Posts in category "philosophy" - page 3
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On Meditation and Equanimity
A couple of habits that I have been trying to inculcate for a while are meditation and equanimity. While I got a little better when it comes to equanimity, I have not made even the slightest progress when it comes to meditation. It is not like I have started trying meditation in the recent past. I have been trying it for a really long time. But just on and off each time not able to make any progress and eventually giving up. I know there are different forms of meditation. I tried a couple of them including focusing on breathing, and trying to empty the mind. Neither helped. I was never able to see inside myself nor could I get any insights into the true nature of reality. Of course meditation needs a lot of practice. May be I am doing it wrong. I have no idea.
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What Is Stoicism
When I interact with folks who read my blog, a few of them eventually ask me about Stoicism. It is either to know what Stoicism is or it is about resources related to it so they can also follow Stoicism. The funny thing is that I don’t have any formal training nor did I read any books on the topic. It just so happened that one day I chanced upon some videos on Stoicism and loved the concept. Then I started reading about it in a few blogs, listened to a few audio books and watched some videos. I never took any notes or kept the resources handy. So every time some one asks me for the resources, I just had to tell them that I don’t have any. I want to change that with this and some upcoming posts.
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Not Thinking Clearly
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post on why one should avoid unforced errors (a situation you are completely in control and you make a mistake). So I thought about the unforced errors I made in just one aspect – stock picking. And boy there are a ton of them. But before we get to those mistakes, I had also finished reading (or rather listening to) The art of thinking clearly. An excellent book on all the biases we fall prey to. So I thought I should give a name to my biases and delusions as I tried my hand at stock picking. If you don’t know, I performed very poorly at picking a stock and the story is available on one of my previous posts if you are interested.
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Coping With Loss By Visualizing In Advance
Have you ever thought what you would do if you lost all your wealth? How would you react if you lost a loved one? What about physical disability? I know these are some really disturbing thoughts. You might be wondering if I have darkness in my heart for asking you to think of such aspects of life. But this is an exercise I practice from time to time.
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The Role Of Luck
Luck has a huge role to play in one's success or failure. We should not forget the role of luck in our lives. I am what I am is primarily because of how lucky I have been in many aspects of life. There are people who are more hardworking than I am and yet don't have the results they deserve.
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Why Save When You Cannot Enjoy?
Some one asked "I don't have money before a job so cannot spend and have fun. After finding a job I have money, but I am saving for a future. So again I cannot spend. What is meaning of money? Spend it or save it or what to do?". That got me thinking. I gave them the reply and thought I should expand a bit on my blog so it might help others.
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Take Care Of Your Mind And Body
Whether you are planning to retire early or not, one thing that everyone needs to take care of is their mind and body. It is surprising how little time and care we devote to both in our mad rush to achieve things. Life is not always about goals and achievements. Sometimes it helps to stop and think if that is all that we really want. Did you ever wonder how much time do you actively spend on improving the mind and body?
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Money Is Infinite. But Time Is Limited
I used to have a comfy and very well paying job until I decided to retire early in 2018. I can't imagine why anyone would give up such a good job and ridiculously good benefits that I used to enjoy at work. But at some point in life, it is conceivable that one could slip into philosophy. That happened to me. Money has never been a primary motivation for me, but it did enjoy some importance in my life. After my philosophical journey, money seems so insignificant and unimportant. Don't get me wrong. You need a handsome amount of savings to even consider early retirement. But having made enough, even more money did not make sense at all.
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Leaving Inheritance To Children
When I said I have enough money in my previous post, it was made possible by the fact that I did not account for many things that most Indian's generally consider bare minimum. Take inheritance for example. We did not plan on leaving anything substantial for our daughter. Our thought process is that she should go through the basic difficulties of life to achieve things that she desires. We are probably atypical Indians that think this way. I know this because people have asked if I thought about leaving an inheritance for my kid.
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Should You Save For Kids Higher Education
You know my stance on saving for kid's education. Those who have read my blog or know me, understand that we are unschooling our kid. Most already know that I retired early. I guess early retirement and unschooled kid is probably not a common combination? Or may be it is just my feeling. Because, in this combination, one rarely plans to setup a corpus for kid's higher education. And yet many people ask why I haven't set aside a corpus for the kid.
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