few sellers who will try to build a relationship with you.
Or buy from a supermarket and have almost zero risk of being cheated.
I liked a podcast by Bishop Robert Barron: What Makes Us Happy? – YouTube.
The Bishop says that even if Nordic countries like Finland rank very high on measures of happiness, the survey people might look at the wrong KPIs when evaluating happiness.
There are a lot of arguments in the video; if you’re interested in the topic, you might want to check it out.
But it did provoke me to think – is happiness really about healthcare and a good state of being? Or is it much more, a more profound thing?
Why does it make sense to write a memo, even if you remember things now?
So, even if I can remember something right now, why is it worth adding a memo?
The process of typing/writing helps you remember the task better.
Let’s say you want to start a habit. Even if you know it perfectly, you should do it a few times until it becomes a habit.
Thoughts and prayers might be a wrong, naive, and perhaps even silly way to help someone.
It might be nice to think positively, but it might not bring any value.
In my opinion, thoughts and prayer help a lot the person(s) who says them.
Also, what is love?
Love is “To will the good of the other” – Bishop Robert Barron.
Thus, “Thoughts and prayers”, silly to some, is, actually, love.
Of course, if you can give a helping hand, this proves valuable.
But love takes many forms.
I heard an opinion that ChatGPT doesn’t produce anything new and lacks creativity, as it only “recycles” old content.
I think ChatGPT can combine things from very separate domains and produce new things based on that.
But let’s say that ChatGPT only recycles old content.
Compare this to humans – do we create something from scratch, or do we think of what our predecessors did and only build on that?
Put a newborn in a forest, and that person will likely not do anything substantial with their life.
We need to copy a lot of things.
Sure, we can invent new things, after we know all that was in the past, and ChatGPT likely won’t do this.
For a while, at least.