Once again about time, money, freedom, health and other resources of the individual, as well as about its two halves

In continuation of the topic: one , two , three , four .

I must say that the approach to the growing holivar “time vs. money " (or rather, to the issue of personal resources management), which I adhere to, is borrowed by me from a webinar laid out in an entry on the site datnews.ru, and the author of this site most likely borrowed it from Tim Ferris or some other guru of life management and, in principle, is a self-evident truth, which, however, for some reason, few people are able to properly assimilate and use.

In short, the approach is as follows: each of us has a set of unique resources , which in the course of our livelihoods can be converted into each other (or wasted), but the possibilities of this conversion are limited by the available resources themselves. That is, they are converted not in direct proportion or even with a fixed percentage of costs (as currencies in the exchanger), but depending on the amount available at a given time. The first and last rule: if we are sorely lacking a resource, we are forced to compensate for it by spending disproportionately large amounts of other resources. Consequently, the strategy of optimal development is to maintain a long-term balance between different types of resources, so that there is no need to “drown with banknotes”. In the short run, on the contrary, local concentration is more beneficial than balancing for the sake of balance, because the most current projects and problems do not recognize any timetables.
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Personality resources include the following: time, money, freedom, health, emotional resource ("positive") and, perhaps, some more. First of all, it is important to determine which of them are for you,% username%, the most scarce and problematic - that is, which resources are dragging themselves towards the most other resources, and to fix these holes. Most often, according to Pareto’s law, there are several of the most problematic “bottlenecks”, the elimination of which is capable of bringing the most significant result (then pedantry and / or hurism begin). In the webinar mentioned above, one of the participants started a dispute whether the information is (in this sense) a resource. Agreed on what is not, because the information can not be spent (spend). Information, however, can be a component of a certain process of reproducing personal resources (time, money, health ...), that is, an auxiliary resource — like any knowledge, skills, skills, etc. In addition to participating in the processes of reproduction of resources These “skills” can serve as indicators of personal achievements, attributes of personal development (which should not be reduced to reproduction / multiplication of resources, but should not be opposed to it, as other “romantics” do). Sufficiently developed, unique, valuable achievements can be called meanings . Artwork, scientific discovery, Olympic record, innovative startup. Classic tree, house, child (why is it necessary son?) - also. The original creative, IMHO, consists precisely in inventing new meanings and their realization. The key difference between resources and meanings is that the former are “consumable”, and the latter cannot be spent. Often used the concept of "means" and "goal" have a slightly different shade (the goal can be a means to achieve a new goal, while not every tool is a limited resource).

I mentioned above the problems that a shortage of any resource can bring, but what happens if it is abundant? First of all, it should be noted that by definition there cannot be an excess of resources; the excess of any resource over the rest should be considered as a shortage of all others and it is on them that attention should be focused. In some cases, this can be quite a challenge; There are well-known examples of lottery winnings that have not benefited their owners, or cases of sharp degradation of the individual upon retirement. Something similar in his time one SEOshnik called the "gold-shell period" .

Let us now talk about specific resources and strategies that should be followed with their perceived deficit, adequate quantity or quantity substantially exceeding current needs.

1. Money. “When there is no money” - you don’t know what, as Cord said. This situation is familiar to almost everyone; the main thing here is to invest the available alternative resources so that the turnover of the first one increases, and in the course of time knowledge, experience and other levers are generated. And the meanings too. Access to knowledge is the first step to out of poverty and not only financial, which many of us, unfortunately, forget. A similar strategy is applicable in a situation where the first resource is enough (unless the meanings require more, they allow you not to lose the drive, save the resource “positive” and others like it). The most difficult thing is when money suddenly becomes more at times. In order for this money to be used for its intended purpose, a well-thought-out strategy of their investment is needed, which few can boast. Otherwise, the excess of money over other resources may work against personal development, stab in the back. I speak out extremely: if you do not have a plan where to invest a billion dollars, you risk getting it under your breath and suffocating.

2. Time. The key point here is that everyone has an equal amount of time - like a homeless person and a BG. This refers to the current time spent on routine business and short-term projects. (Some also include in this category the general life time and its alleged qualitative properties (age), but this approach, which I will further discuss, is fraught with a very long joint, unfortunately, common in our society. Obviously duration and quality of life rely mainly on the resource “health”, see below.) The current (regular) time is a sequence of nested cycles of different levels: 1) the natural cycle (day); 2) social (week); 3) then comes another well-known cycle, which is natural for the female, and more social for those who closely interact with the female sex :); and finally 4) another natural cycle (year). Cyclic distribution causes differences in conversion capabilities between the resource “time” and other resources and in the cost of such conversion. Again, the following rule applies: a short-term imbalance is a blessing if it is aimed at securing a long-term balance; long-term imbalance is evil.

Based on the fact that a sign of an optimal approach to a “time” resource is a significant increase in time cost in other resources (which requires the formation of skills and other auxiliary levers) while simultaneously moving the focus from simply reproducing resources to creating meanings , mentioned at the beginning of the four habraposts.

The first post ( "100 dollars per hour" ). The author brought the cost of his resource “time” to this figure clearly not immediately, but as a result of the planned implementation of a strategy. The author understands the importance of balance and stresses that he is not a supporter of total monetization to the detriment of non-monetary resources and meanings. In general, the author’s strategy can be defined as optimal (most likely he has plans or plans are being made on how to increase the cost of an hour to $ 200, again not at the expense of the rest of his life).

The second post ( “What time is money?” ) Is an attempt to criticize the strategy of the first author, directed, however, into emptiness. Most likely, the second author read the first post briefly, without reading into details. Otherwise, he would have understood that the first author does not preach any total monetization. It is about the most efficient use of the time allocated for conversion into money.

The third post ( "My time is priceless" ) is a story about the use of free time in an emotional style. It is difficult to understand from it at what level the price of working time is the author today and at what he will enter tomorrow, but on the whole it seems to be a balanced approach that has been implemented for a long time and successfully in order not to have to sell additional time at the price of the buyer. Here, only long-term sustainability of a strategy with especially large risks may be of concern (if the pace of development is too slow; in order to understand whether this is so, you need to know the context).

The fourth post ( “On time and money” ) emphasizes the importance of intensive investment of resources (including free time) with an eye to the future. It is just about how to ensure growth, development, so that tomorrow there will be more free time and it could be spent less on work. Franklin did not mention thermodynamics and did not quote the ancient principle “Non progredi est regredi”, but I will do it. There is no alternative to the “invest ruble today to get two tomorrow” approach. Refusal to invest (absolute inertia) leads to literally death, which is confirmed by examples not only of individuals, but also of entire societies. Entropy, however. Development is the key not only to development itself, but also to survival in general. And stop searching for excuses of the so-called civilization character, either you move the world forward, or you consume the efforts of those who do it instead of you. No one is doomed to loathing simply because he was born "not there" or "not so." All of us are really lucky to have at least the fact that we live on Earth in 2010 (and we have good chances to get into 2100 and 2200 and expand our habitat, which we should write about separately, for now I’ll just say a few key words "transhumanism", " cosmism "," singularity ") . Road going by walking.

We turn to the rest of the resources. 3. Freedom. This resource is difficult to measure, which has two aspects: objective and subjective. The objective need for freedom is the need for a flexible response “on the move” to changing external circumstances. From her absence may suffer the most effective, but at the same time rigidly prescribed plan. The subjective aspect of the resource “freedom” is in its relationship with other resources: if a plan makes a person a slave, it can not only objectively burn out, it also undermines the rest of the person’s resources, throwing him back. Such phenomena as career crises and downshifting are a direct result of ignoring the need for freedom in corporate conditions. However, I personally find it difficult to call the downshifters approach an element of the optimal development strategy after a suboptimal career fever. Rather, it is a reaction, a necessary measure in response to the exhaustion of the resource "freedom." The best way is not to fall into these traps. Although, maybe, in the future, the most promising activities will be carried out in the “race for a long distance + long rest” mode, which, given the increase in life expectancy, will not be considered such a meaningless loss of time as it looks now for people with career and lifestyle goals. default.

4. Health. The paradox of this resource is that despite its key importance for the productive use of all other resources and for life itself in general, few people give it due attention. The reason is again in the habit of behavior by default, starting from the surrounding society and from the experience of the past. A person who does not lead a particularly healthy lifestyle does so most likely for two reasons: 1) “because everyone is doing it”; 2) "because I did this before." The situation is aggravated by the fact that if such a person decides to embark on a healthy path, he will immediately be confronted with a disability — both personal financial (temporary, etc.) and the current successes of mankind in strengthening the state of an already worn out organism; as well as, because of the exit from the “comfort zone”, with emotional inconveniences. To overcome all these thorns and get to the "stars", to put it mildly, it is difficult.

Nevertheless, I have reasons for optimism in view of the fact that humanity, albeit with a creak, is increasing the pace of medical advances and it is already coming, among other things, about the prospects of increasing the maximum life expectancy and unprecedented improvement of its quality (rejuvenation, regeneration of organs and more fantastic perspectives), and this topic gets more and more attention. Awareness of the reality of these prospects in itself can become a motivating factor, and an understanding of the need to invest in order to increase your chance to live to see their realization and accessibility - encourages you to take special actions to strengthen your own health resource. (I personally know more than one person who has penetrated a healthy lifespan after reading the books of Yu. A. Nikitin and / or some futurological forecasts.) Allowing this resource to take its course is all the more dangerous. “Investing in health”, “health management” is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. Improving lifestyle also contributes to the spread of new forms of employment and career, when the traditional Friday drinking parties are supplanted by more sensible ways of hanging out for purely material reasons.

5. Emotional resource (“positive”, “energy”, “drive”, etc.). On the one hand, this resource is simple, on the other it is complex, and moreover it is very individual. I can only say that it is not enough just to reach a positive emotional state, to motivate yourself with “candy.” It is also necessary to ensure that it lasts a long time and does not require frequent recharging by dubious and costly methods. Sustainability can be promoted by a balanced management of the entire set of personal resources, in which the process of their conversion, reproduction and “pumping” is accompanied by the creation of diverse and relevant meanings and all kinds of subjective high-level sensations that are hard to describe. More, in principle, nothing to say. Need to act.

These are the main resources of my personality. I would not be surprised if I see additions to this list in the comments. It is not complete and exhaustive, the principle is important here: there are unique resources that are not reducible to one another, they should be allocated and learned to manage them. It may be worth highlighting a resource such as attention, or some resources related to society, with the proximity of communication.

Finally a couple of words about the opposition that I noticed between some of the above posts, written essentially about the same thing in different “languages”. Every healthy person has two hemispheres of the brain and two halves of the personality - roughly speaking, rational and emotional. And it often happens that one of these halves begins to oppress the other, which leads to all sorts of unpleasant things. In particular, this may be expressed in a negative reaction to the text written in the style of the other half, or to its methods of behavior. Here and in this case, there is a dissatisfaction of one of the authors with the allegedly “wrong” approach of the other, although in reality it is just a reaction to an unusual form of expression of thoughts. For example, I am rather a rationalist. I enjoy the process itself, for example, knowing through the formula “why the sky is blue”. But once I met a man who spoke about this formula in a completely different way: that, after studying it, he stopped rejoicing at the blue sky as before. Or someone out there almost chokes on beer because it recalls that it consists of% atoms (. Something similar happened here. One habraiser saw that the other was measuring time, and immediately hurried to read the moral, why so it is impossible to do and how to relate to time. The third habrauzer answered it with its own, radically different approach, supported by a historical quote. Whose approach is more correct?

A truly productive way is to take advantage of the “alternative way of thinking” instead of trying to suppress it. I. However, I will not sing the praises of total relativism, absolute tolerance and other symptoms of postmodernism of the brain. It is very important to distinguish where the constructive activity of the “other side” ends and the encroachment on your territory begins, and to warn it. First of all, productive interaction is necessary to establish between the contents of your own skull. As with the resources, the weak points of the weak link here are able to negate the advantages of the strong - there is cognophobia, there is an emotional burnout. By the way, successful hackers, as well as representatives of a number of other interesting professions and people with extraordinary abilities in general, according to some data, have particularly developed the connections between the two hemispheres of the brain and between its various departments. They, apparently, determine the ability to use the way of thinking that best suits the situation, instead of a little constructive struggle for dominance. Some half in a particular case still turns out to be more developed than the other, but at the same time learns to interact with the other half and thereby stimulate its development.

So, gentlemen and ladies of an emotional mindset, if reading this text, like the above posts 1 and 4, causes you internal irritation, think better about why, and try to make contact with your internal “analytical machine” aka left hemisphere, which supposedly deprives you of the joys of life. Today they write a lot about the importance of right-thinking thinking, about the role of creative approach in the economy. Such articles and books are mainly aimed at managers, analysts and other “left-hemispheric” decision makers. I want to emphasize the importance of mutual understanding on the other hand, which is not so often spoken about today. We have the opportunity today to exchange these messages due to the fact that once some wonderful people showed sufficient perseverance, and others - creative insight,over the years we have verified the formulas and conducted hundreds of experiments, like Edison, others have writtenhundreds of papers looking for the “right” design touches, and some were doing a little bit of that. Agree, it is foolish to sort things out, as in a kindergarten, which configuration of the sexual thinking organs is definitely better. Today, in an age of increasing possibilities, the benefits of those and other approaches are available to each of us, in a combination of which (in all their variations) are buried the most delicious innovations and the largest deposits of diverse positive. For this, as the left hemisphere Onotole says, thank you for your attention, bye.