4 ms·

mind sharing the decisions you have made and followed through with?

by ux-app 10y ago

tbihl 10y ago
Not who you asked, but the two biggest questions that I ponder along this line: (1) How can I preserve some of my savings in real assets so that they won't evaporate when the bond market finally crashes and takes the dollar with it (probably a few crashes from now)? (2) Given the nature of just-in-time logistics and our complete dependence on trucks, will I be somewhere that I can limp along once oil hits a price that makes that all infeasible? Or will I be a sitting duck, waiting to die of hunger, thirst, or heat exhaustion? And (3) am I preparing myself with skills outside of work that will help me sustain myself when I have to work a little bit lower down Maslow's pyramid (first and foremost, maintaining fitness?) I don't work in programming at the moment, but my job ceases to exist if we lose our ability to have high-precision manufacturing and logistics chains spanning an entire continent.
- pjc50 10y ago
  "Be a Westerner" is quite a good place to start for all of those, nonetheless. I suspect the "decline" looks a lot like the intermittent de-industrialisation we've already been seeing. There are plenty of towns which have lost their key industry without replacement, so they're just kind of limping along. The burden of decline will fall mostly on those already at the bottom.
crpatino 10y ago
Basically... avoid indulging in a lifestyle of conspicuous consumption, be very conservative with the debt I allow myself to take on (used strategically, not just to prop-up expenses), and choose the machines I bring into my life with an eye towards energy efficiency and repairability. Careerwise, I have avoided going with the pull of migrating to our industry's big centers (the most known being Sillicon Valley), since I consider those places to be unsustainable. If I were young and single, I may have gone for a couple of years to gain a quick buck, and then get out; but I am a middle-aged father or two now, and don't think it is worth it even today to subject your family to that kind of pressure, just for the sake of being one of the cool guys. This will not save the world at all (not that it is the world that needs any saving), but hopefully puts me and my family in a less exposed position for the consequences of resource depletion.
- antisthenes 10y ago
  It's quite ironic you chose to have children, despite being so concerned for resource depletion.
  - crpatino 10y ago
    Yes, I understand that sounds odd. The keyword you probably are missing is middle-aged. I brought those guys into this world before I had any awareness on these issues. But even if that had not been the case, I think in spite of the very hard challenges ahead of us, there's much reason to go ahead and take on the future with a positive attitude. Not wishful thinking, but recognizing that there's both good and bad in this life. And the good makes it worth living, even if the bad makes it harder and more bitter. It is one thing to live your life under the assumption that your every wish is going to be magically granted, and that you are entitled to as much stuff as you want. It is another to turn all crazy and suicidal over some paranoid apocalypse fantasies. I wish more people would understand there's a lot of middle ground between those 2 extremes.

mind sharing the decisions you have made and followed through with?

by ux-app 10y ago

mind sharing the decisions you have made and followed through with?

tbihl 10y ago

Not who you asked, but the two biggest questions that I ponder along this line: (1) How can I preserve some of my savings in real assets so that they won't evaporate when the bond market finally crashes and takes the dollar with it (probably a few crashes from now)? (2) Given the nature of just-in-time logistics and our complete dependence on trucks, will I be somewhere that I can limp along once oil hits a price that makes that all infeasible? Or will I be a sitting duck, waiting to die of hunger, thirst, or heat exhaustion? And (3) am I preparing myself with skills outside of work that will help me sustain myself when I have to work a little bit lower down Maslow's pyramid (first and foremost, maintaining fitness?) I don't work in programming at the moment, but my job ceases to exist if we lose our ability to have high-precision manufacturing and logistics chains spanning an entire continent.

pjc50 10y ago
"Be a Westerner" is quite a good place to start for all of those, nonetheless. I suspect the "decline" looks a lot like the intermittent de-industrialisation we've already been seeing. There are plenty of towns which have lost their key industry without replacement, so they're just kind of limping along. The burden of decline will fall mostly on those already at the bottom.

crpatino 10y ago

Basically... avoid indulging in a lifestyle of conspicuous consumption, be very conservative with the debt I allow myself to take on (used strategically, not just to prop-up expenses), and choose the machines I bring into my life with an eye towards energy efficiency and repairability. Careerwise, I have avoided going with the pull of migrating to our industry's big centers (the most known being Sillicon Valley), since I consider those places to be unsustainable. If I were young and single, I may have gone for a couple of years to gain a quick buck, and then get out; but I am a middle-aged father or two now, and don't think it is worth it even today to subject your family to that kind of pressure, just for the sake of being one of the cool guys. This will not save the world at all (not that it is the world that needs any saving), but hopefully puts me and my family in a less exposed position for the consequences of resource depletion.

antisthenes 10y ago
It's quite ironic you chose to have children, despite being so concerned for resource depletion.
- crpatino 10y ago
  Yes, I understand that sounds odd. The keyword you probably are missing is middle-aged. I brought those guys into this world before I had any awareness on these issues. But even if that had not been the case, I think in spite of the very hard challenges ahead of us, there's much reason to go ahead and take on the future with a positive attitude. Not wishful thinking, but recognizing that there's both good and bad in this life. And the good makes it worth living, even if the bad makes it harder and more bitter. It is one thing to live your life under the assumption that your every wish is going to be magically granted, and that you are entitled to as much stuff as you want. It is another to turn all crazy and suicidal over some paranoid apocalypse fantasies. I wish more people would understand there's a lot of middle ground between those 2 extremes.