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

    Continuing the theme: one , two , three , four .

    I must say right away that the approach to the flaming holivar is “time vs. money ” (and more specifically on the issue of managing personal resources), which I adhere to, I borrowed from a webinar posted on a record on datnews.ru, and the author of this site most likely borrowed it from Tim Ferris or some other life management guru , and, in principle, is a self-evident truth, which, however, for some reason few people are able to properly learn and use.

    In short, the approach is this: each of us has a set of unique resourceswhich in the course of our life can be converted into each other (or wasted), but the possibilities of this conversion are limited by the available resources. That is, they are not converted directly proportionally or even with a fixed percentage of costs (like currencies in the exchanger), but depending on the number available at a given time. Rule one and last: if we are sorely lacking any resource, we are forced to compensate for it by spending disproportionately large amounts of other resources.Therefore, the strategy of optimal development is to maintain a long-term balance between different types of resources, so that there is no need to "heat bank notes". In the short term, on the contrary, local concentration is more profitable than maintaining a balance for the sake of balance, because the most urgent projects and problems do not recognize any schedules.



    Personality resources can be called the following: time, money, freedom, health, emotional resource("Positive"), and possibly some more. First of all, it’s important to determine which of them,% username%, are the most scarce and problematic for you — that is, which resources draw most of the other resources onto themselves, and fix these holes. Most often, according to the Pareto law, there are some of the most problematic “bottlenecks”, the elimination of which can bring the most significant result (pedantry and / or gourism begins already). In the above-mentioned webinar, one of the participants started a debate about whether information is a resource (in this sense). We agreed on what is not, since information cannot be spent (spent). Information, however, can be a component of a certain process of the production of personal resources (time, money, health ...), that is, an auxiliary resource - like any knowledge, skills, abilities, etc. In addition to participating in the processes of reproduction of resources, these “skills” can serve as indicators of personal achievements, attributes of personality development (which should not be reduced to the reproduction / multiplication of resources alone, but should not be contrasted with it, as other “romantics” do). Sufficiently developed, unique, valuable achievements can be calledmeanings . A work of art, a scientific discovery, an Olympic record, an innovative startup. Classic tree, house, child (why is it necessary to have a son?) - too. The true creative, IMHO, consists precisely in inventing new meanings and their implementation. The key difference between resources and meanings is that the former are “consumables,” and the latter cannot be spent. Often used the concepts of "tool" and "goal" have a slightly different shade (the goal can become a means to achieve a new goal, while not every tool is a limited resource).

    I mentioned above the problems that a shortage of a resource can bring, but what happens when there is an excess of it? First of all, it should be noted that, by definition, there cannot be an excess of resources; the excess of a resource over the rest should be considered as a shortage of all others and it is to focus attention on them. In some cases, this can be quite a challenge; examples of lottery winnings that did not benefit their holders, or cases of sharp personality degradation upon retirement, are widely known. Something similar in due time one SEOshnik called the "gold-gear period" .

    Now let's talk about specific resources and strategies that should be followed with their perceived shortage, adequate quantity or quantity significantly exceeding current needs.

    1. Money.“When there is no money” - no, you yourself 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 grows, and knowledge, experience and other levers are generated along the way. And the meanings too. Access to knowledge is the first step towards getting out of poverty and not only financial, which many of us, unfortunately, forget. A similar strategy is applicable in situations where the first resource is enough (unless there are more meanings, they allow you not to lose the drive, save the “positive” resource and the like). The most difficult thing is when there suddenly becomes more money at times. In order for this money to be used for its intended purpose, a well-thought-out investment strategy is needed, which few can boast of. Otherwise, the excess of money over other resources can work against the development of personality, stab in the back. I will express myself 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. Here the key point is that everyone has an equal amount of time - that of a homeless person, that of a BG. This refers to the current time spent on routine business and short-term projects. (Some include in this category the total life time and its supposed qualitative properties (age), however, this approach, which I will additionally discuss, is fraught with a very large and, unfortunately, widespread jamb in our society. Obviously, longevity and quality of life rely mainly on the health resource, see below.)The current (regular) time is a sequence of nested cycles of different levels: 1) natural cycle (day); 2) social (week); 3) then comes another well-known cycle that is natural for the female, and more likely social for those who are in close contact with the female :); and finally 4) another natural cycle (year). The cyclic distribution causes differences in the conversion capabilities between the “time” resource and other resources and in the costs of such conversion. Again, the rule applies: short-term imbalance is good if it is aimed at ensuring long-term balance; long-term imbalance is evil.

    Based on the fact thata sign of an optimal approach to the “time” resource is a significant increase in the cost of time over time in other resources (for which it is necessary to form skills and other auxiliary levers) while moving the focus from the simple reproduction of resources to creating meanings , let’s try to evaluate the approaches of the authors of the four hub posts posted at the beginning .

    First post ( "100 dollars per hour") The author brought the cost of his “time” resource to this figure clearly not immediately, but as a result of the systematic implementation of some strategy. The author understands the importance of balance and emphasizes 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 or is preparing plans to increase the cost of an hour to $ 200, again without sacrificing the rest of his life).

    Second post ( "What time is money?") Is an attempt to criticize the strategy of the first author, directed, however, into the void. Most likely, the second author read the first post fluently, without reading the details. Otherwise, he would have understood that the first author does not preach any total monetization. We are talking about the most efficient use of the time allotted for converting into money.

    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 what level of the price of working time the author is today and what he will enter tomorrow, but on the whole the impression is a balanced approach that has been implemented for a long time and successfully so as not to have to sell extra time at the buyer's price. Here, only the long-term sustainability of the strategy against particularly large risks can cause concern (if the pace of development is too slow; to understand whether this is so, you need to know the context).

    Fourth post ( “On time and money”) emphasizes the importance of intensive investment of resources (including free time) with an eye to the future. It’s just about how to ensure growth, development, so that tomorrow there is more free time and it can be spent less on work. Franklin did not mention thermodynamics and did not quote the ancient principle of “Non progredi est regredi”, but I will do it. There are no alternatives to the “invest today ruble to get two tomorrow” approach. Refusal to invest (absolute inertia) literally leads to death, which is confirmed by examples not only of individuals, but of entire societies. Entropy, however. Development is the key not only to development itself, but also to survival in general. And stop looking for the excuses of the so-called civilizational nature, either you move the world forward, or consume the efforts of those who do it instead of you. No one is doomed to loser simply because he was born "not there" or "not that." We are all very lucky already 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 sphere of habitat, which is worth writing separately, for now I’ll just say a couple of keywords “transhumanism”, “cosmism”, “singularity”) . The road will be overpowered by the walking one.

    Let's move on to the rest of the resources. 3. Freedom.This is a resource that is difficult to measure and has two aspects: objective and subjective. The objective need for freedom is the need for a flexible response “on the go” to changing external circumstances. The most effective, but at the same time, rigidly prescribed plan may suffer from its absence. The subjective aspect of the “freedom” resource is in its relationship with other resources: if a plan makes a person a slave, he will not only objectively burn out, it will also undermine other human 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, it’s difficult for me personally to call the downshifter approach an element of an optimal development strategy after an unsuitable career fever. Rather, it’s a reaction, forced measure in response to the exhaustion of the “freedom” resource. The best way is not to fall into such traps. Although, perhaps, in the future, the most promising classes will be carried out in the “long-distance running + 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 life 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 pay due attention to it. The reason is again in the habit of default behavior, starting from the surrounding society and from the experience of the past. A person leading a not very healthy lifestyle does this most likely for two reasons: 1) “because everyone does 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 face a limitation of opportunities - both personal financial (temporary, etc.) and the current successes of mankind in strengthening the state of an already worn-out organism; and also, due to leaving the “comfort zone”, with emotional inconveniences. Overcome all these thorns and reach the "stars", to say the least,

    Nevertheless, I have reasons for optimism in view of the fact that humanity, though with a scratch, is increasing the pace of medical achievements and it is already talking, among other things, about the prospects for increasing the maximum life expectancy and an unprecedented increase in its quality (rejuvenation, regeneration of organs and more fantastic prospects), and this topic is gaining 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 survive to 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 experienced HLS after reading the books of Yu. A. Nikitin and / or some futurological forecasts.)Letting this resource go by gravity is all the more dangerous. “Investing in health”, “health management” is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. The spread of new forms of employment and career, when traditional Friday boozes are supplanted by more healthy ways of spending time for purely material reasons, also contributes to a healthy lifestyle.

    5. An emotional resource (“positive”, “energy”, “drive” etc.).This resource is simple on the one hand, and complex on the other, and also very individual. I can only say that it is not enough just to achieve a positive emotional state, to motivate yourself with a "sweetie." It is also necessary to ensure that it lasts for a long time and does not require frequent recharging with dubious and costly methods. Sustainability can be facilitated by the balanced management of the totality 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 hard-to-describe subjective sensations of a high level. In principle, there is nothing more to say. Need to act.

    These are the main resources of the personality allocated by me. I won’t be surprised if in the comments I see additions to this list. It is not complete and comprehensive, the principle is important here: there are unique resources that cannot be directly reduced to each other, they should be allocated and learned to manage them. Perhaps it’s worth highlighting such a resource as attention, or some resources associated with society, with the proximity of communication.

    Finally, a few words about the confrontation 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, 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 can be expressed in a negative reaction to a text written in the style of the other half, or to its methods of behavior. Here, in this case, there is dissatisfaction of one of the authors with the allegedly “wrong” approach of the other, although in reality this 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, learning through the formula "why the sky is blue." But once I met a man who spoke about this formula in a completely different way: they say that after studying it, he stopped rejoicing in the blue sky as before. Or someone there almost chokes on beer because it recalls that it consists of atoms% (. Something similar happened here. One habrayuzer saw that another measures time by money, and immediately hastened to read the moral, why you can’t do this and you should relate to time. The third habrayuzer answered this with his radically different approach, backed up by a historical quote. Whose approach is more correct? Something similar happened here. One habrayuzer saw that another measures time with money, and immediately hastened to read the moral, why this should not be done and how to relate to time. The third habrayuzer answered this with his radically different approach, backed up by a historical quote. Whose approach is more correct? Something similar happened here. One habrayuzer saw that another measures time with money, and immediately hastened to read the moral, why this should not be done and how to relate to time. The third habrayuzer answered this with his radically different approach, backed up 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, will not sing praises of total relativism, absolute tolerance, and other symptoms of postmodernism in 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 must be established between the contents of your own cranial box. As with resources, the weaknesses of the weak link here can negate the advantages of the strong one - there is cognophobia, here emotional burnout. By the way, successful hackers, as well as representatives of a number of other interesting professions and generally people with extraordinary abilities, according to some sources, especially developed are the connections between the two hemispheres of the brain and between its various departments. It is they, most likely, that determine the ability to use the way of thinking that best suits the situation, instead of the unconstructive struggle for domination. Some half in a particular case is still more developed than the other, but at the same time learns to interact with the other half and thereby stimulate its development.

    So, ladies and gentlemen of the emotional mindset, if reading this text, as well as the aforementioned posts 1 and 4, causes internal irritation, think better - why, and try to establish contact with your internal “analytical machine” with the left hemisphere, which supposedly depriving you of the joys of life. Today, much is written about the importance of right-brain thinking, about the role of creative approach in the economy. Such articles and books are directed mainly to managers, analysts, and other “left-hemisphere” decision-makers. I want to emphasize the importance of mutual understanding on the other hand, which is not often talked about today. We have the opportunity today to exchange these messages because once some wonderful people showed sufficient perseverance, while others - creative insight,hundreds of papers looking for the “right” design touches, and some did a little of the work. Agree, it’s stupid to sort things out, as in kindergarten, which configuration of the genital thought organs is definitely better. Today, in an age of increasing opportunities, each of us has the advantages of those and other approaches, in combination of which (in all their variations) the most delicious innovations and the largest deposits of diverse positive are buried. For this, as the left hemisphere Onotole says, thank you for your attention, goodbye.

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