Goals for Two Thousand and Eleven Anno Domini
The new year is quickly approaching. We have had and scheduled meetings at work to decide on our strategies and goals for 2011, and I am trying to decide what my plans and goals are for the coming year. The most common new years resolution is to get in shape. I could definitely put in some more effort there, but am not too far gone, so that goal isn’t quite big enough. I am going to try to keep in shape, but that is more of an every year resolution as it should be. So here’s my plan for 2011.
Increase Knowledge
I asked for a Kindle for Christmas and my parents were so kind as to buy one for me. I wanted to start reading more and I thought a new piece of technology that makes reading more convenient would be a good motivator. So far it is working, but it isn’t even the new year yet, so we will see.
I believe the arts are very important. I love making and listening to music. I have been to museums and seen amazing works of art. Unfortunately, I haven’t read a lot of classic literature. I went to Henryetta High school, which was great, and my wife went to Holland Hall, which is a great school. She was pretty amazed to hear that I made it through high school and college only reading 3 books that can be considered classic literature. I read a lot on economics, but none of the stuff that everyone else reads in high school. So I started with H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine, and enjoyed it very much. I think I’ll read The Count of Monte Cristo next. I also want to read old classics because I can download them for free on my Kindle, which is nice.
I know I’ll get tired of fiction since it is not my favorite kind of reading, so I will break it up with some economics. I just started reading the Economic Report of the President. I know it is a little late for this one, but I think it is something I should be reading every year. I also plan on reading current and classic work by top economists.
Start Building Things
We bought a truck recently so now I have the means of transporting lumber, and last Sunday my Father-in-law helped me build a work bench for my garage. My first project is to get my garage in order. We found some four by eight sheets of peg board on clearance for $5 each, so I got a few of those and need to finish mounting them. Then I will get everything organized and start some other projects. I have always wanted to make my own cajón, so I will probably start on that first unless something else comes up. Lexi is all about nice storage and organization ideas so I will probably end up making shelves and such. She is itching to rip out our closets and re-build them in a more economical (and of course cute) fashion.
I could use some good book recommendations and maybe some construction project ideas. So if anyone would like to provide their input I would appreciate it. I would also like to hear your new years resolutions. It is the start of something new. If 2010 was good, then lets conquer new goals for this year; if it was a bad year, start fresh and kick 2011 right in the face. I hope 2010 was good to you, and may 2011 be even better. Happy new year!
Expression
Posted by Dylan in Creativity on October 26, 2010
I started playing my original music again after taking a very long while off. I got discouraged with it and thought writing music was a lost cause because I didn’t like to hear my own songs anymore. If I don’t want to hear them then why would anyone else, right? The real problem was that I forgot why I was doing it in the first place. That reason is that I enjoy writing, playing and singing music. I don’t need some grand accomplishment in sight to continue writing. So that begs the question, what made me feel so differently when I decided to give up on writing music? I think part of it is that I became too ambitious. Another musician once told me that you can’t write to make good music, especially at first. You have do it for fun, or you will get discouraged and frustrated in a hurry.
Practice > Talent
The truth is that no one starts out great. It takes a lot of time and practice to be great at anything. Sure we might have a knack for something, and pick it up easier than others, but talent is everywhere. I think of talent more as a prerequisite than a deciding factor. It is the effort and time that we put into it that makes the difference between those who could have and those who did, but I am not trying to preach on hard work. What I had to realize is that if I start trying to be great, I will never get there. I have to start having fun, and doing it because I like to do it, not because I am competing and comparing myself to anyone else. Then I actually have a shot at becoming a good song writer and musician.
I knew some guys in college who put in an impressive number of hours playing video games. These guys could destroy me at halo, rock band, and probably any video game imaginable. Were they so good because they were dedicated to being the best video gamers? No way, these guys just liked playing games, and because of that, they did it a lot, and because of that, they ended up very good at it. That is how most things work. You gotta love it, and that gives you the motivation to spend a lot of time on it, and that time and focus makes you great at it. Okay, I believe I have made my point about that. Back to music!
Creative Process & Recess
I am sure you’ve heard the term creative outlet. I think everyone has their own creative outlet(s), and we all have a certain level of necessary output in order to satisfy our need to express ourselves. I know, that definitely sounds way too much like an emotionless economist trying to describe art, and it is, except the emotionless part. To the very artistic type of person, you may not understand when I say that one can be creative working in spreadsheets in a cube and be satisfied with that style and level of creative expression. Some people may be good with the Sunday morning crossword puzzle. I really enjoy finding ways to use formulas and macro’s to solve problems and make processes more efficient. I feel like I am given the opportunity to be creative in those situations. Unfortunately those opportunities don’t present themselves every day, and even if they did, I don’t think it would be enough for me. I still need something else to satisfy my craving to be creative. So I play and write music, and the occasional crappy blog post. 
Earlier I said that I became too ambitious, but ambition is usually a good thing, so I will try to explain. When being creative becomes a chore, or task that must be completed to a certain standard, then it becomes frustrating when that standard is not met. If that goes on for a little while, then being creative (in my case writing and playing music) becomes something associated with disappointment and failure and is no longer fun. So you quit to avoid being depressed by it, and then you get even more frustrated because you have cut yourself off from your primary source of creative expression. If you understand anything from this post, please understand this paragraph because it just might apply to you.
Reconciliation
Where I need help is figuring out how to avoid this pitfall, and how to get out of it once I’m there. I am glad that writing music just started being fun for me all of a sudden, but it took years to get back to that point, and I don’t want to set myself back another few years by over-doing it. If you are in this type of situation I really don’t know what to tell you other than I hope you get out of it soon, because it sucks. I am sure we all deal with this in our own ways, and may find different solutions for each person, but if you have any words of wisdom to share then I would greatly appreciate it.
When I have had a great jam session, or spent a good amount of time writing and recording a new song, I notice that I am happier the whole next day. It’s like something was weighing on me that I finally got off my chest and now I’m traveling a little lighter. So if you’ve given up on a creative outlet that you once enjoyed, don’t. At the same time, don’t force it. It should be fun or you aren’t doing it right.
Utility, Surplus & Happiness
This is the aforementioned post about my recent epiphany. I have been a student of economics for some time now, and my general idea of a successful economy has always been an efficient one. Efficiency is my thing. At work, I am the guy who comes up with more efficient and logical processes to accomplish goals. In my finance classes at TU, Professor Burgess drilled into my mind the idea that the goal of the firm is to maximize value. This makes sense and there are lots of great arguments for it. Adam Smith was the father of this kind of thinking. If we all do what is most efficient, then we end up with more and better products and services for everyone to benefit from. The producer and consumer surplus is increased and we are all fat and happy. The United States is the poster child for this type of economy(especially the fat part). Japan is also up there with or above us in efficiency, but with strong cultural values that adjusts their behavior significantly from the standard capitalist ideals (for example, they save a much higher percentage of their income than Americans). I still believe that efficiency is very important, but it has been knocked down a smidgen in my hierarchy of values… ok I don’t really have a hierarchy of values, but you get the idea.
What’s wrong?
Now that I am out of school and have been working for a few years, all the rosy ideas I had of working and making money are not quite so glamorous. I have been at a few companies, and I have seen drastically different corporate cultures. I was at a past company where the number one measurement used to evaluate an employee was how many hours he or she worked. I did 56 hours per week on average, and that was less than most of my co-workers. I hated it. I had no energy to do anything with my friends or family all summer, but my boss loved me and I did have a lot of money saved up afterward.
Doesn't quite do it.
This is the life that a lot of people lead, and maybe it works for them, but unless this job is what I love to do, it isn’t worth it. All my life I was told how great it would be to be rich and famous and how I was going to be like that some day, but the rich and famous aren’t necessarily happy. How many rich, famous people do you know of who have attempted or committed suicide? Do those people develop drug addictions because they are happy?
What makes you happy?
Lets try a little exercise. I was inspired by my sister-in-law’s blog post to think of everything that made me happy starting in my childhood and moving on to the present. What is the first thing that comes to mind as what made you happy when you were young, and in high school, and so on? What do you remember that brings back good feelings? Do that now…………
Finished? Good. Now I will share with you what I remember from my 26 years.
- Playing football in the front yard with my brothers and the neighborhood kids when I was little
- Reading children’s books about monsters in the attic, closet, etc. with my mom
- Swimming during the summers in the pool in my back yard
- Playing catch with my dad
- Little league baseball at Nichol’s Park
- Playing in Friday night football games with my teammates
- Going camping with my friends from high school
- Traveling around Europe with my wife(girlfriend at the time) and brother
- Being taught how to salsa dance by my wife(stranger at the time) in a salsa club
- Hanging out with my brothers when we all go to Henryetta for the holidays
- My wedding day
- My honeymoon in Florida
- Finishing a flamenco show and receiving a standing ovation
- Watching Lexi dance
The list could go on, but I’ll stop there. One thing that doesn’t go on the list is the time I bought that stuff, or the day I worked extra hours for more money, or the time my bank account went over X number of dollars. That isn’t what makes people happy. We think it will, until we get it, and then we just want more stuff, or more money. We remember experiences, and the people that shared those experiences with us.
Utility
The previous section’s sentimental goo was all to drive the point that efficiency and wealth maximization do not equate to utility maximization, but now I should define utility. Utility is a measure of relative satisfaction. It doesn’t exactly equate to happiness, but more a measurement of how much happiness you receive from any given product, service, or situation.
There was an article on the New York Times web site that got me thinking more about how I spend my money and how happy I was with it. I read it on my phone while still laying in bed one Saturday morning. It talks about a couple who decided to stop spending as much money, get rid of a lot of stuff, work less hours, and spend more time camping and hiking. I remember laying in bed and discussing that article with Lexi after sleeping in on a Saturday morning. That was so nice and relaxing, especially when compared to any morning where I woke up to a buzzing alarm, showered, shaved and fought traffic to sit in a gray cube and stare at a computer screen for 8 hours. You see where I’m coming from?
Don’t get me wrong, work is a part of life. We can’t all be hippies and float around mooching off of society. I expect to work hard to make a living, but when working hard becomes life, then it has gone too far. I want to work for a living, not live to work. My issue is not that we work, it is the culture that money is a measure of success, and we should work long hours all our life so we can die with an expensive tombstone over our grave. I hope this doesn’t sound like I am trying to excuse myself from working hard. My intention is to share my ideas with hopes that readers would take some of it to heart and do what makes you happy. Here is a quote from an article in the Princeton University web site which I suggest you read, although it gets a little heavy.
“Despite the weak relationship between income and global life satisfaction or experienced happiness, many people are highly motivated to increase their income,” the study said. “In some cases, this focusing illusion may lead to a misallocation of time, from accepting lengthy commutes (which are among the worst moments of the day) to sacrificing time spent socializing (which are among the best moments of the day).”
In conclusion, do not commute. Just kidding, but seriously how much does commuting suck? A: the most. The only down side to working at home would be that you don’t see people which would then deprive you of time that could be spent socializing which is apparently among the best moments of the day. So I guess having nine children and owning a farm is the best option for all of us!
Okay, joking again, but I’m done now. My suggestion is that we choose vacations over conspicuous consumption, socialization over extra hours, and memories over possessions.
The Political Economy… sort of
I recently had something of an epiphany concerning my views of the economy, or more specifically my idea of a successful economy. It focuses more on efficiency and utility than what is in this post, but I wanted to set up a foundation of my ideas about economic and political systems. So here you are!
Systems
I know plenty of people who believe that capitalism is evil, as well as those who believe the same about communism and socialism. My personal opinion has always been that none of those things are capable of being evil. A system is not evil. That just doesn’t make sense. However, there is a common factor in all that can, and often is evil. Can you guess what that is? Humans!
People are not perfect, therefore a government, and an economy will never be perfect because it is made of people and things created by people, and we can dang sure be evil if we want to. My favorite quote on this subject was from my Russian Poetry and Prose Professor at the University of Tulsa Yevgeny Yevtushenko.
“In capitalism, a man exploits a man, communism is the same thing but reversed.”
It took some students a while to get that one. In capitalism money rules, so who has money makes the rules, in communism, there is a small group of people saying we will control your world to make sure everyone is equal. So in both situations, you have a small number of people who have power. So you look at capitalism and say “Hey, if the money was evenly distributed, then the power would be equal!” So then you set a socialist or communist system in place to even things out, but then you have to put some people in power to make sure everyone is staying in line.
Both systems would work marvelously if all people in power were good, generous and perfect, and the masses without power were sharp enough to realize a good decision/policy/whatever when it bit them on the face. Maybe it is just my opinion, but that isn’t happening… ever. Some systems are more efficient than others, but just because someone isn’t smart enough to come up with an efficient economic system doesn’t make them evil.
Humans
So back to the people aspect. You hear people say that politicians are all liars, corrupt and whatnot, except for the one they happen to be promoting. Then when that person is in office most people hate him/her in a matter of months. Obama was the biggest thing ever when he was running, and of course he still has plenty of devoted followers, but now I hear lots of negative comments from disenchanted supporters. I never hated or loved the guy, but I think the Onion News summed it up best in their headline “Black Man Given Nations Worst Job”. That gave me a kick. Not the black part, but the fact that the “leader of the free world” is basically the worst job ever. It is the best way to get the most people to hate you. Just to clarify, I by no means hate or even dislike Obama. I think he is doing what he thinks is right, and I believe he wants to accomplish all of the things he promised to accomplish.
Gladiator is one of the best movies. Russell Crowe was awesome in that role, and the whole thing was well done. In this movie Marcus Aurelius wants to make a general(Maximus) the emperor or Rome. Maximus says he does not know the politics well enough, but Marcus insists, saying that he has not been corrupted by those politics. I think this is how things normally go. There are plenty of people who go into politics with pure intentions, but in order to make it up high enough to have influence, you have to do some favors. Thus ends their innocence. Another issue, in my opinion, is that the people who want power, are usually not the kind of people you want in power.
Conclusion
So the point to this rambling is that I am sick of people talking about one economic system or another as evil. The concepts behind most of them are good, the execution is what ruins it, or the executors. Let me know your thoughts, and I will get to crackin’ on that efficiency/utility post!
What’s Happening
David Bailey, Terrance Bailey & Jeff Martin
It has been quite some time since I last posted so I thought I’d provide a recap of recent events.
I got laid off on April 27 and have been unsuccessful at finding another steady job since then. I have been teaching a guitar class, and had a gig recently. I got a lot done around the house that I would have otherwise not had time for so that’s a good deal. I have spent a lot of time working on web sites so I’ll tell you about those.
Our Reflejos Flamencos web site had a makeover and is now running wordpress. I figured this would make it a lot easier to keep it up to date as new gigs come up. July 19 we will be at the PAC with the Tulsa Guitar Society’s Guitars Gone Wild concert. Our summer classes start June 13th, and we are adding a Sevillanas dance class that is designed for couples dancing.
I started an e-commerce site for my father-in-law’s manufacturing business that has come a long way but still so far from ready to go live. It will be nice if I can get that monkey off my back soon, but I have had plenty of other things to distract me from working on it.
Such as my Grandma’s web site. She owns a realty business in Henryetta, OK and needs a new web site. She had one, but then she sold her business to Century 21, and then decided she didn’t like the way they ran things so she took it back, and her old web site is already gone, so she is having me make it for her. I just have some example text in place as I am writing this blog but I am planning to go to Henryetta and sit with her and get all the info up that she wants. It is a fun project.
The story I have that I am most excited about is what I did on Sunday afternoon. (now to preface the story) David and Judy Bailey are a married couple who recently started coming to Agora and both play in the band with me. David on guitar and Judy on cello. They are both fantastic musicians, but that isn’t what this story is about. These are some of the best people I have ever met. A couple weekends each month they go downtown in Tulsa and bring food to homeless people there and then just hang out with them. It is not uncommon for people to bring food to the homeless, but most groups that I know of don’t just hang out and get to know the homeless people. And before long we have to stop calling them homeless because these people are our friends. They have names, stories, feelings, dreams. Just like me.
I say we, but I have only joined them once which was Sunday afternoon. They go downtown with two other families who they have known for quite some time. They all decided that they were going to grill out at Newblock Park which is the closest park to the Library (which is where most of these people hang out). Lexi and I came along to help out, and the whole experience was probably better for me than it was for anyone that we fed that day.
They somehow got ahold of a big van and we went to the library with the big van, a mini fan, and me in Lexi’s CR-V. They had never tried this before so we didn’t know what to expect. We walked into the courtyard and just started inviting the people to come cook out with us and told them we could load them up in our cars and give them a ride. We went back to the park without an empty seat in any vehicle and then made two more trips after that.
I was suprised to see how polite and grateful our guests were. No one failed to ask politely for anything or say thank you. I was also suprised at how they treated one another. The first group sat down in the shade of a big tree which was also where we sat the ice chests with drinks. I wondered at first if that would cause a traffic jam as more groups arrived, but those sitting around the ice chests would call out what kind of drinks were in each chest and pass the drinks down to whoever wanted it.
I could tell you more stories and observations like that, but I think they really just point out my ignorant presumptions. What I took away from this is that they are real people and I have been blessed with too much not to help these people out. They were so grateful and thanked the group who came out to feed them repeatedly. It was just one meal but it meant something to them. I went home to my kitchen full of food and felt like a jerk afterwards. I am not saying I am going to give away all my possesions and live on the streets, but I have never really done much to help out humans who weren’t myself, and especially not people who couldn’t give me anything in return.
Lexi and I plan to join David and Judy and their friends more often. I think their plan is to go downtown and hang out every 1st & 3rd Sunday afternoon around 4:00pm. If you are interested in joining us, let me know.
Education, Immigration, and Retirement
I have a few thoughts to share today that are a little heavier than my general posts. I am going to venture into the realm of economics. I studied economics in college so my interest in the subject was destined to spill out into this blog; I just never planned on it. My economical inspiration comes from something I read in Alan Greenspan’s The Age of Turbulence. He discusses the problem of the baby boom generation’s inevitable retirement and the effects it will have on the US economy. He also poses a couple of remedies to that problem that are related to, as you may have guessed, the US education system and immigration of skilled labor. Let me first say that these problems are being overshadowed by the current recession. The foundation of the baby boom problem is the reduction in the work force due to retirement and at the moment we don’t have enough jobs to go around. I believe that the recession will force many baby boomers to work a few more years than they expected, (My 401k certainly has not done well lately) but I believe the problem will resurface in the next decade.
The baby boomers started retiring last year, and we have several years of this to come. Due to the decline in the birthrate in the US for the preceding generation, it is estimated that we will not have enough skilled laborers to replace them. The income disparity of skilled to unskilled laborers has increased over the recent years and Greenspan sees this as evidence that the demand for skilled laborers is growing faster than the supply. We are therefore not producing enough skilled laborers to even the playing field. To remedy this situation he speaks of two vital factors. The first is education.
I was amazed to read that students coming out of our public education system (high school) have worse math skills than in past decades. This may be due to the fact that those who are teaching them also have poorer math skills than in times past. All public school teachers are taught how to teach, but they are not always so educated in the actual subjects that they are teaching. We see the inverse of this problem in colleges. The professors may have an incredible understanding of their subject but have a difficult time breaking it down to a level that your average high school graduate can understand. I am speaking from experience here, and although my experience is limited, I do not think it is much of a stretch to say that both of these situations are common.
So to aid this situation we could focus on increasing the quality of education that we are giving our young people. The goal is to produce a larger proportion of educated workers. Along with supplying the demand for skilled labor and reducing the income disparity, this will create more value in the market place.
Immigration is a hot topic. In our economic struggles we definitely do not want foreigners coming in and stealing our jobs right? Well I don’t exactly hold that view, and it is fine if you disagree with me. Greenspan’s case for immigration is that by bringing in foreign skilled laborers, we will increase our domestic production capabilities, and we would rather have them do the work here and spend their money here than outsource our jobs where the money is sent out of our economy. He explains this in a lot more words (Have you seen his book? It’s huge!) so this is not the whole story. I had never thought of it this way which seems ridiculous now that I think of it. Aid a shrinking workforce by immigrating laborers. What could be simpler? I think most of the attention is given to the increasing number of retired people as opposed to the shrinking work force. If we can draw in enough workers and business, whose tax dollars will go towards social security, then we won’t have as much of a problem.
That is my take on the situation. Now lets hear what you have to say about it.