Random Chat, Thoughts, Posts, and/or Rants Thread

[Kak]

Our baby's gender reveal yesterday!
View attachment signal-2020-11-08-160015.mp4

The Gun: Blaser .338 Lapua Magnum
The Marksman: Your's Truly
The Shot: 250 Yards to a 3 inch circle
The Target: 2lbs of Tannerite shaped charge through a 5 Pound bag of colored chalk powder

 

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[Subsonic]

12 hour workday baking several pounds of cookies in 32°Celsius. The rings under my eyes are hopefully not too visible haha.

Gotta get up in 6 hours to set up the store before the market starts. I look forward to doing this several times a week haha. (I designed that banner/table cover btw)

 

[Lex DeVille]

My dad, who is in his mid-50's, escaped an excruciating factory labor job when he was younger than I am now. Afterward, he worked hard in different roles to ensure he would never have to return. He set out to become a minister (and succeeded) and later became a part-time bus driver and worked his way up to the top as Director of Transportation for a local school going from around $11/hr to over $70,000 per year.

The Director position was very demanding and after about a decade in that role, he left to take another Director position in a parallel industry. But that company was only a few years in and was run by startup types. Dad wasn't sure how to function in a place like that and ultimately quit without any kind of backup plan because he thought he could easily find comparable work in the transportation fields.

Now, after not finding employment for a month or so, and with bills to pay, dad took an interview a few days ago for the graveyard shift at the factory he fought so hard to escape. That place is familiar, reliable. But my dad is much older than he was back then, and he hasn't worked in a factory in close to 30 years.

He's read the Millionaire Fastlane . Talks about starting a business. Asks me what businesses he can get into, and his eyes light up when he imagines a world with purpose. He knows things are changing. But he's too afraid to take action on anything that could lead to the freedom he dreams of, and he feels like he is too old to do it anyway. His health habits are terrible, he watches too much news, the people around him don't support non-traditional paths, and he's grown tired, weary, and likely depressed.

I don't know why I'm sharing this. It's just deeply troubling for me.

I think what pains me the most is that the reason my first job was fast food, the reason I joined the military, the reason I became an entrepreneur was because when I was around 10 years old, and I watched my dad leave for work before the sun came up, and come home every night and crash down to sleep in that old broken recliner, I whispered a vow to myself that I would never allow that to happen to me. I would never work in a factory not one single day in my life.

There's a mindset that does not form overnight, but over time through every decision we make. It builds up like callouses on the hands, and it isn't achieved through employment because it requires levels of risk, stress, and potentially prolonged discomfort. After taking those risks, getting your hands dirty, fighting a thousand battles... you earn a thick skin and get comfortable with discomfort. Now taking action, even risky action, is second nature to you, and because you've built this mindset, you've earned the freedom of choice.

Dad watched me develop that mindset over my lifetime, but he hasn't developed it and I don't know if he ever will. The best I can do now is try to create that freedom for him through my own success.

I guess the moral of this story is really a question to those who are afraid to start. Cast your vision out 30 years into the future. Whatever past you worked so hard to improve on, how does it feel to be back where you started because you let the fear of what might happen stop you from walking a seemingly harder road? How does it feel to have no choice now because you chose a comfortable illusion every single day starting so long ago?

 

[Kak]

In the last week, I have witnessed two separate instances of people falling in public.

Just priming you to be useful in a scenario like that. Call 911 right away, don’t ask “are you ok” or “do you want an ambulance” take charge. They always say no. Someone is in clear distress. Your judgement is better than theirs. Don’t be a frozen idiot. Make the call. Get them help and stay with them until help gets there.

Idiots will ask them if they’re ok, no they’re not OK. They just fell.

First guy was in his 20s, probably had a seizure. We were at chipotle. Everyone was just standing around like idiots, and I was like what the hell is going on. They were just watching this guy lay in the floor. I called an ambulance and got down there with him and started talking to him. Let him know help was on the way.

Next guy was 77. Was chasing his little dog and fell hard in the neighborhood. I parked my truck in a way where he wouldn’t get run over, and caught his dog while I was on the phone with the 911. He also said he didn’t need an ambulance. He couldn’t get up and I refused to help him get up because I didn’t want to make a bad problem worse for him. I just hung out with him until, again, the ambulance got there. Helped him call his wife and joked with him about his pain in the a$$ dog.

Folks, take charge if you see this stuff. People are naturally wired to look for a leader. Don’t be one of them. Be the leader. Take charge of the situation. Be smart. Time matters. If it turns out they don’t want to ride in an ambulance that’s on them.

 

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[GPM]

I just saw this on LinkedIn and it sounds pretty cool. A whole bunch of potential resources for those of you fed up with the crap being fed on major search engines:

"
#Google is so powerful that it hides other search engines from us. We simply do not know about the existence of most of them.

Meanwhile, there are still a large number of excellent search engines in the world that specialize in books, science, and other smart information.
Here a list of sites you've might never heard of.

www.refseek.com is a search engine for academic resources. More than a billion sources

www.worldcat.org - search the content of 20,000 global libraries.

https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles,

www.bioline.org.br is a library of published bioscientific journals

http://repec.org - Volunteers from 102 countries collected nearly 4 million publications

www.science.gov is a U.S. government search engine for more than 2200 scientific sites.

www.pdfdrive.com is the largest website for free download of PDF books. Claim more than 225 million titles.

www.base-search.net is one of the most powerful search engines for academic research texts. More than 100 million scientific articles, 70% of which are free"

 

[xShepherdx]

Sturgeon's law says that "ninety percent of everything is crap".

What's crazy is that the difference between the bottom 90% and the top 10% usually ends up being a pretty small difference.

For example, today I'm going through the process of hiring a developer on Upwork to do some contract work on my website.

90% of the applicants failed to fill out the screening questions, were rude/condescending, or could not follow other simple instructions. This is really simple stuff, but most applicants just didn't do it for whatever reason.

Compare that to the top 10%. They answered all of the questions, explained things in a kind and professional manner, and some even took initiative and started looking into potential fixes for my problem without prompting. (That last one puts them in the top 1% and takes like 5 minutes to do!)

For you it might be answering phone calls right away, greeting every customer with a smile, or even just showing up on time every week. This stuff can be small, but doing that extra 10% might just earn you a customer for life.

Key takeaway: Don't be a sturgeon. Put in the effort and do a good job with everything you do. You don't have to be the absolute best, but you should always aim to be in the top 5-10% in whatever you do.

 

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[biophase]

I usually stretch once a day, usually when I wake up. But then I watched this video that explained what stretching does to your muscles and tendons. It said that stretching usually lasts about 30 minutes and it said that you only need to stretch about 30 seconds. So armed with this information, I started stretching once every 2 hours. I went from touching the floor with my fingers to touching with my palms in 2 weeks in the stretch below. That's about a 4" difference in 2 weeks!

Also, some knots I've had in my chest went away also. These knots I've been trying to massage out for months.

So now I'm a proponent of stretch often, but don't stretch too long. Seems obvious, but a bunch of 30 second stretches 5 times a day beats a longer stretch session once a day.

 

[theag]

to be honest mr demarco I still haven't even gotten used to the website yet, so my bad on that. I didn't know the difference between threads and posts, is there a tutorial for how to use the website?

Actually, @Kak put something together some time ago: Kak's How to Guide to the Fastlane Forum

 

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[theag]

After months in a depressive slug, it seems like I kicked myself out of it by suing Meta/FB. Finally having fun again. I should do this more often

A few months ago, Meta disabled my ad account without warning and without giving a reason, which also affects my brand's fb page, IG account, etc. Basically most of my work of the past 8+ years suddenly in danger and as close as a death sentence as it can get for the business, cutting revenue at least in half. I pestered them constantly through all channels, but it's basically impossible to reach a human there. Not even high level account managers could help. I felt (and still feel) like a complete failure for allowing me and the business to get into this position. It also coincided with a big project that I've been working on for 2 years going to shit, with a big personally guaranteed loan attached to it (not failed yet, but on the edge), serious personal health problems, etc. All this pushed my into some serious depression for a couple months. But today I woke up, for some reason thought "F*ck them" and called up some high profile attorneys to start legal action against Meta for the wrongful account restriction. I should have done this earlier because there seems to be a good chance of success after some recent court rulings here. But my depressed, brain-fogged past self wasn't able to do it.

My facebook ad account just got reinstated.

No response from them yet, but I've been checking the account quality dashboard every few hours and this time all the ugly red warning bars are gone and I'm greeted by a lovely "No advertising issues." message.

Also received my attorney's €1600 invoice for this stuff today. At least he was worth it.

Now back to work, getting the business back on track. Probably gonna start a progress thread on it.

 

[BizyDad]

Looks like the end of "free stuff" is coming.

Reddit closes their API. Twitter limits their API. YouTube is beginning to block videos for people with Adblockers. Elon says go outside and touch the grass.

They use to say your interaction paid for the services, "You are the product".

They didn't need money before. I wonder what changed.

Interest rates or something of that sort seem to be making companies and even countries lack US dollars.

The time of business that make no profit and were sold for billions seems to be coming to an end.

Yeah. The cost of capital has increased.

For a decade tech companies could borrow money at next to nothing and throw money to fuel growth.

Interest rates shoot up, bye bye free money.

No free money, no free services.

And they can't tap the equity markets as easily since their stock prices tanked.

Couple that with inflation in all sectors, they have to actually pay more for everything too.

And of course there is the ongoing lawsuits and lobbying they all have to do to maintain their business models in the first place.

It all adds up.

Personally I love it. Easy money is going going gone. That rising tide is sinking. Cut the pretenders out of everything. Now we're playing real business.

 

[Antifragile]

@MJ DeMarco

This is just brilliant. I think everyone on this forum needs to read this a few times and let it sink in.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1678070335608963072

View: https://twitter.com/mjdemarco/status/1678070335608963072?s=46&t=QVRWd3GUWSHaaHwdvWGZPg

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Spent Friday afternoon with @AllenCrawley trolling the desert.

Afterward, Allen echoed how cool it was to spend the day in the desert (to him "business was closed") but his business still made money, because it's truly open 24/7/365.

Fastlane baby!

 

[windchaser]

Based on true events:

Meanwhile in social media:

“I quit my job to start a new business”
10 likes
3 comments: Good luck!

“I will be joining [huge corporation X] next week”
200 likes
100 comments: Congrats!!

“My company just raised a $1M round at a $20M valuation”
50 likes
5 comments: Congrats! Great job!
30 comments: With a rich daddy and connections anyone could do it

“I got admitted at Harvard”
300 likes
120 comments: Congrats!!/ You are a rockstar!/ Well done!


Meanwhile at the bank:

- I would like to borrow $20k to start my new business
- Ok, I will need a detailed business plan including sales forecasts for the next 3 years, then we will see what we can do depending on the guarantees you provide.


- I would like a student loan for $200k to attend Harvard
- Congratulations! I will need the admissions offer.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Per request, the reaction panel now has a "THANK YOU" (the clapping hands emoji).

 

[GuestUser4aMPs1]

 

[MJ DeMarco]

My cv19 report: feel a bit better, still fatigued and running a mild fever. Was able to sleep a bit overnight unlike the night prior when my temp got up to 101.5 and didn’t sleep a wink.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

But it’s just a mask! Relax.

Relax, it's just 10 days to slow the spread...
Relax, it's just a experimental vaccine...
Relax, it's just a temporary internment camp while we fight this war.
Relax, we're just closing your church for the greater good.
Relax, we just flagged your account temporarily...
Relax, it's just a 3.8% surcharge on your investments...
Relax, it's just 8.5% inflation...
Relax, it's just another lockdown for 20 days while we wait for variant 1,303 to disappear.
Relax, it's just your 5th booster in 8 months...
Relax, it's just a box car...

"Relax" is why most Western Civilizations have gone to shit, and continues to do so.

Too many people "relaxing" and not recognizing when they are being subjected to subconscious narrative framing. The Lowes commercial should headline a class on the subject. Because you choose to ignore it and "relax" doesn't mean it isn't there. As Kak said, you are are wrong, and your wrongness is based on the premise that humans in power (both politically and corporately) are benevolent and with good intentions. Some are, but most are not.

It’s a form of “programming”. It not random either.

And yet the Lowes commercial isn't programming? And not random? Such a contradiction.

This commercial is programming of the worst kind because most people don't see it, the kind of programming that 9/10ths of the world won't see -- It's like that movie "don't look up" which you loved so much, which basically was 2 hours of subconscious narrative framing. Because I observe the sky is blue and then repeat that truth doesn't make it a confirmation bias, it makes it statement of fact. As the old saying goes, you can't unsee what has been seen. You can't unknow what you know.

I think a much better choice for Lowes would have been to have half the people in masks and half without. After all, they were trying to be inclusive of everyone else in the commercial.

Agreed, then this is not even a discussion, and perhaps, if this commercial came out in May of 2021, it wouldn't be either. But it's may of 2022. Clearly Lowes wants to make a political statement and wants a return to mask mandates, lockdowns, and other authoritarian bullshit.

In the Lowes future, everyone wears masks, and is DAMN happy about it! You can even smell flowers in your face diaper!

What makes this worse, is we are at the back-end of his pandemic, but clearly Lowes wants it to continue, or worse, go back to lockdowns ... I'm sure having all the local mom-n-pop hardware stores locked-down and closed was fantastic for business, and fantastic for people who wanted to bide their lockdown time doing home remodeling projects.

But oh, it's just a commercial.

If I saw this ad without your comments, I would forget I saw it 2 seconds after.

That's the beauty of narrative programming that happens on a subconscious level... and yet, here you are, arguing for the normalcy of masks as you shop, as you garden, as you dine, as you worship, as you live...

You're a smart man and I respect your opinion, but it doesn't mean I need to be quiet about it.

It’s just a gay person.

For someone who seems to be so educated in logical fallacies, you certainly use them a lot.

What do other sexual orientations have to do with forcing me to be masked and vaxed? To travel? To shop? To basically function as a normal human in society? Like many people, I want these damn corporations to STFU, sell what you're supposed to sell, and leave me the F*ck alone. Your job is to sell me hardware, not to further propagate, prolong, and then normalize the largest human-rights power grab in centuries.

 

[Antifragile]

Went out for 100Km+ bike ride this morning, amazing weather and stunning views…

Enjoy and have a nice weekend.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

You know how gurus and life coaches say you should go test drive your dream car? And drive through an expensive neighborhood and admire your future dream home? Or put together a vision board of such things?

Another exercise I find valuable are walk through a cemetery while reading headstones.

There's a cemetery 3 blocks from my house and I take leisurely walks through it on occasion. I found it very meditative and a great reminder that I will be dead one day, and that I should always endeavor to life my best life with no regrets.

 

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[Antifragile]

A forum member DM’ed me and I replied with what I think is useful to a few others here. It’s a bit random so belongs here, I think…

The question was along the lines “I was lucky to connect to this retired CEO who’s now back to being a real estate investor. He said that we should talk if I bring him a good deal but I have no experience in RE. It looks like an opportunity… what do you think is the right course of action here?”

My reply:

Oh boy… where do I start?

It is a bit of a trigger point for me. I get told by investors “if you find a good deal…” so many times. But here is the harsh reality, when I have a good deal, I have a lineup of investors wanting it. No matter what the market is doing, there is always room for a good deal.

The issue I take with this approach is that it relies on the outcome, not the process! Think about it from this forum’s and MJ’s teaching perspective. It’s like someone telling you “give me a good deal on bitcoin” … well, gee… if I have a good deal on bitcoin, why don’t YOU tell me why I should give it to YOU and not someone else?

Real estate is business is also about the process. You buy an asset at market prices and then you do something active to it to make it into a “good deal”. That’s how I built my business.

That tells me that he may not be as genuine or helpful as initial look may indicate. In fact, if he’s a retired CEO with tens of millions to invest, what is he doing telling YOU (young, inexperienced, no RE background guy) to talk to him when YOU have a good deal? It just feels all wrong.

My advice? Turn it around on him, something like this made up dialogue:
- talk to me if you find a good deal, let’s chat then
- oh great, I feel so lucky you said that as I’ve been scouting for deals. For your own investments, what do you consider a “good deal”?
- great, I think that a 10% CAP rate income property in an A location with national tenants would be a good deal
- yes, that sounds like it would be. How many deals like that have you seen recently?
- good question, I haven’t seen any in a while
- same here, it’s hard out there, with inflation and higher interest rates CAP rates dropped too, didn’t they?
- yes they did
- you have a great deal of experience, can you help me understand how I could uncover a 10% CAP rate deal the way you described in the current market conditions?
- Oh I don’t know if you can
- that sucks, what else could you consider buying and defining as a “good deal”?
- I don’t know, maybe land from someone who’s pinched and has a very high leverage high interest loan, maybe he can sell at 50 cents on the dollar, that would be a good deal
- I am sure there are quite a few people who are pinched in this market
- yeah, exactly, find me those guys!
- that sounds interesting. I’d like to find a deal like that. What have you seen as a typical leverage on real estate?
- well, the land is typically 50% to 60% but I am thinking the guys who had above 60% would be most pinched!
- oh, absolutely… then if they are leveraged at 70% they would want to sell but the math doesn’t add up for me. How can they sell at 50% off when they are 70% leveraged? Have you seen it happen before?
- actually No, I haven’t - that’s a good point. You are a smart young man. What do you think I should invest in?
- let me do a little more research, this is too important to try to “wing it” with you here… I look forward to sharing my thoughts as soon as I can. How about we meet in a week?

BOOM. The guy is either running away or begging you to work with him. Either way, you aren’t wasting time.

Hope this helps others too.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

As I wrote in TGRRE , seek Excellence, and you will likely get yourself a GOOD.

Seek GOOD (as in "good enough") and you'll like end with mediocre.

 

[MTF]

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Think I deleted ten meditation affiliate marketing spammers today.

To which one had the balls to email me a kind "f-you" -- I can only laugh... looks like that meditation is working great for your attitude!

 

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[GuestUser4aMPs1]

Thanks God for all the crazy shit that's been going on for the past 1.5 years as a painful, unforgettable reminder that being ignorant of world events is actually optimal.

Look around you; It's easier than ever to win, so long as you stay focused.

Seriously, How many people can you say are truly, 100% focused, as of late?

You should NEVER be a customer of any media outlet, even if you agree with it.

Can't have newsy shit running around in your head if you're going to perform.

 

[Kak]

 

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[Lex DeVille]

Yesterday I went to Home Depot for plywood. They were fresh out of 2' x 4' so I bought a 4' x 4' piece without considering if it would fit in my Ford Escape. When I got to my car, I realized the error. Tried to fit it in the trunk and in the side door but it wasn't working. Then this guy who collects the carts came over. He pulled out a tape measure and helped me find an angle. Then he helped me load the wood into my car.

This is the second or third time this guy has showed up out of nowhere to help me with something. I really appreciated it. When he was done helping me, he went over and helped another customer loading stuff into her car.

Maybe that's his job. I don't know. But it really was helpful. I was in a pickle. Just took my hand saw out of the car a day or two ago, so I had no way to cut the wood. Didn't want to carry the wood back into the store either. Anyway, thought I'd share a story of something good happening in the world for a change. There's still people out there who don't suck.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Let me save someone a lot of trouble...

If you can afford to pay someone to paint a large room, but think to yourself "this looks like a fun project we can do ourselves!"

STOP.
STOP.
STOP.

Pay someone to do it, as the idea of it being "fun" is an illusion. About 7 minutes into the project, you'll realize you made a big mistake.

Trust me.

 

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[Lex DeVille]

In 2014, I documented my progress in making picture books for kids here on the forum.

My first books were simple and focused on teaching kids basic concepts in NLP.

Back then, I ordered a print of the first book I created, "The Monster Match."



Fast forward to 2022, and my daughter has me read that book to her almost nightly.

She loves the art and doing the activities (swinging her arms around, roaring, smiling at the monster, etc.).

Back then I didn't have a kid, but I was creating the books I'd want my child to have.

It's really cool to see the payoff so many years later.

 

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[Kak]

Touching on a journey I’m embarking on. I find this incredibly inspiring.

If you can go 48 hours without food… You can be any weight you want.

I’ve already gone 48 hours several times now. There’s also enormous health benefits to fasting we don’t need to get into.

I plan to donate every article of clothing I own when I get to 170.

 

[Kak]

I turned the news off about two years ago and I’ve been the most free thinking and peaceful I’ve ever been.