Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

So long, so slow

Boy, that was a long January. At least it was to me. Yesterday a coworker remarked that January went by in a flash, and I had to politely disagree with him. What was 31 days felt like 60 days. I mean, shouldn’t we prefer that our days go slowly? The whole life is short thing, right? What we don’t want is the sensation that time moved by in a flash. The that felt like it was only yesterday. I guess I’m doing something right: I didn’t speed-run through January.

I got an email yesterday from Amazon notifying me that in 2022, I’ve earn over $300 in cash-back from my Chase Amazon rewards credit card (the card earns a whopping 5% on purchases if you are an Amazon Prime member). That amount easily offsets the annual $139 premium for Prime membership. In fact, $300 would cover the membership fee for this year as well. It’s spending neutral, so to speak, for me to keep Amazon Prime.

My friend did some quick math, and figured out that $300 in 5% of rewards equals to about $6,000 of spending last year. Since I’m notorious for buying lots of books, the friend quipped, “How much are these books that you buy?” Honestly, I was a bit surprised at the $6,000 figure. Granted, about $2,500 of that was spent towards an LG OLED TV and a set of speakers. The rest of the $3,500 is simply the spending of daily life. The books, the supplements, the health products, etc. Since I do get 5% cash-back in return, I try to do as much shopping with Amazon as possible.

Shoutout to the delivery guys and gals.

I certainly don’t plan to buy a TV this year or anything too spendy. I’m at the stage of life where it’s all about buying high-quality things and using them for a very long time. For example, this Herman Miller Aeron chair I’m currently sitting on, I’ve had since my college days. I endeavor to have this sort of longevity with the things I own now, and the stuff I buy moving forwards.

Precious times

They say time is the most valuable asset we have, and we should try our best to not squander any of it. Sounds great on paper, but have these people ever try to get out of a warm bed in the morning? The eternal fight between the comfort and protection of the covers, and the dreadful cold of a morning bedroom. Keep the heat on during the night? I’m too Asian and not rich enough for that.

Instead of getting out of the bed promptly after wake, I waste about an hour scrolling through twitter on the phone. Having my phone within reach of the bed is probably one of my worst habits, but I simply don’t have the willpower to quit. Reading through twitter in the morning is like reading the morning newspaper for people back before the times of the Internet. It’s informational and entertainment. The real enemy is infinite scrolling: there’s no natural stopping point, unlike an actual newspaper. The dopamine drip can be as endless as your capability to stay in bed.

The productive thing to do would be to actually get out of the bed, and then check twitter on the MacBook Pro. This preserves the value of checking the news in the morning, but crucially, it also gets me out of bed. Crossing the physical barrier is what releases me from the intense hold of that warm cover. Back when I lived with my parents, feeding the cat was what got me out of bed immediately. I think I need something similar to that to serve the same purpose.

Ultimately, I can’t be wasting an hour plus stuck in the bed every morning. What’s the point of waking up so early if I’m just going to squander away those precious morning hours? Perhaps it is time: I shall charge my phone overnight on the drawer across the room. I’d have to get up and out just to turn off the alarm.

Time is of the essense

Last week, Costco had a sale on face marks. Only five dollars for a pack of 50! Remember during the early days of this pandemic? When there was a shortage of medical face masks for sale? I once paid for a similar box of 50 for 50 dollars! Steep as that price may be, it was absolutely paramount that we protect ourselves.

Comparatively then, five dollars for 50 masks is an unmitigated steal. So I order four boxes. That should last me well into the rest of year (I’m not the type to reuse a mask then next day). I am optimistic that vaccines will proliferate quicker and quicker, that soon we’ll be back to some semblance of normal. However, I don’t think I’ll be stopping mask use even after that time. I may not wear them anymore when I’m at work or in a private setting with friends, but in public spaces I’m going to be Asian about it and continue to wear masks for a long time to come.

I received the shipment from Costco, and sadly only three boxes arrive. I had a decision to make: do I spend the time calling customer support to contest this? The decision is no: my time is worth way more than the five dollars I’d be (potentially) clawing back. Time is the most valuable commodity we have, and choosing to spend it wisely is just about the best thing we can do for ourselves. Chasing after a human error for less than ten dollars is not that.

Similarly, I don’t bother returning things that’s of a similarly low value. The hour that it cumulatively takes to package the thing and then drive it to logistics store could be better spent elsewhere. Like reading a book, for example, or partake in a lesson of guitar. As an adult that makes solid money, I can afford to essentially spend money to save time. Or in this case, forsake money to save time. Either which way, it’s very worth it.

My first ever CD have expired

A few days ago I received a surprise cheque in the mail (we like those!). Sadly, it wasn’t some rich benefactor wanting to support me in my creative endeavors (please support my Patreon - just kidding); rather it was from TIAA bank. My first ever CD account - a 5-year CD - has come due, and the final cheque signifies the account closing. Five years have indeed gone by already.

And what a difference five years make: my expired CD carried an interest rate of 1.90%, which was the absolute best one can do in risk-free account, at a time when savings accounts were only giving out 0.70%. Fast forward to today, I’m comfortably getting 2.2% from Ally, and long-term CDs are into the 3s. Shout-out to the Federal Reserve for finally raising the base borrowing rate these past few years.

You’d half expect me to go on some cliché tangent about how five years have gone by in a blink of an eye, and that it seems like only yesterday that I’ve just opened the CD account, but that is the completely opposite of what I’m feeling right now. What an absolute slog the five years have been; I went through an intense period of transformation, from my mid-twenties of still finding my place in this world, to now in my thirties, wiser yet still massively unlearned, and seeking to improve every single day. When you start to look at every single day as its own challenge and reward, your reference of time slows down significantly.

I think time goes by quickly when you’re directionless and bored. It contradicts somewhat the popular saying of “time flies when you’re having fun”, but I can only speak from my experience. When days are filled with salient tasks and good habits, the time well spent acts as a defense against pangs of emptiness and waste. You think time have gone by fast precisely because you regret not having done more during that particular timeframe. I actively fight against that.

Anyways, with interest rates at somewhat healthy levels, I’ve no plans to roll the money from the closed CD to another 5-year term. I prefer as much liquidity as possible (outside of retirement accounts), and not having to chase better rates frees up extra money to be funneled into my other investment vehicles.

Cheers to the next five years. May that end date also creep up on me unsuspectingly, but in the best possible way.

There's always more to do

A conundrum I’ve been grappling with lately: if I get done early with the day’s schedules, should I take a break until the next day, or attack what’s to come and keep piling it on?

On a theoretical level, I think it’s healthy to take a breather, especially after I’ve already executed everything on the day’s docket. Why shouldn’t I take advantage of the well-earned leisure time? Go on; open up Youtube and drown myself in automotive-related videos. Rinse and repeat when tomorrow arrives.

The problem is that often during those downtime, the utter lack of productivity leaves me with a sense of anxiety. Perhaps my daily checklist isn’t rigorous enough, and that’s the reason I even have time leftover to begin with. Or perhaps I should get a head start on the following day’s schedules: the faster I finish, the more I can do and learn.

I’ve become so preoccupied with maximizing learning that I can’t allow myself to have satisfactory moments of mindless activity. That’s now how it’s suppose to work! I set goals for what’s to be accomplished for the day, and when those are done, that should be it: no fretting, no anxiety of inadequacy.

Think back to school days: when I got done with the night’s homework, I didn’t yearn for more or agonize over whether or not it was enough; I was only ecstatic at being able to turn on the Playstation for some Grand Theft Auto action. As far as I was concerned, the goal of homework wasn’t to reinforce learning (even though it did), but rather it was to finish as quickly as possible so that I can have free time to play games.

Why can’t I replicate that now? When I get done with the day’s task I feel like I should be doing more instead. Already studied Korean for an hour? How about another more: I’m need to study again the next day anyways, so might as well get ahead on it.

Perhaps that’s the price to pay for progression; I understand taking breaks are important, but these days I absolutely detest idle time. It’ll be a rough road, but I think I need to gradually reacclimate myself with the notion of being perfectly fine with not doing anything productive.

Shudders.

The many faces of San Francisco Chinatown.

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.

The 'long-cut'

I was reading a transcript of the The Tim Ferriss Show when he had on Seth Godin, and the part that particularly struck me was when Seth talked about the 'long-cut'. The opposite of a short-cut, the long-cut is the paradigm that success takes proper amount of time to achieve. The contemporary Internet world is full of charlatans selling life-hacks, short-cuts, and methods aimed at getting at success more quickly, and it's all bullshit.

Underneath all good results are years of hard-work and nose on the grindstone.

But most people don't see that. All they see is the party at the end and figure the planning part took no time whatsoever. Add in an unhealthy dose of instant-gratification culture and it's no wonder those lists with tips and tricks like how to lose weight quickly (for example) are so popular. Nobody wants to be told it'll take a massively long time and the work will be tedious and draining.

Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway fame was once asked what are the methods to his success, and he replied the person asking the question merely wanted to know how to arrive at Charlie's achievements but faster. He cautioned even with his distilled processes it's going to take a commensurate amount of years and decades.

I can certainly commiserate with the instant-gratification crowd, because some days it's difficult to concentrate when the end of the tunnel is so bloody far away. I believe success in life is achieved via compounding, where it's the little things done consistently everyday that will pile up into something remarkable after a prolonged period of time. The daily interest of a savings account is rather minuscule but after a few years it'll be a nice chunk of change.

The long cut: I shall remind myself constantly of this. As the back-cover of Jocko Willink's 'Discipline Equals Freedom' book says:

"There is no shortcut. There is no hack. There's only one way. So get after it."

An afternoon enjoying an augmented reality tour of Apple's new 'Spaceship' headquarters.