I love education. I have three degrees and work in the field. Lately though, I've been feeling like educational institutions share a lot more in common with medieval churches than anything else, and that professors and teachers often act like the priests. For the most part, power in medieval kingdoms was exerted through the control of information and knowledge by the priests of yesteryear. They were often the only ones that could read or write and as a result, the ones that disseminated knowledge to people. To maintain this power, they often claimed some type of relationship with God and implied or directly asserted that they were special or unique and that others could not possibly understand without their help and teachings. Student Interaction This connection between medieval priests and teachers has been more firmly established in my mind over the past week due to a couple of experiences. First, several of my students were truly shocked when I informed them that they could Google information they were not clear on. The idea to look beyond their teacher and directly access information for themselves via the internet, thus cutting out the middleman, was something that hadn't even crossed their mind. How dare they drink the water offered by a priest other than the one standing at the front of their classroom? This was a genuine interaction I had over the course of about 30 minutes with several of my students! This represents a failure of the educational systems they have attended to this point. Professor Interaction Second, in preparing for my M.S. in Applied Economics Project, I have begun emailing professors to see if they would share their exams with me. I do not feel I need the exams to assess myself at this point. I create assessments weekly for students and am more than capable of creating assessments for myself. However, having an external form of validation is important in many areas of life and, for this project, illustrates to others that I have really learned the material and not just read a couple books on a topic. With that in my mind, the first response I received from a professor to my request resulted in the following, "The faculty at Nanyang, Singapore Management University, and National University of Singapore are excellent. I think it that it would be much more efficient for you to interact with them. If you like the program at Hopkins, I think most of the courses are available online. I realize that this would take longer, but completing the course the traditional way gives you an independent certification that you know the material. Anyone can claim that they know material, but earning a degree certifies your knowledge. I personally worry about people who complete self-study and then miss important details. Details are incredibly important and half-knowing something can be worse than not knowing it at all. There is also very strong evidence that formal education increases income. Disclaimer: I want to say that I am very grateful for the fact that this professor was willing to share what he did and that he even took the time to respond to me. None of the professors I emailed know me or have any obligation to help me in anyway. In addition, the fact that he offered to grade the midterm is much more than I expected from any of the professors I emailed. Issues with the Response Why against his better judgement? Why worry about people who complete self-study? Is managing to complete all six homeworks really necessary? This response is a perfect example of the general condescension and patronizing attitude of modern intellectuals at university institutions. The idea that someone would want to skip sitting in classes for three hours at a time while listening to inane conversation from other students who mostly haven't done the reading to begin with, is threatening to their position of power. How dare someone bypass their lecture? After all, they have been "chosen" to share this special knowledge with us lesser endowed individuals. Self-study goes so far as possibly being worse than not attempting it at all. "Half-knowing something can be worse than not knowing it at all." Really? Certainly in areas such as surgery or other life threatening scenarios. But a statistics class? That's similar to saying only taking one semester of Spanish is worse than not taking it at all because you won't be completely fluent or native-like. There are certainly many situations where partial knowledge is much better than zero knowledge. Having partial knowledge also allows you to build on something in the future if you decide to take on even more within the chosen academic field. Everyone has to begin somewhere. The Future How we learn a subject should be irrelevant. It also shouldn't be anyone's business what methods we have used to acquire the expertise as long as we can demonstrate that expertise upon request. Standards are necessary. Lawyers have the bar examination. Doctors have the board exams. Actuaries have a series of ten exams that often take up to ten years to complete, which they do study independently for while working 40-80 hour weeks! These are how credentials should work. If you pass the examinations, you have proven your knowledge. If you believe exams don't represent proficiency, this is a problem with the exams, not the principle that credentials should be examination and standards based. Make better exams. Once the standards are set, people should be completely free to study for them however they see fit. Whether this is done through self-study, traditional classrooms, or by hiring professional tutors should be completely up to the individuals. To quote Carl Rogers for the second time this week, "The natural place of evaluation in life is as a ticket of entrance, not as a club over the recalcitrant" (p. 239).
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I've recently engaged in a few emails back and forth with my master teacher from graduate school. She was interested and proud that I had written two books, but also unsure of how this whole process works. It's a similar reaction to others I've received. Trust me when I say that listing two Amazon bestsellers on your teaching resume (or any career resume I assume) is impressive to most interviewers and employers. This impressiveness to others fits really well through the lens of Cal Newport's failed simulation effect, which he explains as, "Accomplishments that are hard to explain can be much more impressive than accomplishments that are simply hard to do". The Explanation Amazon is very easy to use. It is all self-published material. If you have a word document, you can publish a book by uploading the file to Kindle Direct Publishing and the next day it will be available for purchase. With Kindle there are different royalty programs that break down essentially like this:
Kindle Direct Publishing has book cover generators that you can use or upload a cover image yourself. I have simply used their generators, but more savvy and sophisticated self-publishers who actually make their living this way usually hire a cover designer to make the cover art and then upload it. Again, the more savvy writers also usually hire an editor; I simply read my books multiple times and have my wife, father, and mother read through them as well. I am sure there are still typos. Mine were not professionally edited, but you can always hire an editor before you choose to upload them. This simply costs money, but is easy to do. My approach with self-publishing is to write. publish. repeat. I will just keep iterating this process over the years and pricing my books in the $2.99 to $9.99 price range to get the 70% royalty. I hope that after 10 years, and 10-20 books, I will be earning a small side income that supplements my career and can be used for fun purchases like travel flights to new places. Maybe at some point, I will even hire an editor. The book Choose Yourself is a great example of what can be accomplished in the world of self-publishing when hiring professional everything - editor, artwork, distribution lists, etc. Lastly, Amazon also works with CreateSpace and Audible, which are the subsidiary companies that allow you to print paperback books with on demand shipping and audio books respectively. I did both of these for the first book I wrote Language, Learning, and Life, but not the second because it was only 32 pages and I felt it wasn't worth it. I did get almost as many purchases for the Audible audio book as I did paperback and Kindle versions of the book, so it can definitely be worth it. Both of these options have lower royalties which makes complete sense as the cost to produce the paperback is much higher than Kindle and the Audible book was professionally recorded by a voice actor whom I split the royalty with 50/50. Turning Them into Bestsellers "Okay," you say, "writing and publishing the books doesn't seem that hard after all, but that doesn't mean mine will be bestsellers." Not true. Amazon has Top 100 Bestseller lists for hundreds of categories. You just need to poke around on their website and look at the number of books in each category. Some categories have under 100 books. If you publish a book and label it with one of those categories, it is automatically an Amazon Top 100 Bestseller after the first customer purchase. As an example, when I say that I am a bestselling author, I do not mean that I sat on top of the New York Times list for 52 weeks. I mean that my 32 page self-edited and self-published "book" reached #2 in Amazon's Top 100 Bestseller for Kindle in Non-formal Education category after selling about 15 books in the first 24 hours (it has sold more since, but the numbers are not staggering). You can see how this small pond is much easier to succeed in. This success, while small, pushes me to try my hand in a bigger pond the next time and slowly leap frog my way up while learning a practicing to make the best product I can. Downgraded Impressiveness So that is how the process works. If you previously failed to simulate how I (or potentially you) could write a bestselling book, now you know. The result, I am sure, is that my impressiveness just dropped. I'm okay with that. I'd much rather help to eliminate the failed simulation, which is an illusion, than walk around pretending to be more impressive than I am. Some proof before I leave!
Over the next 12 months, I’m going to learn the entire 4-year MIT curriculum for computer science, without taking any classes. All of the above statements were taken from Scott Young's website about his MIT Challenge. They have inspired me to undertake my own challenge, which I'll be sharing here as I go along. Right now I am in the planning stages and won't begin for another couple months as I attempt to get all my resources together. However, you can read the following, check for updates, and visit my Personal Projects page devoted to this challenge and any other that spring up in the future as I progress. Goal I plan to complete the entire John Hopkins Master’s of Science in Applied Economics with a focus on International and Development Economics in 6 months instead of the median 2.3 years (or seven semesters) via self-study and self-evaluation. Why? Mostly because it's a challenge. One I'm sure I can complete. One that others could too, but perhaps are afraid of being the first to try or of not receiving the accreditation they would deserve for such a large amount of work without following the standards of others. Scott completed a bachelor's degree and inspired to complete a master's degree. Maybe this will inspire another to complete a doctoral degree. I strongly believe in self-guided study and non-formal education. This can add to the body of literature available on those topics and prove that it can be done. Second, I already hold a master's degree and don't have any need of a second. I also have ZERO need of any more student loan debt. As Scott says above, "I want the education, not the school". Another reason is that I've told a handful of people that finishing my M.Ed. in 1.5 years instead of two was a joke. I could have easily done it in one, probably faster. This is one way of proving that. Furthermore, I want to be a part of the club that comprises professional economics. If education is the ability to join a conversation (a fabulous quote that I CANNOT remember where I heard), I want into that conversation at a higher level. And lastly, The natural place of evaluation in life is as a ticket of entrance, not as a club over the recalcitrant. Our experience in therapy would suggest that it should be the same way in school. It would leave the student as a self-respecting, self-motivated person, free to choose whether he wished to put forth the effort to gain these tickets of entrance. It would thus refrain from forcing him into conformity, from sacrificing his creativity, and from causing him to live his life in terms of the standards of others." - Carl Rogers Prior Learning I have a BA in economics and a BS in mathematics. I have also worked extensively as a teaching assistant and tutor in math and am currently teaching an IBDP economics course. I have also independently read hundreds of books, articles, and blogs on economics. I also have a master's of education, with a particular focus on literacy. While not related to economics, per se, my passion for reading and studying meta-learning gives me a large advantage. The fact that I am a working teacher also gives me the advantage of knowing how to write assessments and evaluate conceptual understanding. These skills will be very useful throughout the challenge. Criteria for the Outcome
The Plan
The Final Product/Outcome The product will be the completion of the M.S. with successful final exam grades and reflections through this blog. I will largely be weighing the value of my own insights against my previous learning and present need to understand the topic, both as a teacher and human with a natural ethical curiosity about the workings of the world and how people succeed within the constraints of their environment and finite resources. Economics is a mix of positive and normative statements about our world, particularly within the field of development where ethics often plays a large role. It is this convergence of ethics, decision making, and policy that most attracts me to development and what I will more than likely be focusing on throughout my reflections and study. Self-Evaluation The first obvious stumbling block will be whether or not I can get the professors on the syllabi I've downloaded to share their final exams and homework assignments with me. If that is not possible, then the other three criteria will still remain. Once I dive into the courses, I will most likely be using various formative assessments along the way, all of which I will document here. This entire project is largely to refine my own critical thinking skills about the topic and be able to apply those skills in evaluative situations as they relate to the world and decision making in general. I have no desire at the moment to use these skills in a professional sense, other than of course in my own classroom. Reflection All reflections will be done here within my website and blog. This is the first post of what will surely be many. Stay tuned. And keep in mind that, even if you feel like you've failed, you can win. Google cofounder Larry Page conce said, "Even if you fail at your ambitioius thing, it's very hard to fail comletely. That's the thing that people don't get." Cramming isn't pass-fail. Let's say you attempt culinary cram school - cramming six months into 48 hours - as I did. Let's then say that you retain only 40% of what was taught. If you develop the mototr patterns to continue practicing correctly, which is exactly what happened to me, did you fail? Of course not! Even 40% of six months means that you absorbed 2.4 months of skills in 48 hours!" - Tim Ferriss
A student recently walked into my class after school to ask me a question about something and stated the assumption (asked me the question?) that I don't really like to talk much and am kind of reserved. It's not the first time I've been told this. My father has said very similar things for years and has constantly pushed me "to get out of my shell", which I always thought of as comical for a number of reasons. Whenever I'm in a large group, I tend to slide out of the spotlight (or room, or building altogether). I suppose, objectively speaking I am quiet and reserved in public spaces or large groups. However, this is not the case in private or small group situations where I know everyone. It's not because I'm naturally quiet, introverted, or a "Type B" personality. It's for one very simple reason, which 2 Chainz put best, "I'm different, yeah I'm different." Societal Norms These, of course, differ from culture to culture, but in the west, people are largely:
I'm sure I could go on if I really thought about it, but two minutes of reflection is probably good enough. Personal Beliefs Now if you look at the above list of cultural norms and you fit within them, that is totally fine. This isn't me asking for a shouting match, but explaining why you think I'm quiet. Unless your beliefs restrict my freedoms or those of others in some major way, we probably don't need to argue over any of them. My point is simply that a person can't or shouldn't call me quiet or reserved unless they are willing to give me the floor and listen to my full thoughts and opinions. I have plenty of them. I'd rather be quiet than partially censored because of your delicate sensibilities. If given the floor, I will talk to you, give you my opinion, tell you about my interests, hobbies, and recent experiences if you want to know about them. BUT. If you are going to stop me mid-sentence because you don't like me swearing and using the "F-word" to describe my experiences, I'm going to stop sharing. If I say that religious belief is silly and that a grown adult in the 21st century who has been educated in the west to the undergraduate or graduate degree level really should be embarrassed of themselves in the same way they themselves are embarrassed for someone who openly admits to believing in Zeus, Tinkerbell, or the boogeyman, and you cut me off with a faith-based argument of, "You wouldn't understand", then I'm not going to keep sharing my thoughts. If you are overly patriotic, humorless, and intolerant of what I say, I'm not going to speak out of fear of offending you. If you think a number, black cats, walking under ladders, or umbrellas inside are bad luck and you get angry at me when I have the nerve to correct you, then I probably am not going to talk too much. If you are generally ignorant of how evolution works or repressive of abortions and stem-cell research, we probably won't have much to agree about and odds are I won't be the one getting angry during that conversation. Lastly, if your entire idea of good conversation involves talking about soccer, then I'm probably going to make fun of you. You're reaction to my poking fun at the 140 pound "athlete" you idolize is probably going to determine quite a bit about how much we speak in the future. Disney's Bambi and Thumper So there it is. I'm not quiet, introverted, or a Type B personality. I'm just polite in public spaces and trying to show you respect by keeping the thoughts and opinions you'd almost undoubtedly judge as sinful, distasteful, or crude to myself.
The popular song, "All About That Bass" by Meghan Trainor, has over 350 million views on YouTube alone. It has mostly been received as sending a positive message about body acceptance and being comfortable with the body you have with lines like, "It's pretty clear I ain't no size 2, but I can shake it, shake it like I'm supposed to do," but has also received some backlash as a form of skinny-shaming due to a line that include the words "skinny bitches". So which is it? Skinny-shaming I'll admit, I'd never even heard this term until I started looking up the song after hearing it recently. It is immediately apparent what the term means though and I think that Trainor has a solid footing to deny this accusation. When listening to the song as a whole, it doesn't seem that likely that this was her goal. If it was her intended goal, then the behavior is obviously reprehensible. Especially if we start looking at actual disorders like bulimia or anorexia. I had a very close friend in high school suffer from bulimia and it was terrible to watch her deal with it. Shaming someone over a psychological disorder which is beyond their control is asinine and is not too distant from the thoughts I shared in my most recent article on attempting to shame war criminals as a form of punishment. Body Acceptance This is the ideal and hopefully what the song was after. Western society, particularly the United States, has really gone too far with beauty ideals and what a perfect woman should look like. Having some fat is natural for most people and can be a healthy state. Health is what ought to be focused on. New fitness trends, CrossFit in particular, have pushed many women to workout with intensity and focus their attention on becoming strong, fit, and confident. These women look amazing and it is mostly a result of the confidence they carry with them knowing that they can run a mile with speed, lift a few hundred pounds with ease, and do a couple dozen pull ups when necessary. Trainor most likely had none of these specifics in mind when she made the song. However, the idea of body acceptance, especially acceptance of one that is fit and capable, regardless of some extra fat here and there should be the focus of more media attention. Fat Acceptance This third category is what hasn't really received any attention. There seems to be a fine line between accepting a body that isn't waif-like and accepting obesity. Obesity is now classified as a disease by the American Medical Association and should not be accepted anymore so than the eating disorders mentioned above. Not only is it now a medical disorder, but obesity is also a negative externality. This means society as a whole pays a higher cost than the individuals who suffer from obesity. This higher cost comes in the form of billions of dollars each year. According to Harvard's School of Public Health Obesity Prevention Source, "health care costs of obesity in the U.S. were estimated to be as high as $190 billion in 2005, a number that is double earlier estimates, and that is expected to rise, along with obesity rates, over the coming decades". So here we have a phenomena that is both classified as a disease and which researchers "estimate accounts for 21 percent of medical spending". Accepting it is both unethical in terms of patient care from a medical standpoint and a moral hazard for those more interested in the economic burden of others who carry the extra costs. Conclusion The song referenced at the beginning of this article is catchy and upbeat. The singer was almost certainly just having fun. I've simply used it as a platform to talk about the issues in this post and in that sense have completely hijacked it. So to wrap it up:
Further Reading Economic Costs Fat-tax: An Economic Analysis Obesity Consequences
I recently took a group of tenth graders to Cambodia for a week where they focused on the topic of education within the country and others similar to it. Each day consisted of visiting various sites, performing activities, and having group discussions. A Student Discussion One of the days involved discussing Pol Pot, the genocidal leader of the Khmer Rouge, and the killing fields. The guides we were working with taught the students about the fact that Pol Pot died before any trials could be undertaken to prosecute him and then informed the students that there had been a debate within the country as to whether or not a loyal group of Pol Pot's followers should have been prosecuted as war criminals or left to the local authorities to handle. This conversation began with the students sharing their views and opinions on the topic, but slowly devolved into a couple of students in the group doing most of the talking while the others silently agreed by listening and nodding their heads. The two vocal students essentially agreed on the fact that the men and women should be held accountable through punishment. One believed that the followers should have been left to local authorities and citizens to shame, abuse, and otherwise harass endlessly until their deaths (whether inflicted by the citizenry or not). The second student believed that they should be imprisoned, but not put to death, because they would then be able to live and suffer longer with their own feelings of guilt and shame in their prison cells. No students in the group voiced that they believed the persons should face capital punishment. This seemed to instill and certain sense of pride among themselves for allowing the war criminals to live, rather than be put to death, all the while wishing pain and suffering on them. Ethics and Education As a school trip with five adult educators present at the discussion, I sat listening patiently for the children to give their voice. I love discussions like this and always find it interesting to hear what the students have to say. However, as the agreement came together and the two students took over the conversation for the group, I waited for an adult to say something. None did. As the conversation came to a close, I felt some kind of teaching and learning had to take place. The student consensus was simply not ethical or satisfactory by any modern ethical standards. Choosing to keep someone alive only so they could suffer is sadistic. The impulse is base and of the lowest sort. As the students were all still children, mostly around 15 years old, I completely understood their reactions and conclusions. Revenge seems to be a natural initial impulse for the majority of humans. I didn't and still don't view those kids as bad for such sentiments, just unreflective and perhaps ignorant. They clearly were not able to imagine how anyone could carry out such monstrous acts without being evil people who deserved to be tortured for their sins (something that is still sadly propagated by most western religions). This is where ethics needs to be taught to students. Removal of dangerous people from society is not about sadism, it is about security. All efforts should be made to feel compassion for these men and women and to help reform them where possible. If not, imprisonment is the correct action so that they are not a threat to society. Just because a person has committed heinous crimes does not make them less human or less deserving of compassion. We as third persons have no idea of their personal histories. Whether they were abused as children. Whether they have brain tumors. Whether they've been brainwashed by their socio-cultural environments. Whether they're psychopaths or sociopaths. There are literally hundreds of legitimate psychological and biological explanations for socially malignant behavior. It is this lack of apparent reason or justification for their actions that causes us to leap to blaming them. We assume they are just like us and should therefore act just like us, but that is never the case. The truly human (and humane) thing to do is to extend compassion, not sadism. If every student were to graduate high school with this ability, I would feel the educational system had done its job well and that we could deem it a success. Until then, there is a lot of educating to be done. Further Reading and References
Fighters are groomed to be champions all the time. Novice fighters routinely enter the ring with other fighters who are ranked just at or below their current standings in order to learn under less strenuous conditions and boost confidence from winning. This ensures steady learning and a string of victories, both of which seem can increase motivation. The same thing is done in horse racing. New horses whose owners hope to be champions some day often race against competition that they are almost sure to beat. The owners want them to lead the pack and know what it feels like to exert dominance. As the horses get more experience, the difficulty level of the competition is increased. Small Pond Mentality "Fail early, fail often." I'm unable to find who this quote is attributed to and I'm willing to bet it's anonymous anyhow. It seems to be picking up steam in innovation circles and schools. According to many, success may even depend on failure. I'm not sure I agree. Failure can also be crushing. Putting a novice fighter in the ring with Mike Tyson and having them fail is not a great way to teach them anything other than the fact that they are clearly outgunned. So without trying to reinvent the wheel or coin a new phrase, I'll simply call my opposing sentiment the "Small Pond Mentality". It relates to the strategies noted above that both prize fighters and prize horses use to make their way all the way to the winner's circle and is a view that isn't much in favor at the moment, or at the very least not discussed. "Go to a four-year college after high school." This a quote I've literally heard dozens of times from teachers, counselors, parents, and advice gurus aimed at students. It has never sat well with me. It intimates that going to a four-year college out of high school makes you a success and that anything less is a failure on somebody's part (the student's, school's, or parent's). However, this jump from high school to an undergraduate degree rewarding university may be too large a jump in pond size for many. Even those that are obviously ready for a university setting should probably take the advice of "go to the best school you get into" with care. Going to college after high school is about growing and developing yourself into a valuable member of society who has something to offer. The finishing point is what really matters, not the starting point. A Thought Experiment What's better? Going to a second tier university straight out of high school or a community college for two years and then transferring to a first tier university to finish? Is it better to go to a first tier university that grades on a curve where you graduate with a 2.8 GPA and no shot at medical school or a second tier university with no curved grades where you can finish with a 3.8 GPA and strong chance at acceptance to medical school? I ask these questions because I've seen both happen in real life to good friends. People I knew in high school went to community college for two years and then transferred to UCLA to finish and have the degree hanging on their wall. Others went to a UC straight out of high school where they earned over 90% in classes graded on curves only to receive a C or D grade because they were the little fish in a big pond. No one cares where you start. Society only rewards where you finish. Sometimes going to a top 20 university isn't the best decision for your future even when you have been accepted. It often makes more sense to be the biggest fish in whatever pond you choose and let that pond expand over time. As you grow and develop, you will naturally find yourself in bigger fields of competition. There is no reason to get knocked out in your first fight. Win a few, gain confidence, learn, stay motivated. Further Reading David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants The Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect: Persistent Negative Effects of Selective High Schools on Self-Concept After Graduation
I spent half my day at the airport above in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday. I missed my flight by about five minutes because I was busy drinking coffee and talking with friends in the airport cafe where we arrived over an hour early for the flight. The little mishap cost my wife and I an extra US$160. A pretty expensive mistake. However, the entire weekend had me thinking of the way many of my friends and I consume experiences and the associated opportunity costs. Opportunity Costs of Consumerism I wrote about information consumerism a year and a half ago and the issues I believed were associated with it for me and others who fall into the hole of reading and consuming extensive amounts of information. Over this past weekend, I have found myself having similar feelings about the consumption of new experiences. All weekend, I couldn't quit the feeling that consumption and creation are diametrically opposed. In my weekend full of new places, new foods, and old drinks, I couldn't help thinking of all the work I wasn't doing instead and I don't just mean the duties from my job either; I mean the creative work I like to do here on this website via writing and producing content. As many ideas as I had for new content while on the trip, I was incapable of doing any of it while consuming the flights, hotels, restaurants, cafes, buses, and taxis of Kuala Lumpur. This left me feeling extraordinarily ambivalent about the whole process of novel experiences for their own sake. I very much enjoyed the trip, possibly the most of the five I've taken this year. And yet. While enjoying the experience, the marginal cost felt too high when weighed against the marginal benefits of content creation on this site and the potential use the money could have been used towards. The diagram above shows a simple production possibility curve utilized within the field of economics. It illustrates the trade-offs that are necessary between new experiences and creation. In this case, I've chosen to label the x-axis as travels to new countries and the y-axis as pieces of writing that could be accomplished. This year, I actually did travel to five new countries and so the x-axis is representative of my 2014 travel year. The 15 pieces of writing that could have been accomplished had I not gone to any new countries is an estimate, based on the fact that I could potentially write somewhere around three new pieces of writing per trip had I stayed home. The real trade-off in the number of new pieces of writing could be lower if, as a result of traveling, I actually produce more creative pieces after traveling or higher if there is some non-linear relationship between how much writing I do as a result of travel. For instance, traveling to new places could potentially give me more content ideas and have the resultant effect of me producing more content due to travel. Or, it could very well be that by not having any travels disrupt my writing habits, I actually write more overall than I currently do because of multiplier-type effects of writing continuously. Evaluation Not buying and having few things does not equate to be a minimalist. This is becoming more and more clear to me. Traveling, by its very nature, is often opposed to minimalism and traveling is just one way to have new experiences. Bucket lists are another popular method for encouraging consumption of experiences over "things" among the well-off. Items like skydiving, bungee jumping, mountain climbing, and swimming with whale sharks are all ways of experiencing novelty while not necessarily consuming products or information. I am simply surprised at how often I find myself relying on consumption as a proxy for my happiness - whether that be in the form of products, information, or experiences as discussed here. Even if it is disguised and I own few possessions, it always sneaks in. While it is often momentarily enjoyable, it most often leaves me feeling anti-productive, as though I've spoiled an opportunity to do good. I am not renouncing consumption in all its forms in the hopes of reaching pure asceticism, only trying to constantly refocus on the creative process and adding value to the world. I would hate to leave this life without having added more value than I took from it.
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