Monthly Archives: April 2024

FIRE.197 Have you ever wandered…

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To play on the title from my last post…what’s out there?

Have you had the ability to take a chunk of time and roam around?  Did you do this while on vacation and in a town somewhere? 

Did you roam as part of vacation from location to location—wherever you may roam and end up?

Did you roam around your hometown and see what’s out there that you haven’t thought about or experienced?

I think of roaming as gathering info, experiences, and perspectives. 

Roaming physically is much like my curiosity post on learning new topics/subjects, except you’re in different locations.

I’m pretty good at roaming when I’m on vacation.  Of course, we like to see some tourist sites, but we also like to see how the locals live if we can.  We get off the beaten path somewhat.  We almost always take a day trip to another town close by, especially if we’re visiting a big/famous city.  Those side trips are usually very cool, and usually totally unplanned on what to see.  We’ve had lunch in an old jail in Sweden, visited plantations, tried to order food where NOBODY spoke English (multiple times), etc, etc.

Almost all of our wandering has been good to great, nice, and enriching.  I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Here’s the sad part of this post.  We don’t do this very well locally.  We just had lunch with some friends visiting Phoenix and they did all these activities and adventures that I’ve never done.  I had to have them tell me about my city.  When I told them I’ve lived here for over 30 years, I felt disappointed in myself.  I did work most of the first 20 years, but I’ve been FIREd for 10 years with less than—far less than—expected wandering accomplishments.

I’ve got work to do.  I’ve got wandering to do.

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.

FIRE.196 Have you ever wondered…

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Do you wonder about things?  Do you find yourself googling and gathering data and turning that data into information?

Do you enjoy building up knowledge, skills, and abilities over time?  Do you find satisfaction in understanding more things?

I have really noticed my interest in Curiosity.

I love getting information about everything.  There is so much information available to us today—in just a matter of seconds, or even a fraction of a second. 

Availability

It seems like almost everything known to humans (I don’t think we know the true details of possible extra-terrestrial visitors from the past—if they were/are here) is available on the internet.  I have seemed to maintain the ability to avoid so much of the useless/fake/time-wasting bits of data transmitting around.

Stone Age Progression

I remember being able to gather data from USENET newsgroups in the early 90s and from Mosaic browser usage in the mid-90s.  When Yahoo, AltaVista, and Google appeared in the mid 90s it was like a whole new world of data gathering.  I was sad this became more prevalent after I graduated and couldn’t use them for school.

Today the search and delivery of information is truly unimaginable.  We can get basics to advanced to the highest levels of comprehension for nearly every subject.  I often think, “Why do some many people waste their time with useless 10-second videos from irresponsible sources?”  I’m sure that’s just old-man thinking.

What & Why

I love learning new things.  I love the ability to learn new things.

I have found one of the most valuable things to me is curiosity.  Wondering and finding the answer, or at least some information about the topic.

I have a HUGE list of items to dig into.  I don’t call it my To Do List, but instead, my Don’t Forget List.  It lets me take a quick note of something I’m curious about that I can dig into at a future time.

Even though I don’t work at a job and have LOTS of unscheduled time, I find it hard to really allocate time to dive into so many of the topics I’m interested in.  I believe that true structure for learning would be quite beneficial.  I’m working on that.  It’s another way I wish to be a work in progress, rather than a steady-state life.

Sources

I used to read a lot of web articles and blog posts.  For the past couple of years, I have tried to read less because so much of the content is very, very similar..

I do listen to a lot of podcasts.  It’s interesting how much I love music and keep thinking that music is less enriching to my day/life.  That’s sad to me.  I am trying to learn more about playing and recording music.  That is one way I can gain new skills while doing something I love.

I have been checking out more ebooks from my libraries.  I think I have 6 library cards.  It’s so nice how most of my libraries link to my Amazon Kindle account.  I ALWAYS read each morning on my “commute.”  It’s doubly the best way to start my day.

Tech Tool of Importance

I am so thankful for my Apple watch (when it works well) and I can tell Siri to “create reminder” for whatever I need on my don’t forget list.  In a few short seconds I can have a reminder for later while I continue doing whatever it is I didn’t want to interrupt.  Multitasking/task switching is much harder when you’re older and have so much you’re thinking about but not necessarily concentrating on.

Future Power

I’ve often been thinking about the SloGo and NoGo phase of life.  I believe this curiosity trait I’ve nurtured will help me find enjoyment in those phases—much more than if I didn’t want to expand my mind…well my knowledge at the moment…I still struggle with the conceptual details of neuroplasticity.

I believe curiosity is invaluable.

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.