Category: Values

Life’s About Moving On

Posted on by Phil Garland

While I was working out today, listening to Macklemore, Starting Over started playing. Below is the verse that always strikes a chord with me.

And every kid that came up to me
And said I was the music they listened to when they first got clean
Now look at me, a couple days sober, I’m fighting demons
Back of that meeting on the East Side, shaking, tweaking
Hope that they don’t see it, hope that no one is looking
That no one recognizes that failure under that hoodie
Just posted in the back with my hands crossed, shooken
If they call on me I’m passin’, if they talk to me I’m booking
Out that door, but before, I can make it
Somebody stops me and says “Are you Macklemore?
Maybe this isn’t the place or time, I just wanted to say that
If it wasn’t for ‘Otherside,’ I wouldn’t have made it”
I just looked down at the ground and say, “Thank you”
She tells me she has nine months, and that she’s so grateful
Tears in her eyes, looking like she’s gonna cry, fuck
I barely got forty-eight hours, treated like I’m some wise monk
I want to tell her I relapsed, but I can’t
I just shake her hand and tell her, “Congrats”
Get back to my car, and I think I’m tripping, yeah
Cause God wrote “Otherside,” that pen was in my hand

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Starting Over, The Heist

If Macklemore had been demonized for his relapse, if he hadn’t instead written a song about being an inspiration to those who have failed and are “starting over”, he never would’ve become the world-famous Macklemore he is today. This song reminds me of a powerful quote.

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People change, people grow, people become different people every day. Part of being human is to be able to forgive and forget. Sometimes it’s difficult to put your ego aside and question “If I were in that situation I would’ve done _________ instead”.

Part of life is going through a metamorphosis. We are constantly consuming ideas, gleaning cues from those around us, learning new ways to tackle a task. We are also experimenting with failure. We mess up, a lot. We can’t judge people on who they were, only what they want to become. 

Life’s about giving opportunity to the most people to see what they do with their chances. 

My Thoughts on Eating Meat

Posted on by Phil Garland

Today, I listened to a podcast on the ethics of eating meat. The interviewee came from a stance that eating animals was inhumane and against society’s moral codes. He stated that eating factory-farmed chicken, pigs and cows was unjust to their well-being and thus a negative on society. Although I agreed with some of his points, he seemed to have a subjective (biased) opinion. When the host, Steve Patterson, mentioned the problems of harvesting grains, like killing organisms that live in and on the crops, the guest quickly adjusted his stance to a monetary theory of moral code.

When it comes to morality, money isn’t part of the equation (in my opinion). Nobody would forgive Kevin Spacey because the ends resulted in a lot of money. He did immoral deeds and was punished for it. Same for the immorality of plowing rabbits, rats, mice and other animals living in fields of grain.

As someone who has been a vegetarian and tried veganism for half a year, and is now Paleo, I feel I have a stance on this subject. My main motive for not eating meat was for everything the interviewee described. It was to feel better about the environment and feel better for the animals that I wasn’t killing. The only problem was that the vegetarian and even more so the vegan diets affected my mood and ability to live the life I wanted. It also made me eat far too many grains that my body rejected.

The one thing that the interview re-enforced was the terrible conditions our livestock is faced with in meat factories. Moving forward, I will try my hardest to get my meat from local, free-range sources. Although this means a bigger hit on my wallet, it makes me feel better for the lives of the animals I’m about to eat. Additionally, by signaling my preference for an organic piece of meat, I’m showing potential organic farmers a chance for profits. My attempts to eat healthier may promote entrepreneurship into the space going forward, limiting the powers of meat factories.

Questions for the Crypto Movement

Posted on by Phil Garland

“How many malnourished Asian kids you fed today?” – KOOL A.D.

Are we making the world a better place?

“How much censorship-resistant commerce for the common people have we enabled?

How many unbanked people have we banked?” – Vitalik Buterin

If we’re taking power from the centralized power, why are we fighting within the decentralized sect?

Why can’t we all move forward and improve humanity?

If we can’t agree over Twitter, how the fuck are we to agree on blockchain contracts?

Power will always be pushed for but it takes a select few to surrender power for the greater good. 

Freedom is Earned

Posted on by Phil Garland

​The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion. – Albert Camus

I did something this evening that I almost never do. I watched about an hour and a half of videos of what’s going on in America, mostly involving police and civilians. 

By watching these videos, I had a lot of thoughts racing through my mind. From anger at police to anger at people not listening to police. But my biggest anger came from reading unapologetic comments. Stuff like “Well, they were doing something illegal” or “that’s what happens when you don’t follow an order.”

Yes, I agree that some people antagonize police to catch the reaction on video but that doesn’t mean what people are doing is illegal. One video was a girl who got a $25 ticket for talking to her neighbor in “No parking zone.” She had her car running and it was obviously a rural area. There didn’t seem to be any harm of her stopping to chat.

The cop got out, asked for license and registration and proceeded with fining her. Although that may be the law, whatever happened to giving a warning or treating people like human beings? Wouldn’t it have been easier for the cop to tell the lady she wasn’t allowed to park there and that be the end of it?

Whether you’re pro cop or have a problem with cops, I think we all need to realize our freedoms come from believing what it truly means to be human. 

Compassion. Loyalty. Respect. Decency. Love. 

Those are all human traits. It’s pretty sad that those traits are the bar for being “free” in today’s society. By acting with those beliefs you are already doing better than what seems like a majority of America. Living free, and having freedoms, is about caring for those around you no matter the circumstance. Your very awareness of the traits that make you a compassionate human being is the precursor to living freely in an unfree world.

Off Day? Accomplish Something

Posted on by Phil Garland

Even if you’re not at the top of your game, try accomplishing something to the best of your ability. That doesn’t mean doing something difficult, it means doing something productive and doing it well.

Today, I had a sub-par (at least for my standards) day. I didn’t feel like I accomplished anything. But I had a bunch to get off my checklist. So I tackled a smaller project that I knew would make my future self happy. I cleaned my apartment. And I didn’t just scrub for a minute or two, I completely cleaned every corner for over two hours. Each time I finished a small chore, I asked myself “is this the best I can do?” And each time the answer was “No, I can do more.” 

After two plus hours of scrubbing, spraying and wiping, my apartment looks great. My new roommate will be happy! 

Stoic Trainings

Stoicism is a trained mindset allowing one to become at peace with anything that happens in life. If one puts their best foot forward, it doesn’t matter if one wins or one loses. There’s a great cartoon of Stoics competing in track and field. The Stoics high-five each other and jump for joy after every event, even when they didn’t win. The other team is baffled, they think the Stoics are insane. But the Stoics aren’t. They’re happy they did the best they could.

Unlocking this Stoic sense of pride is easier said than done. Training yourself to be happy with any outcome is difficult. Training yourself to be your best at whatever you put your mind to is even harder. The best way you can do that is by doing stuff well even on off days. 

By doing accomplishing your goals to the best of your ability, your mind gets used to the tasks required to be great. Over time, this feeling becomes natural and every task you take on becomes something to take Stoic pride in.

Do I Need to Read Things I Disagree With?

Posted on by Phil Garland

There’s common advice out there that you shouldn’t only read things you agree with. That by reading things you disagree with you might get convinced of other people’s points. However, I’m pretty set in my thoughts. 

My background consists of economics, philosophy, and mathematics. Anyone who posts things with economic, logic, or mathematic fallacies in their statement will always be rejected in my mind. 

But, there are 7 billion people in the world. They don’t all share my beliefs. Surely there are at least 3.5 billion people who have absolutely opposing beliefs. Yet, I should read the things they share because I might be convinced?

I don’t think so. I do read things outside of my expertise, and outside of my stances (either for or against), but am usually unphased. When reading other people’s beliefs, I shrug it off and am open to them but it’s pretty meaningless to get emotional. 

Maybe it’s my libertarian/Stoic take on life, but if someone wants to have a different opinion then I’m more than willing to be accepting. Personally, I might think they’re wrong, but I’m not in control of their beliefs.

You do you.

Personal (& Professional) Development Project: Money

Posted on by Phil Garland

“Being free to stop doing stuff you hate means taking ownership of your choices in a radical way. It means being real with yourself and others about what matters most” – TK Coleman.

In this post I will be real with myself, and with you, the reader.

My Money Background

 

I have worked in accounting for the past four years, I balance my company’s cash account, I forecast our budget for days, weeks, months, years into the future, yet I am not the best when it comes to personal forecasting. To me my money is the scariest thing to take ownership of. It means digging into my spending habits, it means taking ownership of those habits, and it means making fundamental changes in my life.

I haven’t always been this way. When I quit my DC job to travel the country I had put $10,000 away to pay for my travels, eventual re-location to Denver and traveling back to Maine for the holidays. However, that was the last time I had savings. Since then I took a job with $15k less, quit that to take a job paying $10k lower than that. By the age 25 I’d passed up $25k in salary I once had (which I DO NOT regret).

This point is not so you feel sorry for me, but for me to help explain why I am in the situation I am today. Instead of facing my lower salary head-on, with a well thought out budget and spending habits, I spent money to enjoy today. Now I must deal with my tomorrow self who cannot enjoy as much.

Personal & Professional Development Plan

I am using the Praxis idea of a Personal [& Professional] Development Project (P&PDP): A short-term set of challenges with the goal of gaining self-knowledge, overcoming obstacles to success, and gaining mastery in areas of value to the individual and the marketplace, to improve my money spending habits and develop market insight in the evolving money-based FinTech community.

Personal Cash:

  1. Track every expenditure
  2. Determine goals for paying off debt
  3. Create a payment schedule to achieve those goals
  4. With that payment knowledge, create a budget to determine every expenditure I can actually afford

FinTech Research:

  1. Lookup five (5) FinTech firms per day
  2. Catalog each company based on  a list of criteria (which I will post once I’ve developed it)
  3. Determine points of contact for each firm
  4. Develop a Fin-Tech marketplace “matrix”
  5. Look for opportunities that either aren’t being exploited or have few firms controlling the market

Measuring Success

Over the next 30-days I will work on my goals to clearly define my spending habits as well as develop a full understanding of market competitors in the world of transaction-based FinTech companies. At the end of the 30-days I will hope to have mastered my fear of personal cash budgeting and developed an understanding of the FinTech marketplace to start adding value to companies I truly want to work with.

I plan to continue blogging. Some blog posts may be on FinTech market research, some may be on my personal obstacles with my cash situation, and some may be on other things. I cannot guarantee any outcome from this project, but whatever happens it will be better than doing nothing at all.