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Yes, but I don’t do these just for productivity - Delete ALL social media. I just have hackernews. No Facebook, no reddit, Insta, Snapchat, TikTok etc - Get r

Yes, but I don’t do these just for productivity - Delete ALL social media. I just have hackernews. No Facebook, no reddit, Insta, Snapchat, TikTok etc - Get rid of TV - Get a dumb phone (don’t have it now but did at one point) - Make a budget, track incoming income and all expenses. This allows you to ask the question, what is the goal/desire of my productivity? So with all that, I’m pretty productive

muzani 2y ago
I found budgeting really unproductive and ended up costing more money ("I need to use up my gaming budget! I need a big enough monthly budget to cover the next sale!"). Taking from systems design, monitor stocks, not flows. Make several bank accounts (digital banks are good for this), watch how much money is in those accounts, and whether they're going up and down. It's more suited for the human brain. If the numbers are moving in an unexpected way, then you can check each one.
- antwerp1 2y ago
  Can you elaborate on the second point? Sounds like an interesting dynamic but I don’t understand..
  - muzani 2y ago
    Oh, I assumed most people were familiar with systems theory. It's one of the more useful math stuff to pick up. I strongly recommend reading Thinking in Systems if you haven't. Flows are movement. Money in, money out. Heating. Leakage of heat. Turning on the water tap. Draining water. Mining oil. Selling oil. Stocks are how much is there. Money in the bank. Debt unpaid. Temperature of the room. Water in the bathtub. For some reason, we like to measure flow even though it doesn't help much and it's actually the hardest to measure. You can't measure economic health by taxes paid, and it's hard to estimate whether a room will be warm based on how hot the heater is. Stocks are easiest to measure. And they're effective too. Most flows are based on stock. If you took a historical count of stocks or flows and tried to model the future, flows are not good because they don't take into account structural changes. You may have a steady expense and income and suddenly it changes - maybe you're on the brink of divorce, maybe you're moving to a new city. People are likely to worry about how much the new rent is but don't account much for how much new income they make from the move. Or vice versa - they underestimate new expenses and overestimate new income. Flows are good at predicting near term, bad at long term, and terrible at figuring out a solution. More likely, it's based on other stocks - you spend more when at certain health levels, or based on the amount of money in a bank account, or perhaps your perception of the economic climate. If I have a windfall, I pay debts until my balance is a certain number. Or I buy meals for friends and family. Or give to charity, etc. If things are tight, I don't spend, even though most of the time not spending means I have more to spend. It's based on some other stock, like how many people are on Slack, indicating how likely I am to lose my job or get a promotion. So the easiest way to monitor is by having a bunch of different money stock (bank accounts) and monitor whether they're going up or down.
- purple-leafy 2y ago
  It works well for me. We’re very frugal, so we know how much we usually spend and set a fixed limit per expense +- a small amount. That’s it. We review every time an expense or income changes, so usually monthly. We have multiple accounts (food+fuel, bills, apartment, fun money) and we put the exact same amounts into each account each week. Anything left at the end of the week gets moved to overflow accounts (food+fuel overflow, bills overflow, apartment overflow, etc) and anything in overflow accounts at the end of each month gets moved into savings as bonus savings. We have 4 savings accounts. Short term, mid term, long term, retirement. We always put the same amount into these each week. And then as our expenses decrease, or incomes increase, we just put a higher percentage into savings. It works pretty well, we are the only couple I know who could purchase a home at our age in this environment in one of the most expensive cities in the world. I earn about 115% more than average worker, but my partner earns about 80% of the average worker. Our situation and savings and spending discipline has allowed us both to drop 1 full day a week of employment. We have only been out of university for 4 years

muzani 2y ago

I found budgeting really unproductive and ended up costing more money ("I need to use up my gaming budget! I need a big enough monthly budget to cover the next sale!"). Taking from systems design, monitor stocks, not flows. Make several bank accounts (digital banks are good for this), watch how much money is in those accounts, and whether they're going up and down. It's more suited for the human brain. If the numbers are moving in an unexpected way, then you can check each one.

antwerp1 2y ago
Can you elaborate on the second point? Sounds like an interesting dynamic but I don’t understand..
- muzani 2y ago
  Oh, I assumed most people were familiar with systems theory. It's one of the more useful math stuff to pick up. I strongly recommend reading Thinking in Systems if you haven't. Flows are movement. Money in, money out. Heating. Leakage of heat. Turning on the water tap. Draining water. Mining oil. Selling oil. Stocks are how much is there. Money in the bank. Debt unpaid. Temperature of the room. Water in the bathtub. For some reason, we like to measure flow even though it doesn't help much and it's actually the hardest to measure. You can't measure economic health by taxes paid, and it's hard to estimate whether a room will be warm based on how hot the heater is. Stocks are easiest to measure. And they're effective too. Most flows are based on stock. If you took a historical count of stocks or flows and tried to model the future, flows are not good because they don't take into account structural changes. You may have a steady expense and income and suddenly it changes - maybe you're on the brink of divorce, maybe you're moving to a new city. People are likely to worry about how much the new rent is but don't account much for how much new income they make from the move. Or vice versa - they underestimate new expenses and overestimate new income. Flows are good at predicting near term, bad at long term, and terrible at figuring out a solution. More likely, it's based on other stocks - you spend more when at certain health levels, or based on the amount of money in a bank account, or perhaps your perception of the economic climate. If I have a windfall, I pay debts until my balance is a certain number. Or I buy meals for friends and family. Or give to charity, etc. If things are tight, I don't spend, even though most of the time not spending means I have more to spend. It's based on some other stock, like how many people are on Slack, indicating how likely I am to lose my job or get a promotion. So the easiest way to monitor is by having a bunch of different money stock (bank accounts) and monitor whether they're going up or down.
purple-leafy 2y ago
It works well for me. We’re very frugal, so we know how much we usually spend and set a fixed limit per expense +- a small amount. That’s it. We review every time an expense or income changes, so usually monthly. We have multiple accounts (food+fuel, bills, apartment, fun money) and we put the exact same amounts into each account each week. Anything left at the end of the week gets moved to overflow accounts (food+fuel overflow, bills overflow, apartment overflow, etc) and anything in overflow accounts at the end of each month gets moved into savings as bonus savings. We have 4 savings accounts. Short term, mid term, long term, retirement. We always put the same amount into these each week. And then as our expenses decrease, or incomes increase, we just put a higher percentage into savings. It works pretty well, we are the only couple I know who could purchase a home at our age in this environment in one of the most expensive cities in the world. I earn about 115% more than average worker, but my partner earns about 80% of the average worker. Our situation and savings and spending discipline has allowed us both to drop 1 full day a week of employment. We have only been out of university for 4 years