Hey all, and happy Friday.
This week's newsletter is an observational view of the world ‘I’ live in., perhaps the world we all live in (it depends on your perspective). It gives 6 observations from my perspective…
#1 - there is a common behaviour of the average person
#2 - people want to accumulate wealth
#3 - people give advice from their perspective, not yours
#4 - being different is a lonely place
#5 - change is difficult
#6 - most people are use to the paycheck and some people earn money differently
But first…
You may have noticed two things. I didn’t send a newsletter last week and also this one is late.
I have 2 excellent reasons - firstly, life got in the way last week and I just missed it. This week, well - I forgot yesterday was Thursday (newsletter writing day).
The Observations
I haven’t worked for a few months, and neither has a lot of people. As a reminder 239,603 were laid off in tech in 2023 and 164,769 in 2022. Meta just laid off some more in its metaverse silicon unit.
My observations are formed around that.
What are people doing?
Everyone I know is looking for a job. A few have found new jobs, and others are applying.
For the most part, the job market doesn’t seem too bad. I have friends who are regularly interviewing for roles and I have friends who got jobs relatively quickly.
There are outliers including one person who has been out of work for nearly 12 months now.
Me?
I haven’t applied for a single job yet. And yeah, that’s pretty strange. Maybe even a little dumb.
And, that is the subject of today’s newsletter, 6 observations from thinking differently.
What ‘normal’ looks like
From previous posts you’ll know that I started work at 16 years old, I’m 44 now - that's 28 years working.
After 28 years I see how the natural state of things are. I’m sure you see it too. Perhaps a flow diagram would be better, but for now, let me try to articulate it. These are the typical patterns most people follow…
You spend your time getting educated to work, specifically vocational courses
You work 35-40 hours per week, and you don’t get paid for your lunch break
If you work part-time or are out of work, it is usually to care for someone - normally a child
If you want more money you will either try to get promoted or move to a different company
If you get laid off, you’ll look for another job
You get 5 weeks off work per year, you’ll use one of those weeks for the Christmas or other religious period and spread the remaining 4 weeks throughout the year
You’ll repeat this process from your late teens until you retire (18 to 66 = 48 years)
On average, you’ll have 14 years in your retirement until you die
Observation #1 - there is a common behaviour of the average person
The hoarding of money
When I left Meta they gave me severance. It was a good amount. If I don’t spend crazily that money plus savings could probably last me until the middle of 2025.
Being the nerd that I am, I wrote the number on a post-it note, and every month I update that number. Then I got super nerdy - I turned that into a chart showing how it reduces over time and the exact date it will run out.
But, I also did 2 other things - I added 2 thresholds on the chart - let’s call them acceptable losses. One is a threshold I am prepared to spend, the other is a threshold I’d rather not get to.
In other words, I have a magic number in my head that I don’t want to spend, or - the amount I want to keep.
I want to hoard that money.
I was talking to a friend about this, the sentiment was the same - get a new job ASAP so you do not need to spend that money.
No real thought of happiness or loftier goals or ambition - simply save that money.
Observation #2 - people want to accumulate wealth
Being different
I don’t want to rush into getting a job ASAP, I’m OK with spending some of my money in the pursuit of something else. But I also accept that there is a line on a chart and once it passes through the threshold I’ll be looking for a job.
But I do believe you should be investing in yourself.
When I did my PhD I took a sizable pay cut, when I did my MBA I took out a bunch of money from my savings and paid for it.
However, when you talk to people about investing in yourself or doing something different they struggle to relate.
This is because in a world where everyone is following the default path, (observation #1), people struggle to relate or give advice to support anything outside of that paradigm.
An example…
Years ago I was buying a new house. I had my old house to sell first, but really I wanted to keep that and rent it out AND buy the new house.
I mentioned this to two close and trusted people. People with more experience of life. They convinced me that it was too much hassle, not worth it - and even said “if it was that easy everyone would be doing it”.
I was young, dumb and influential back then, so I listened and let that dream go.
Owning a property to rent out wasn’t a normal thing to do for me or the people I knew, and I asked normal people for advice, and I got normal advice back.
If I had asked people who had owned a property to rent, then I would have got different advice.
Observation #3 - people give advice from their perspective, not yours
It can be lonely
So now you realise you are not part of the herd, and you’re trying to do your own thing, but you are surrounded by the herd.
This is a tricky place to be, mainly because you don’t seem to have anyone to talk to or bounce ideas off.
Let me explain…
Most people you know are most likely to be stuck doing the normal behaviour (observation #1) in the pursuit of paying bills and day-to-day expenses, and if they can acquire extra money beyond that they likely don’t know what to do with it so they hoard it (observation #2). When you talk to people for advice or guidance or share an idea outside of the normal paradigm they struggle to relate or give sound advice because of their perspective (observation #3).
Therefore, this leads to…
Observation #4 - being different is a lonely place
It’s hard
So now you've accepted observations #1, #2, #3 and #4 - guess what? it’s still difficult.
There is a reason why people follow the path set out in observation #1 - it’s because it’s easy. And it’s easy because that is how the current world and society evolved.
If everyone was like Stephen Hawking, sitting about in a chair all day thinking about space, who would be the ones making society work?
So the natural inclination for people is to follow normal, well-established behaviours and expectations.
And if you are like me, who has been raised, educated and an active participant in that system, then it is difficult to do something else
Observation #5 - change is difficult
The flow of money
This is my final one for today, the flow of money and the asking for money.
A while back I mentioned a low-cost course by Noah Kagan. I did it, up to the point where you have to ask someone to send you some money, nothing much, just $1 or £1 or €1. The point of the lesson was to develop the skill of asking for money and also feeling the reward of receiving the money.
I had a blocker in me, I couldn’t ask anyone I knew for money - the lesson was very much needed. I ended up asking my wife to do it, and she agreed but then forgot to send it and I didn’t want to ask a 2nd time.
You see, asking for money from people might be difficult for some. It was for me, and this was the lesson I needed but failed to learn.
More recently I’ve been doing some consultancy work. We agreed on a fixed fee. I never chased for money. The person I am working with reminded me last week to invoice him for part of the work. For some reason I didn’t, it wasn’t fear, I guess it was just unnatural. He reminded me again this week, so I finally did it.
It was easy, it was painless and you know what - it felt good seeing some money land in my account from a non-employed source. I learned Noah’s lesson, just later.
The last example of this…
I went to get my hair cut yesterday at a new barbershop. They don’t have their payment systems set up yet so I had to either use cash or Revolut to pay. I used Revolut.
The full story is this…
I get there at 10 am, they are just opening. There are two people, the owner and the barber. The owner disappears and the barber stays all day cutting hair.
I get my hair cut by the barber, I open Revolut and send €20 to the owner.
I don’t know where the owner is but he didn’t cut my hair but still got €20.
And this will continue, right?
Imagine the owner is on holiday one time and all day long his phone is beeping - another €20, and another €20, and another €20.
There’s a person spending 8 hours a day cutting hair and a totally different guy anywhere else getting paid for it.
In fact, the owner has 5 other barbers doing the same thing. Think of all those €20s.
Now imagine the problem of having to switch off Revolut notifications because you’re getting paid too many €20s.
Observation #6 - most people are used to the paycheck and some people earn money differently
Fin.
So there we go, my 6 observations.
#1 - there is a common behaviour of the average person
#2 - people want to accumulate wealth
#3 - people give advice from their perspective, not yours
#4 - being different is a lonely place
#5 - change is difficult
#6 - most people are used to the paycheck and some people earn money differently
Wishing you a great weekend.
John
Love this article John. So many truth bombs!