On Personal Responsibility, Part 3
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2023-09-07 07:00 by Karl Denninger
in Other Voices , 166 references Ignore this thread
On Personal Responsibility, Part 3
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Ok, I tried it.  Got on the boat, started the engine (not sure if this is actually required), grabbed a cold one, still tied up and kicked back in the captain's chair.  Damn if the fish didn't flop over the transom, right there!  Thanks Ish!  -- Ed

 

Half the people who got the clot shot produce spike proteins long term.  

It bears repeating:  The spike protein itself is pathogenic.  Half the people who took the shot are constantly poisoning themselves.

I ran errands around the metro area recently.  The traffic on the other side of the highway was crawling along.  This particular road is a parking lot every weekday from about 2:30 until 6:00. 

That statement also bears repeating: Every day enough people have amnesia that they create a roadblock.

Roughly one third of those people waiting to push the pedal on the right are ticking time bombs.  Because of the widespread jab uptake, every single one of them worries about someone important to them rolling a one. 

Willful amnesiacs consider their lives and those who love them useless.  If they valued their most precious asset, time, they would not be parked on the highway waiting to get home.  To reiterate, this is local traffic.  Their actions say this is just the way life is, can’t change it.

Time management is the second most important personal responsibility every adult has. (The first is removing toxic people and situations from their life.)

There’s a lot to be said on time.  Living in the moment, the past, or the future are all different ways of experiencing time.  Most of us are a mix of the three, because people are capable of self reflection.  These perceptions are appropriate in the right circumstances.  

Living in the moment savors each second as it appears.  There isn’t much anticipation of the future, nor regretting the sand already slipped through the hourglass. 

Others are so caught up in a glorious future they miss the present and never learn from mistakes and triumphs of the past.  One more change, another step, and they will arrive at the horizon.  Just one more.

A sad situation is concentrating on the past without applying any of its lessons to the present or future. Such ruminations are for the end of life, not while there are still miles before sleep.  And none of those miles should be spent stuck in traffic, either literally or figuratively.

We can mentally relive moments, anticipate, or let them flow through us.  However we do this, we need others to make the most of our finite lives.  Drag your depressed friend out of their endless failure reel and into a more fun future.  Remind the horizon friend that the here and now is golden.  Reign in the YOLO before consequences catch up to them.

Another aspect of time is marking its passage.  There are two ways:  constant improvement, or advancing towards a goal.  They sound like the same thing, but there are major differences in their execution.  A succinct way to put this is “progress” versus “outcome.” 

Progress people desire constant improvement.  The journey is the important part, more so than the goal. Time isn’t wasted as long as there is progress.  A goal may be unclear, or never met, they don’t care as long as things change for the better.

Goal people are fixated on, you guessed it, a goal.  They take concrete steps towards it, but the end is more important than the journey.  As long as they accomplish smaller milestones towards a larger goal, their time is not wasted.

There are a few people out there who embody extreme versions of these behaviors. They drive each other nuts.  Goal oriented people feel like the progress people create chaos for no reason.  Progress people don’t like being around stick-in-the-mud outcome people when nothing changes.

Neither approach is wrong or right, they are just different ways of looking at the same concept:  how to evaluate spent time.  Our lives are a series of seconds, events, and touchstones.  Whichever one of these two people you are, learn to appreciate and value the other.  Progress people improve the world for everybody, and goal people provide stability.

Back to the story of how I spent part of a day.  On my way home from errands when I had to go in the other direction, the one in which the highway was a parking lot, I chose to take the frontage road instead.  At 45 miles an hour, I zipped past those who didn’t value life.

Is it any wonder there’s no uprising?  None of these people thought it was worth taking an alternate route.  They would rather waste a resource more precious than gold. We spend currency, but we also spend time.   What does that tell you about their priorities?  About how they view responsibility?

There simply aren’t enough of us willing to prudently allocate our most finite currency.  Of course there is no general strike!  It’s a more fundamental problem than not having the money to take a few weeks off of work, and possible long-term unemployment.  It’s that their own mortality, and therefore the lives of others, are unimportant.

Everyone who knows local traffic patterns made that decision.  How many of them choose it every day? Those who could work from home and avoid the humiliating commute made the choice to park their kid in daycare for an extra hour a day, or gave up their dreams of having a family because they lacked the strength to spend time with them.  How many home-cooked meals and hugs are lost in traffic?  Actions say the next generation is not worth it.

Is your own life important?  Wasting time says it’s not.  We can’t win against clown world without time management and surrounding ourselves with a complementary tribe.  

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Htp 33 posts, incept 2023-08-10
2023-09-07 08:56:46

You're running a homerun streak. My wife is the most goal-oriented, programmatic human being I've known. She even manages to program her sleep while on client projects for several days at a time. I'm nearly as reliable except when left to my own devices with no immediate client demands I stray and forfeit otherwise productive time. Especially when I engage the creative side, I need my down time spent in non-cerebral activity -- right now I'm up home-canning my own giardinaras instead of writing peer-reviewed IP guides. Everybody in our community should consider this article.
Cmoledor 2k posts, incept 2021-04-13
2023-09-07 08:56:46

Well done Ishmael. Time is the treasure. Somebody should play Pink Floyd time while pondering these words.

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The whole world is one big fucking scam
Full throttle till the end. Ocdawg
Take the stick you tried to beat me with and go fuck your own face. Ishmael
Ocdawg 495 posts, incept 2019-03-14
2023-09-07 08:56:46

Time management has and always will be my #1 priority

As most know, I've been an athlete my entire life. 2 months ago, got knocked on my ass by a massive infection. Wound up in hospital for 6 days. Only here by grace of God.

Not responding to this like expected. I think Docs are clueless since they don't know how I got it. Destroyed my hip joint. Just walking is a challenge right now. Will need new hip. I'm beyond grateful and lucky to be here. Will life get back to "normal"? Beginning to wonder and we shall see... I am an optimistic.

Bottom line- enjoy EVERY moment. Don't kid yourself that only a life-altering event can change things. TPTB are doing that every moment. They want total control. Take Ishmael's advice... the path less traveled. Enjoy the sunset. Call an old friend. Go sit by a lake or just take a moment... it's EASY to waste time. Appreciate life for a moment.

Said it before... live life full throttle til the end... because the end just might be today...

Dawg

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The quest for the Three-peat begins...
GO DAWGS!!! SIC 'EM! WOOF! WOOF!! WOOF!!!

smileysmileysmiley
Quantum 947 posts, incept 2021-05-18
2023-09-07 08:56:46

People caught in rush hour might still be optimizing, although in Ishmael's particular case, the availability of a faster alternate does suggest a lack of initiative.

More generally, some can't flex their time. I usually can, but there are times I have to drive home under less than ideal conditions. But even then, leaving when work ends beats staying even later until the afternoon rush finally fades (in Atlanta, that can be before or after 7 pm).

It's true, though, that surrounding onesself with sloths who are not working to better themselves is likely to drag a person down.

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Our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this great multitude that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you. --2 Chron. 20:12
Russell 19 posts, incept 2022-02-27
2023-09-07 09:20:37

Every day I tell myself I am winning due to being a Pureblood. The stress gauge on the Garmin watch helps keep me in check to not waste time.
Dji 1k posts, incept 2009-04-21
2023-09-07 09:20:43

Excellent ticker.

released in 1984......crank it up.

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Don't be a bag holder-Me

What goes up Must come Down- Alan Parsons Project
Indianarube 1k posts, incept 2020-03-22
2023-09-07 10:23:30

"These are the good old days."
Augeries 419 posts, incept 2019-09-26
2023-09-07 12:15:30

I for one would rather spend 2 hours on a moving commute than 1 hour in traffic.
I can entertain myself with my thoughts if I can zone out on an open highway, gridlock just makes me upset.

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The World is Quiet Here.
Vernonb 3k posts, incept 2009-06-03
2023-09-07 13:23:33

Yeah. I see a situation developing I do my best to take an alternative route. It's not so much the time as the aggravation and the accelerated risk of dying needlessly in such situations. You can't get more time if you are dead.

Being a scientist the goal is important but that journey encompasses a wealth of knowledge gained. Sometimes the goal is later realized to be unachievable in current circumstances but we learned enough in new knowledge to have made the journey and new products from that knowledge profitable and worthwhile.

I think it all the failed experiments in my life that granted knowledge. I once figured out how to condensed a 30 day production synthesis cycle for another process into 30 minutes from an experiment gone catastrophically awry.

The goal should be to remain adaptable.Soak in that knowledge and enjoy life. Those that pursue one over the other either lose sight of the true brass ring or view each day as a miserable failure of their own making.

Rigid goals can be soul destroying. Never ignore the value of what you currently have over some elusive future promise.


Stay healthy and versatile everyone.

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"Mass intelligence does not mean intelligent masses."
Ostriches 320 posts, incept 2009-10-28
2023-09-07 13:23:42

How much of our time and labor is spent making other men rich or paying taxes?

Of course things vary, but my cocktail napkin math suggests at least 75% of most people's occupational labor goes to someone else or is taxed away - it should not be this way.
Unwashed 113 posts, incept 2023-06-23
2023-09-07 13:47:32

Since time is a man made concept, I guess it needs to be managed. But in reality there's no such thing as Past, Present and Future, only that things change, "Einstein". As with money is a measurement of wealth, time is also a measurement of? There I go again, confusing myself smiley

Raven 15k posts, incept 2017-06-27
2023-09-07 13:47:39

Another part of time management is evaluating whether specific people are a waste of time. From this can also and should come an accounting of whether specific situations are a waste of time due to specific people or the nature of the activity.

Ask yourself when doing something what you are getting out of it other than it being habit.

Lots of things suddenly become worthless and unnecessary even though mere days before they were a regular part of life.

Put everything on the table, everything.

In terms of successful people in many aspects of life we are always doing this, although we often get caught a few times or have something to zone out. It should get to a level of what you drink every morning. Even if the answer is that you like it, one will consider if it is the best use of time, money or even as good as it can be within those parameters.

One will find out how much stuff, activities and how few people he really needs.

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Mission Complete

The truth is just too powerful to know. Those who hold the truth suffer more than those who believe the lie. -The Hall of Tears
Nadavegan 862 posts, incept 2017-05-03
2023-09-07 14:15:49

My family has a rule: never wait in line. If you have to wait in a line, wait in the shortest one. If there is no short line, figure out how to get what you want elsewhere, or change your priorities.

We would inculcate this in our children, for example, when we'd go to an amusement park. Go on a weekday. When you arrive, do not set your heart on the first ride. Find the short lines, ride those, and look for a chance for the big lines on the fancy rides to get shorter, ie mid afternoon when everyone else is tired, or at lunch, and then eat at the off time.

Not sure how much it stuck to my children. It did make them resourceful though. They amongst all their peers are the ones constantly assessing situations others would simply take for granted. They may not have inherited my urgency, but I know they both got a healthy dose of resourcefulness.

Sometimes, you simply must have what you must have, and there are no other options. Then, you have to understand fully the price you must pay, ie time, and embrace the suck without complaining. Like the time I had to go into a government building during covid to renew my CCW. Much suck was embraced that day.

I also taught my children to do math: when my wife would get at me for driving too fast, usually saying something like "what is your hurry, it only saves you 5 minutes". Well, 5 minutes on each side of my daily commute is 50 minutes per week, 50 weeks per year, for 40 years is 70 days! Who among us, at the end of life, if offered 70 more days to be with loved ones or enjoy ourselves, would not want 70 extra days! "Honey, I am not speeding, I am enjoying life to the fullest, and by the way those extra days apply to you too, so I would appreciate a little gratitude!" The point is, so many things suck away at our time, and even the smallest amount saved or protected compounds to be immensely valuable.
Leber 131 posts, incept 2021-11-27
2023-09-07 14:21:30

My experience is that you lose >90% of the crowd of people complaining as soon as you propose to do something about it, even if it is as innocuous as signing a petition for local government to fix the broken up sidewalk within a reasonable time period.
Mannfm11 8k posts, incept 2009-02-28
2023-09-07 16:55:43

You are mentioning my daily redass. The service road? When they did Central Expressway thru Richardson, they had the insight to put the entries over the overpasses between entrance and exit, meaning you could skip the lights by using the ex[ressway and be right back on the service road. In heavy traffic, quite often cause by accidents, you can use them for a 5th lane. Quite often 2 lanes are taken by accident and the extra lane represents a 50% increase in volume. It has been like that for 35 years.

Then there are the traffic lights. Why the city officials don't operate these lights to save time, I don't know. I think evil things to do to them. There is a main drag here, where at around 7 PM the left turn light from green to red is 10 seconds. Half the people's pull their head out time is 15 seconds, at which they are running yellow. Then there are the side street lights, which should be flashing red after 10 PM and used to be. Now, left turn one side left turn the other side and green. It costs time, gasoline and wear and rear to stop. I'm what you call an agressive driver where I can get away with it and can generally read lights.

Then there is the general topic, people knowing where they are going. This spans a wide range of topics on the road. I once saw a woman turn her car around in the opposite direction on a busy serice road because she missed her turn in to the mall. Going to the next turn in was out of the question. People claim the right to disrupt traffic as our penatly for driving with their head up their asses. One of the things I focus on is being in the proper lane. Not that I don't make mistakes. Only when I have my head in my ass, which might be 1% of the time or 3 or 4 times a year, max. Being in the proper lane keeps traffic flowing.

There are simple things people fail to comprehend. You don't get on a 60 or 70 MPH highway going 40 MPH, yet I see it constantly. In an urban area, a couple of fools can stop traffic in a matter of a minute doing that. They have done studies on a person hitting the brakes and triggering the chain of several cars doing so. There seems to be a delusion you can pass the cars ahead, if you stay close and react. But once cars group up it takes 1 or 2 idiots to stop the entire line. Pacing trafic is a skill. Being in the proper lane when the time comes is just common sense. People don't seem to comprehend there are times on the road where the only way to speed up is to slow down.

https://www.brighteon.com/cb16d3c0-cc0d-....

Ed Dowd on jab injuries. They are huge

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The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.---John Kenneth Galbraith
Tritumi 2k posts, incept 2008-11-29
2023-09-07 19:07:45

Since 1979 I have structured my life to walk to work except for three years with a 20 minute subway ride.

Time is a question of attention or awareness.

Great essay, thanks.
Smokeyblonde13 369 posts, incept 2021-10-29
2023-09-07 22:56:59

I will spend 30 or more hours figuring out how to save 30 minutes a month on a task. But that that 30 minutes per month has no end date, and I often learn things that save 30 minutes a month for a multitude of other tasks. And I can recommend system enhancements to save even more time.

Once I failed in a "goal" for more than 3 years, but I learned a ton in the process to streamline other things. And then, finally, had an epiphany from all I had learned worked AND didn't and finally achieved the goal.

I always have a goal, even if it's to assuage my curiosity, but I enjoy the journey more and try to learn as much as I can from it.

Tsherry 13k posts, incept 2008-12-09
2023-09-08 07:43:23

If I'm stopped at a light, and either the right turn or straight ahead will get me there about the same time, I will always take the right turn on red.

Wife and kids couldn't figure it out for awhile, but it finally clicked.

Progress is sometimes sideways, but it's still progress.

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Stop trying to sit at the tables that Jesus would flip over.
Raven 15k posts, incept 2017-06-27
2023-09-08 07:43:32

I prefer systems over goals. Yes, goals are necessary, however there is too much chance of failure where a person does not get to the goal. A proven system on the other hand always shows measurable results. This is very good for motivation and habit building at the same time while saving time.

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Mission Complete

The truth is just too powerful to know. Those who hold the truth suffer more than those who believe the lie. -The Hall of Tears
Doladin 153 posts, incept 2022-01-15
2023-09-08 07:43:40

Ah, time management. It's funny, I used to work full time and go to the gym 5 days a week and make it work. Or work full time and 3 units of University.
Now I work from home and struggle to balance work, fitness, renovations and motorbikes.

I definitely need to step up my time management to capture those precious extra hours, especially with a baby on the way. Doesn't help that I like to sleep in a bit... but that will change (see previous sentence)

@Mannfm11 - Agree. Some arterial roads in Sydney, i swear that they deliberately sequence them to ruin the flow of traffic. More petrol burnt for tax $? More frustrated drivers ready to break a law and be caught by police for fine $? General demoralisation??
Ronniemcghee 499 posts, incept 2012-07-28
2023-09-08 07:43:51

I know it may look like I'm wasting time sitting in a seat doing nothing ~
However, I'm deep in thought and thinking has never been poor time management to me.
Margbp 220 posts, incept 2021-12-02
2023-09-08 14:00:53

Personal responsibility covers so many areas.

I know people who waste so much time yet would adamently claim they are responsible people.

Personal responsibility-- either you have it or you don't. If you don't, the irresponsibility leaks out somewhere.


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It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his desires depend upon his not understanding it.
~Upton Sinclair slightly paraphrased
Veeger 1k posts, incept 2013-02-13
2023-09-08 14:23:16

@Doladin

Shift from Time Management to Time Leadership.

There's 3 type of Time available to you in your waking hours.

RE: time (REst, REcuperate, REcreate, REvitalize ). Etc
Focus Time
Buffer Time

The First 2 YOU control, schedule and MAKE happen. Buffer time is when 'someone' else 'owns' you. (Employer, etc) Set your borders, for RE: Time and Focus Time as well as your Buffer Time when you're making yourself available to others. Now you're doing Time Leadership instead of Time management.

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I remember the Diamond Princess.


Slowly at first, then all of a sudden.
Smokeyblonde13 369 posts, incept 2021-10-29
2023-09-08 21:47:43

@Veeger Is this your own thing? Or an official thing?

Asking as I ponder this all the time and organize/segregate my work loosely around this.

I do stupid, BS stuff for 8 hours in the office because that's what manager wants. But he often is super-ceded by his boss's boss.

But the real work gets done after those 8 hours: projects, employee development, and plain old work that must get done.
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