Good for you, my friend

Recently, one of good friends announced he has accepted a position as associate dean of students at a local private university. The hard work of getting both his masters and doctorate (in education, I’m guessing) is finally paying off. Also needs paying off are his student loans, though surely that’s quite more doable now that his salary is in the six-figures.

After expressing congratulation and happiness to my friend, I immediately followed it with self-reflection on my own situation. Perhaps I too should look for greener pastures and higher yearly pay. Amongst our friend group, I would now be making the least by a considerable margin. Comparison is the thief of joy indeed. Look at the professional success of my friends! Oh god I am falling behind…

Upon further reflection, however, I once again realized I am very happy with where I work and how much I make. Would it be nice to make more money? Sure; who doesn’t want to be ever more comfortable, to buy the expensive things, or have the fun experiences. But there’s trade-offs in earning more, and usually that means time. Take my good friend for example: those years of post-undergraduate school was a significant investment in time.

Most importantly, a larger paycheck and more things aren’t going to make me any happier. Take it from me: I’ve spent six-figures on my dream car. The euphoria from monetary and material achievements lasts only a few weeks. Then you go back to your previous baseline. As my favorite page in Chuck Palahniuk’s Consider This (that’s the guy who wrote Fight Club) reads:

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Do what you love, even if it's for free

I‘m receiving a lot of questions from writers asking where to submit scripts or how to sell them. Others ask how to sign an agent, attach directors or producers, etc.

You won’t like the answer, but here it is:

You’re asking the wrong questions. (Thread)

— Christopher McQuarrie (@chrismcquarrie) October 23, 2019

Last evening, I encountered this golden nugget of a twitter thread by Christopher McQuarrie (yes, that Christopher McQuarrie.) In the thread, he answers the question of how to become a successful writer in Hollywood by saying that there aren’t any shortcuts: you have to do the work. Keep making stuff and show it to the world; have a portfolio of done and complete things that fully represents you. McQuarrie calls the act of pitching scripts to producers and various gatekeepers as “playing the lottery”, and it’s not advisable to have that as your sole focus. Clever metaphor, because I’m sure we all understand the futile odds of playing the lottery.

The director’s sound advice reminded of Charlie Munger (yes, that Charlie Munger) answering the question of how to become as accomplished as him by playfully scorning the questioner that he simply wanted Munger’s success, but far quicker - essentially asking for shortcuts. McQuarrie alluded to the same idea in one of his tweets, stating people are tacitly asking “What is the shortest route to [McQuarrie’s] career?" Indeed; to quote the great Jocko Willink: There is no shortcut. There is no hack. There's only one way. So get after it.

We should be happy to do the work anyways, because it’s what we love to do, right? Even if the end product leads nowhere and it pays nothing, the satisfaction of having created something is what really matters. That’s exactly what passion is about. The people asking for McQuarrie’s advice are looking at it from the monetary perspective, which the director cautions is the wrong lens to look from. The tools are out there - more than ever - for us to do the work and produce stuff, and if you’re truly serious about your particular craft, just go ahead and do it, without permission, and without thinking of some advancement endgame.

You have to ]detach from the results, and simply make the art for art’s sake. Produce or participate, then iterate and improve, and most importantly, put you and your work out there into the ether. The Internet has democratize and flatten many of the hierarchies and barriers that are no longer there, so there’s no excuse. It’s the reason this website of mine exist, and I shall continue to put out stuff, because it’s what I’m passionate about.

Thank you for coming to McQuarrie’s TED Talk.

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Today is a good day.

Once you have success, you will be hated

Piggybacking on yesterday’s post, particularly about Jeff Bezos’ multiple billions of dollars in net worth. Why does the general public shame people with money? Is it jealousy? It’s got to be jealousy, right? Underneath reports of Bezos’ immense wealth are be comments and tweets about how being a billionaire is immoral and ought to be illegal, and how could Bezos hoard this massive money while there are people suffering. 

Another example is Elon Musk. He gets pilloried on the daily simply for being a billionaire that dared to start an (electric) car company from scratch. The have-nots and non-doers hating on those that actually produce and changing people’s lives. 

And should’ve they get rewarded for it? Think of how indispensable is Amazon to each of our lives; I do as much of my shopping possible through it. Tesla is the absolute vanguard of the electric car evolution; mainstream automakers would not be jumping onboard now had Tesla not shown its viability

It seems once a person have achieved great financial success they get magically transferred over to the villain category, and their idiosyncrasies and eccentricities become no longer endearing but the stuff of scorn. Elon Musk’s preference to date girls many decades his junior? That’s just pure evil! Jeff Bezos buying the Washington Post is surely a move to push his corrupt agenda! 

A few years back I read about the ‘stealth wealth’ movement, that people with money are purposely hiding the fact from the general public, precisely due to the jealousy and rage factor. Think of the legions of tech-bros blending in with plain shirts and jeans, and the protestors blocking and vandalizing tech company charter buses.

Mustn’t be conspicuous or else risk the wrath of someone keying your nice Porsche car. Never mind the hard work done to buy that Porsche; nobody cares about that. They just see a spoiled 1%’er and his superfluous toy. 

Only the ridiculously rich can afford to be outwardly ostentatious, what with their protected neighborhoods, vast estates, and ultra exclusive gatherings. But if you’re a public figure like Bezos and Musk, the clamor and anger from the cheap seats is a fact of life. 

A rare sight in San Francisco: free-flowing traffic on the highway. 

People don't want the daily grind

Few days ago this piece of advice popped onto my twitter feed:

Trifecta

-Read 1 hour a day

-Write 1 hour a day

-train 1 hour a day

Do that for 3 years, and you’ll be world class at whatever you apply yourself too

— Alexander J.A Cortes (@AJA_Cortes) July 14, 2018

This reads super familiar because it is precisely what I do. Everyday I've got a checklist of things to accomplish and it's the process of doing them for a prolonged period of time that personal progress materializes. It's hard to believe it's been two years since I've started studying Korean. The daily grind of hitting the books really escapes me from the macro view. 

Read the last (only) sentence of that tweet. For most people doing an hour of each of those three items isn't a problem; it's the need to continuously get after it for three years that proves to be an impenetrable barrier. In our modern times of instant gratification and constantly chasing dopamine hits (hello, Instagram), where promises of fast weight-loss diets still get bought, and short cuts and life-hack articles get tons of clicks, three years might as well be an eternity. 

They want the baby but not the labor pains. 

I can empathize with such sentiment. Indeed some days are difficult when the pay-off (so to speak) is years away. There are days I'd really rather not write on this blog, and I have to fight against all counter momentum just to put down some words - any words. Because not doing so stunts the progress, however micro it may be. 

I'm currently saving up for my next car. I'd be lying if I say the process isn't at moments excruciating. 

Success takes a bloody long time. The public only see the veneers of victory and not the hard battle fought for it. Jeff Bezos is in the news for being the richest man on the face of the planet, but lost in the commotion is the fact he spent multiple decades toiling at Amazon to achieve that status. 

So get after it. Every day. It'll be tough, and the rewards won't be for many years, but it's the only way. 

Perks of being a wallflower. 

The million dollars test

If you’re suddenly a million dollar richer (or whatever sum that would free you from your current place of employ), what would you then be doing everyday? 

That would your passion. 

If I were to be gifted a million dollars, I’d buy a car and get on the road. I’d take photographs wherever I go, and write about it on this website. Monetization will come from said writing and photography, plus perhaps posting videos on Youtube. 

That doesn’t sound like it would need a million dollars; if anything I can go do that right now. So why don’t I? What makes the additional million dollars so special if it’s financial value isn’t necessarily required to chase my passion? 

These are good questions. 

Quitting our day-job to follow our passion is a highly risky move, at least in our minds. The extra million dollars provides the safety cushion that eliminates the perceived risk. If the passion project fails, there’s the bundle of money to fall back on. 

Great outcomes come from taking great risks. What if we didn’t wait for the cash windfall and just set off anyways? Because let’s not delude ourselves: the million dollars won’t ever come, and each of us will have to contend with forsaking our passion for the comforts of a regular job. 

I grapple with that quandary almost everyday. 

Are you getting on or off?

Harvard gets sued by Asians

Harvard getting sued for discrimination against Asian applicants is interesting to me because why now? Since the advent of affirmative action and ethnic quotas in schools, us Asians have always gotten the short end of the stick. When you adjust for “equality” based on results then there’s going to be an aggrieved party and unfortunately that’s us. A casualty of success. 

From the time when Asian people first stepped foot on this continent up until now we’ve been discriminated against one way or another (Chinese exclusion act, Japanese internment, you name it). All we’ve ever done in response is put our nose to the grindstone, work hard, and get after success like water dripping on stone. Even if it’s only a penny saved per day, given enough time to compound we got there. 

Asians aren’t vocal complainers and troublemakers. We take the situations and framework as they are work around and with them. Didn’t get into Harvard? We’d just kick ass at another school. Barriers didn’t stop and aren’t going to stop Asians from achieving financial success.

Because up until recent decades, Asians (immigrants) were predominantly poor so the prime objective was to make money - we didn’t have time for political games. Now that we’ve reached those goals and by many metrics are the most affluent ethnic group on average, Asians have the leisure to pursue other arenas of life, like suing Harvard (and other institutions) for blatant racial discrimination.

The political capital of Asian Americans is growing quite quickly. 

Commuting with the morning clouds at Balboa Park station. 

Momentum car as lesson for life

In car enthusiasts parlance we have what we call a “momentum car”. It’s a type car that hasn’t got enough power to pull itself out of corners, therefore to preserve good forward momentum the driver must scrub off as little speed as possible during braking and turning. Newton’s law of motion acted out: objects in motion tend to stay in motion, and friction is enemy to a car that lacks huge amounts of horsepower to hide it.  

The ND Miata I just sold is a momentum car: 155 horsepower is just enough be fun but if the roadster gets needlessly bogged down in the middle of a turn it takes considerable time to get back to proper speed. On a tight course the next string of corners are effectively compromised because they arrive before the car can fully recover.   

Momentum cars are excellent teachers of drivers. 

It’s also a good metaphor for life. Maintaining momentum is crucial in achieving success. Laziness or extra off-days may feel awesome in the present but the days proceeding will be heavily undermined. If I haven’t written on this website for awhile it’s extra difficult to pick it back up. Skip a scheduled exercise day because I didn’t feel like it? The stress of the one after that just got unnecessarily raised.

Consistency compounds into forward progress: when I finish a blog post the tiny dose of satisfaction I get turns into eagerness and I already start to think about what to write for the next one. Like a momentum car it’s about smooth continued progress and avoid needlessly slowing down. 

Don't skip a day; get after it. 

Sometimes you get lucky and mother nature frames things up nicely for you.