DISQUS

This is a problem I have. I heard about NaNoWriMo and didn't partake, but I find myself wanting to redo lots of things I've done before. Like I'll learn that alt tags for images are good for SEO, so then I want to go through all my posts and add them. The more you learn, the more you learn what you did wrong before.

Like you said, NaNoWriMo gives you a short deadline and permission to let quality slide, thereby letting you finish a draft very quickly. Sure, the quality won't be there, but I guess most people normally err on the side of perfectionism, and never get anything done.

If I were writing a novel, I'd try to keep in mind that going back to rewrite a chapter wouldn't necessarily relieve me of having to rewrite it again later. I could keep thinking of new ways to do it, and never be finished. On the other hand, if I wrote a first draft of the whole thing, I'd at least have something to work with. There would surely be many things I wanted to change, but that's OK. Writing a quick draft first probably reduces the total amount of rewriting, compared to rewriting as you go.

I lost my job in the recession (back before it was officially a recession). Still, I think people are really overreacting to it. Most of the people who think the recession is the end of the world have not even been affected by it. I lost my job, so I can say that I've been affected, but is that the end of the world? Even though the news wants us to be depressed, there's no reason we can't keep living our lives.

Your net enjoyment went negative your first week? Wow. I might have made it a year or so before it happened. For a while, I really thought I wanted to keep that job forever. I guess the sooner you know you want something different, the sooner you can start doing something about it.

The future of the U.S. is a big uncertainty. Another big uncertainty is when we're going to die. It would sure make planning a lot easier if we knew the answers!

I'll add myself to the list of people who don't feel represented by their job title. I don't have a title right now, but when I was a software developer, that was something I did, not something I was.

Once we had this guy come to our office and talk about...oh, I don't know, I guess self-identity or something. He was from India, and he found it interesting how closely we identify with our jobs here. What's one of the first things you ask when you meet someone? "What do you do?" And we say "I am a _______," but we are not the job. Now I wonder if this guy was trying to prepare us for layoffs.

Are you supposed to be RSS Dracula?

It would take 11 years at 10% to get back to where you were, if you were to stop buying. If you keep buying, those 10% gains on your new contributions would reduce the time period needed to catch up.

A 65% loss is pretty brutal, but if it had to happen to you, it's better to happen now when you have many years of stock buying ahead of you, right?

Barack Obama is in my LinkedIn network. Should I ask him to stumble my stuff? I'd be like, "Dude, are we voting for each other, or not?"

Thanks for the mention, Steve. I wish there was a better definition of "problogger" than simply having a blog and being unemployed, but anyway, I'll proudly claim that title for now.

What an amazing story! A great one for me to read today on the first day of my mini-retirement!

Circa 2004, I knew someone who was given the chance to work in Iraq at four times normal pay. They said they could guarantee his safety, though he was obviously skeptical. He turned it down.

Sid, I'd like to hear what personal development forums you use too!

I heard about that study a while back, but I had a feeling that it might not be true. I'm glad that you were able to find some other evidence for the effectiveness of written goals though!

Yeah, thanks for including me too!

Daniel, congratulations on making it to 5 months. Of course, the first 5 months are generally the hardest, as you work to find your look and your voice. May the next 5 months be even better!

<abbr>Hunter Nuttall's last blog post. The Abraham Simpson Guide To Being Miserable</abbr>

LOL, Emily! Where did she get the sand-eating bit from? Did she see someone doing it, or is that just her imagination at work?

"One of the most apt criticisms you could make of the writing I do on brip blap would be that I’m awfully big picture."

But that's exactly why I read this blog. Most finance blogs are focused on the details, but there's only enough room for so many blogs to write about how to save money or how credit card debt can add up.

If you're a details person, that's who you are, so go ahead and try to find a way to make it unique. But if you're already unique, then don't apologize for it!

Then again, this is coming from a fellow big picture person...

Thanks for the link, Steve. I remember one lottery winner who won on the first ticket she ever bought, but to call that a million to one shot would be a huge understatement. And of course, these extraordinarily rare overnight successes usually lose it all anyway.

I don't understand the "Seven Traits" link. Is it in strikeout font because the link is broken?

Thanks for the link, Steve. My ebook gets better when you get past the beginning, in my opinion!

You can watch The Secret in its entirety right here:

http://www.attractionmindmap.com/the-law-of-att...

They should have told you “You are terrible at this, but you will make a good blogger!” Good job, Daniel. Lots of interesting stories, so how could I not stumble it? Thanks for quoting a non-famous person!

-- <abbr>Hunter Nuttall's last blog post. I’m In “The Last Lecture,” Page 184</abbr>

I think we all know you made the right decision, even though it's a bit sad for us to lose a problogger. I hope you can return to problogging before 2017.

Starting at $50,000 and making 4% raises for 10 years gets you to $74,000...not that much less than the $100,000 you could _possibly_ make after 10 years by starting at $15,000...and not enough of a difference to make up for the lower salary in the beginning of the risky plan. No question for me, I'll take the safe bet in that case.

When I bought my car five years ago, I was ready to pay cash. But then I thought, "Well, what if they're offering 0% financing? [As some dealers were not too long before that] Wouldn't it be dumb to pay cash?" I wasn't sure what to do, but it became an easy decision when I found that they were offering a rate of 6% or so. I paid cash.

Some might call that a mistake, saying I could get a 10% return on the money I'd be borrowing at 6%, and maybe that's true...or maybe not. What's the term of a car loan? 4 years? You don't know what stocks will do over that time. For me, any potential gains weren't worth the risk. I'd rather pay cash and be done with it.

But a 6% car loan is different from a 6% tax-deductible mortgage that you probably couldn't pay off anyway, and you'd still have to pay property taxes even if you did. And if you pay off your mortgage, you'd better not forget to pay your property taxes on time!

Another way is to be a celebrity baby. Has Suri Cruise landed a movie role yet?

A Cambrian explosion is pretty extreme, and I don't know if I'll ever experience something that dramatic. But I think we're supposed to have a number of smaller yet hugely significant shifts, which I call quantum leaps. Things like RDPD, getting married, major career changes, etc. fall into this category for me.