Podcast Episode 21: The Most Ancient Game Still Played

The game was invented in China more than 2,500 years ago and is believed to be the oldest board game continuously played to the present day.

Go was considered one of the four essential arts of the cultured aristocratic

-Instrument

-Go

-Calligraphy

-Painting

Rule 1 (the rule of liberty) states that every stone remaining on the board must have at least one open "point" (an intersection, called a "liberty") directly orthogonally adjacent (up, down, left, or right), or must be part of a connected group that has at least one such open point ("liberty") next to it. Stones or groups of stones which lose their last liberty are removed from the board.
Rule 2 (the "ko rule") states that the stones on the board must never repeat a previous position of stones. Moves which would do so are forbidden, and thus only moves elsewhere on the board are permitted that turn.

Backgammon is a "man vs. fate" contest, with chance playing a strong role in determining the outcome. Chess, with rows of soldiers marching forward to capture each other, embodies the conflict of "man vs. man". Because the handicap system tells Go players where they stand relative to other players, an honestly ranked player can expect to lose about half of their games; therefore, Go can be seen as embodying the quest for self-improvement, "man vs. self".

http://online-go.com/

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.zenandroid.onlinego&hl=en_US

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PTXdR8hLlQ

Podcast Episode 20: Retirement or Financial Freedom

The cultural norm is currently that we work until 65 and then retire. This is looked at as everyone’s dream, work hard your whole life so that you can retire at 65 and just relax the rest of your life.

Is this really what we want and for that matter, is it what actually happens?

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/more-people-are-returning-to-work-after-retiringand-theyre-happy-about-it-2020-01-31

Many people are returning to work after “retiring” sometimes several times.

So if the holy grail is that we can give up working at 65 then why do so many people continue working long past that?

I believe that we all want to find meaning in our lives. Working is a way that we help others and contribute to the world. If this is true, why would we ever want to stop?

I think the reason the idea of retirement is so appealing is because when we “retire” it means that we no longer have to work, any working we do after that is a choice.

Once we don’t feel like we have to work, any work we do is much more enjoyable and fulfilling.

So why do we need to wait until 65 to get to this point?

We don’t!

Let’s change our mindset, instead of focusing on retiring sometime in the future, what if we focused on becoming financially independent as soon as possible.

What is financial independence? I define it as when you have enough money, or passive income, that if you decided that you didn’t want to work tomorrow, you wouldn’t be stressed about it, at least not from a financial perspective. 

Maybe this means that you could start working part time at your current job and still have enough money to get by for a year while you worked on a side-business you’ve always wanted to do.

Maybe it means that you can take a lower paying job that gives you more meaning and still be able to support your family.

Maybe it means you can simply work for non-profits the rest of your life with no pay.

Maybe it's just taking a year off from your current employment

The point is that you are free! If you don’t want to go to work you don’t have to! You only work when and on what you want to!

It might take you until your 65 to get to that point but it also might only take you until you’re 30 or anywhere in between. 

So how do you become financially independent? Good question!

I’m not anywhere close right now but it is my goal to get there as soon as possible.

A few tips I’ve heard from people who are financially independent:

Start saving... a lot! Many people start saving as much as 50% or more of their income. Just think, if you saved 50% of your income, you would technically only need to work half the year!

If you save 50% for 5 years think of how much money you would have!

Invest wisely, investing is a great way to increase your savings at a faster rate, but remember that if you aren’t getting good advice and really researching and learning about investments you could very easily lose a lot of money. 

You will probably lose money on many of your investments but you want to learn from your mistakes and get better over time.

Either increase your income or decrease your spending or both! This allows you to save and invest even more.

Podcast Episode 19: Organizing

Leave some feedback or ask a question

A place for every thing and everything in its place -Benjamin Franklin

Start big picture. Instead of finding a specific place for everything find a home for categories of things. Food in the pantry, dishes in this cupboard, pots and pans in this one.

Once you have the basic areas for things you can start to organize each area more specifically. Canned goods here, fresh stuff there, etc

No point in starting with the specifics when often you end up changing it all around anyway.

When organizing an area, make sure that you only get out enough stuff that you will have enough time to put it all away.

Ask yourself if it’s worth finding a place for the thing/storing it. If not, decide if you want to sell it, recycle it, give it away, or throw it away

Have a place for homeless items

Pick one area and anything that is not in its home:

If it has a home, put it there
If it doesn’t then if you can think of one in less than 30 seconds then do that and follow step 1
If you can’t think of a place right away, put it in the homeless area.

Homes:

Make it easy to put away. If you want something, you will take the time to get it but if it’s hard to put away then you often just stick it somewhere

If you’re not sure where something should go, ask yourself “if I needed this, where would be the first place I would look?” Usually this is a good indicator of where it’s home should be.

The more frequently you use something the more convenient it should be to get it out. If you only need something a few times a year, you can put it in an inconvenient spot but if you use something every day it should be easy to get to.

If you use things together, think about putting them close by

Podcast Episode 18: Gum Chucks! The Best Way to Floss! (No Really)

Leave some feedback or ask a question

https://gumchucks.com/

“According to the American Dental Association, you should floss at least once a day in order to maintain optimal oral health and prevent gum disease. If your gums are really healthy, flossing every other day or 3-4 times per week is fine. If you ever see any blood on your floss, just increase your frequency of flossing until any bleeding stops.”

https://www.brigliadentalgroup.com/blog/oral-hygiene/how-often-should-you-floss-your-teeth/