fefifofu

The pomodoro technique helped me enormously. I don't follow it strictly, I just set the timer and focused on one task until timer is done. I never worked the duration up, I still just do 25 minutes or less. I even put websurfing in a 25 min bucket, then stop.

I ended up learning how infrequent real emergencies pop up. Which in turn, got me to stop looking at my phone at red lights.

I'm not from US and it's always weird to watch NFL on TV and hear the pro players introduce themselves and their college: "Peyton Manning, Tennessee".

Before 2001, I'd always ask the pilots to let me sit in the cockpit during takeoff. If they said no, they'd often offer a tour of the cockpit when cruising instead.

The scare quotes were unintentional. Poor punctuation. Just defining his science as experimental.

His articles and book don't suit my tastes, they're a bit too wordy for me and his "science" is more from experiments, less on the chemistry (proteins, salts, molecules etc).

For a more layman's chemistry view on food science, take a look at Harold McGee's book called "On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen". It really gave me a good foundation to actually understand what is going on when I cook. When my cooking is a disaster, I don't need to experiment as much because now I can think through what went wrong.

Is Bosnia considered Western? Genocide there in 1992-1995.

On a road trip, a Serbian in-law had us stop by this beautiful bridge in Bosnia. Built in the 1500s with Ottoman architecture, which is odd for that area. I took photos there, smiling and having fun like an idiot. Only after leaving and checking wikipedia on my phone did I see that the relative failed to tell me about the massacres that happened there by the Serbs. Women, children, rape, etc.

Wikipedia article: Visegrad Massacres

The foreign exchange market has more volume and eyes watching it. Just watch the value of the GBP.

The fundraising page is depressing. They're only asking for US$200,000 and they only have 19% at half way through the year. In other news... Instagram hits half a billion monthly active users... but not on Django's fundraising page.

I'm not knowledgeable about open-source issues, pros/cons, etc., but man... only 19% of $200K. Doesn't seem right given Python is one of the major languages and I believe Django is the most popular web framework in Python.

Anecdotal opinions don't bother me :), but in the case of personal finance, the rules can easily be followed up with math.

Your general rules are fine and make sense, but sometimes when you do break them, it becomes difficult to see the effect or know when to stop. If you didn't save 10% this month, without the math you don't get any immediate negative feedback. So then maybe a 2nd month with no saving is OK. In fact, with credit cards the feedback will be positive!

I've had a corporate finance career for 10+ years and here's my "math". I take the amount in my accounts today, then add and subtract my expected income and expenses out daily until I'm 80. Tada! Addition and subtraction. Nothing a basic spreadsheet can't handle. I know what my balance will be when I'm 40, 50 or on June 19, 2017. Anybody's well intention advice can be inputted and evaluated.

It's not a budget per se because I don't restrict myself like a budget. It's also a longer term look in detail, instead of just monthly numbers out a few years. I see what my daily overpriced coffee will do to me and I can decide if it's OK. (The daily walk to the coffee shop with the cute baristas is well worth it haha.)

"Dad or Mom advice" does have its spot, but I think it should stay values-based. Many years ago I got a lot of criticism when I bought my expensive new car. Everyone threw out these general rules to me, but I knew it was fine and I really enjoy driving it. I've had it for 9 years now. When it hits 10 years I planned to hand over the keys to my nephew (free). The "Dad advice" kicked in appropriately here when my brother said no way to giving my 16 year old nephew the car with its horse power and tinted windows etc.

So I understand family should teach you the appropriate values and such, but with all the mis-information in the personal finance industry, I wish people would do the math instead of following rules.

This article and the book is exactly what's wrong with personal finance education. There is no special wisdom, clever tricks or golden rules in finance. Chicken soup for the soul won't help.

Personal finance should be taught as a math problem. Figure out the cost of the lifestyle you want, and work backwards from there. If your fancy house, car, and dinners out cost $100,000 then you can figure out if your choices make sense... does you career choice match up? does taking on school debt make sense? etc.

Or if you are older and made these life choices already and make $50,000, your math problem is a bit different. Does the honda or tesla fit? You can very easily see if credit card interest of 20% will help or hurt you achieve your goals/lifestyle if you do the math.

None of this generic "avoid debt" or "house are the best investment" (garbage) advice helps and only confuses the matter. I think the only area that has more confusion and bad advice than personal finance is nutrition. In the letter, grandma says "go for a fixed rate mortgage"... what!?

I remember this being one of the things that caught Blackberry by surprise. BB had better battery life and functionality etc, so BB co-CEOs never thought the iPhone would catch on.

Same thing with the airline industry. People often say they'd pay more for extra few inches of leg room, but when they shop online, it's the cheapest price that wins.

One clarification regarding "the loser pays" system (here in Canada), is that the loser paying isn't the default. The default is each party pays their own costs. Then later the judge can decide to punish the loser if it was frivolous.

I've been through the small claims process twice recently. In one, the judge had power to make a binding decision and he put an end to the case against me after 10 minutes. In the other, it was a non-binding settlement meeting where he told the other party that they had no chance in court.

My point is that if you give the judge more power, good luck trying to game him and the system.

Since this is the internet, I am free to reply with hearsay... I read that if you fall asleep that fast, you might not be getting enough sleep the previous night.