Moving

 Trying out a different platform:

https://museparade.wordpress.com/ 

Truth Matters

"If truth doesn't matter, we're lost" - Adam Schiff during president Trump's impeachment trial.

Truth has always mattered to me. The biggest reason I majored in mathematics and minored in philosophy during my undergrad is that they are both based purely in logic, the universal truth. Pure logic is truth in its most basic form. Mathematics is applied logic and it is true no matter what. No matter who you are. No matter where you are. It's one of the very few things we can truly know for sure. I found and still find comfort in this pure logic and pure truth. When it comes to the rest of the world however, it's a little bit harder to discern the truth.

Truth matters. If it didn't, our decision making process would break down. Humans (those who are sane) make decisions based on what we perceive to be true. We take this perceived truth and then judge or act based on what feels 'right'. 

Most of the time we can't use pure logic to figure out if something is true or not. This is why we need science and statistics. But, unless you're an expert in the field in which something has been proven scientifically, you may not understand the reasoning for something being a scientifically fact. In this case, you likely need to rely on the experts to tell you what the truth is. This is where trust comes in. Trust of an expert is therefore required in order for you to make a proper decision.

Humans who are selfish may choose to spread lies and misinformation and claim it as truth. The more popularity you have, the more likely people are to believe you. It doesn't matter that you aren't an expert. The same goes for something you respect or look up to, such as a parent. If you mother or father claims to know a truth, you are likely to believe them. 

Truth is a funny thing. If it it is pure logic or Math, it is always true. Many other things that are true today may not be true tomorrow. This is why it's important to always question the supposed truth. 

When talking about truth, I always think about the famous line from A Few Good Men when Jack Nicholson's character shouts, "You can't handle the truth!!". Sadly, I feel this is the case sometimes. Some people cannot handle certain truths. Sometimes, despite evidence and sound proof refuse to believe what's true. Often, the truth is very inconvenient. 

An Inconvenient Truth is a documentary about climate change. The sad truth is that humans are a huge cause of the abnormal increase in global warming. It's inconvenient because in order to fix it, we need to make dramatic changes. Many of us don't like much change, so we try to shield ourselves from the truth, hoping it will change if we wait long enough.

Currently, we have politicians spreading large amounts of misinformation and either creating or bolstering current conspiracy theories without any personal consequences. Ironically it seems that the people who are complaining the most about so called, 'fake news' are the ones who are spewing the fake facts. Any normal person at any normal job would immediately be fired for such a lack of respect for the truth.

So, what's true and what's not? Unfortunately it's not often easy to determine. You need to rely on 'trustworthy' news sources. Who do you trust? 

I feel many people are more trusting in general than they should be. Just because someone is in a position of power doesn't mean they are always telling the truth. Just because someone is speaking on national television doesn't mean what they are saying is true. Sadly, even if they have proper credentials such as a PhD, you still need to be careful. 

Many of our parents lied to us about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. We believe they existed because our parents said they did. Some of us worked this out for ourselves, but some people believed up until the point their parents broke the news. If Santa and the Easter bunny aren't real, what about God? This is what I expected my parents to reveal to me next. Hey guess what kids? God isn't real either! This never happened, but I worked it out for myself. My parents still believe in God, I think. I think it' because their parents believed in God and their parents before them. If you trust someone, you believe anything they tell you (for the most part). 

No matter how confident someone may seem when they make a claim, you should not believe them without proof or sound argument. This is what scares me about (some) religious people. They believe in something without any proof. What's preventing them from believing other things without proof? Some religious folks are able to separate their faith or religion from rational thinking, but many are not.

Ideally, we'd have an independent fact-checking agency. Imagine if politicians were called out for telling lies during televised debates? I think a large problem however is, how would you prevent this agency from becoming corrupted? We're supposed to be able to trust our government, but government officials also lie to us. 

I don't know what the solution is, but I think I want to spend the rest of my life trying to find one. 

Resources:

FiveThirtyEight article on how Americans are fed believable falsehoods:

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/americans-were-primed-to-believe-the-current-onslaught-of-disinformation/

BuzzFeed fact-checking:

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/janelytvynenko/election-rumors-debunked 

Christian Science Monitor tips on stopping misinformation:

https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2020/1103/Online-misinformation-is-rampant.-Four-tips-on-stopping-it

Adam Schiff's speech during President Trump's impeachment trial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa8s4G_7PQk

Short version within NYT:

https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000006940070/schiff-impeachment-truth.html

Retirement

What do you think of when you hear the word, 'retirement'?

Spending every day on the beach for the rest of your life?

Lounging on the couch all day watching TV?

Traveling the world with no obligations?

It's probably different for everyone. But, I think most people want to be able to retire. To quit their full-time job and enjoy free time in their golden years any way they see fit. For a lot of us, it's something you work toward your whole life. The pinnacle of your life. The final milezone. I think we should all think about retirement a bit more. If you're young you may even put off thinking bout it until you're in  your forties. Really, you need to be thinking about it in your twenties. You need to have a plan, or else you may need to work a full-time job for the rest of your life. If that's what you want, that's fine - I'm not here to judge.

My coworker just recently passed away at the age of 62. It was sudden and unexpected. Pancreas cancer. One of the worst kinds of cancers. She was looking forward to retirement. Sadly, that was taken away from her. 

This got me thinking about the age of retirement. It's totally up to you and your circumstances when you'd like to retire. But, the magical age seems to be 65. At this age, you get full Social Security benefits. This threshold will increase as lifetime expectancies rise. Right now the average age of death for a male in the US somewhere between 74 and 77. For Females, it's a bit higher, between 78 and 81. But, these are just averages - also known as expected value. Obviously, you can die before this age or even after this age. A statistical graph (called a histogram) of age of death is shown below.

There are many factors that determine our lifespan - including genetics and lifestyle choices. It is quite difficult to say how long you will live, therefore it's fairly reasonable to plan for the average age. If you retire at age 65, you'd have 10 to 15 years of retirement. 10 golden years. That seems like enough time, right? Maybe. The other thing people may not consider is quality of life toward the end of retirement. Your body continues to break down. Most things, including you, will fail at some point.

I work at an aerospace company that designs and manufactures aircraft engines. We design engine parts to last a certain amount of time. In many cases, we'd like for them to last as long as possible, but nothing lasts forever, given constant wear and tear. We need to determine the life of major parts of the engine and replace them after they have reached that threshold. This life and threshold is not the average life of the particular part. If we imagine the engine part as a human, the threshold we limit the part to would not be 65 years. Rather, it would be about 45 years. Why? Because we don't want to risk the part failing during a flight. This risk is in the form of a probability. Looking at the graph above, you can tell  that the probability of failing before 45 years is quite low. 

So, you may end up in one of two scenarios:

Dying young: "I wish I had lived more when I was younger"

Living long: "I wish I had saved more when I was younger"

In my opinion, you really need to strike a balance. Enjoy your life while you're young while saving for retirement. Sadly, I know there are many who aren't able to do either, let alone one of these things. Given the probability of dying and quality of life when I'm much older, ideally I'd like to retire 10 years earlier than the average retirement age of 65. In order to do this, I need to have a strict budget and make sure to plan accordingly. I'm lucky enough, as of now, to be able to achieve financial independence by this age while still being able to enjoy life right now.

TEDx talk on retirement:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSHNDyinZSQ&ab_channel=TEDxTalks

Lifespan data:

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-histograms-of-life-span-distribution-for-a-4-760-deceased-genotyped-and_fig1_224848174

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Histogram-of-estimated-number-of-deaths-per-one-year-age-intervals-Probability-density_fig2_281513046

Social Security benefits:

https://www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/IncRetAge.html#:~:text=The%20original%20Social%20Security%20Act,increasing%20the%20normal%20retirement%20age.

Autumn in New England

 

I've been living in New England for most of my life. Currently I live in Boston, the largest city in New England. I think I would like to experience living elsewhere, but I can't say I have much to complain about. Sure, shoveling snow can be annoying, but on average it's really only required a handful of times per year. Yes, it gets cold in the Winter and hot in the Summer - but the extremes don't last very long. You get to experience each distinct season. I think it's beneficial to your mental health to experience these types of changes. How boring would it be if the trees always looked the same? When the cool autumn air greets you in the morning, it's very nostalgic and it heightens your senses. It somehow gives me a feeling of joy and hope. The excitement of the year's first snowfall. The first day you're able to wear shorts in the late Spring gives me motivation to explore.

I love the asymmetrical coloring of the leaves -->

I saw this interesting assortment of plants..a bush with jagged green leaves (apparently often consumed with sushi), another one with red leaves, and a bright red flower growing at the base.

<-- Zoomed In

Zoomed Out -->

I love bright orange leaves. They always make me stop in my tracks and admire for a few moments before moving on with my day.

Crossing my fingers for a victory for these two in a few days -->

New England is a set of very blue states. We could definitely afford (and I would encourage) a large migration of liberals/democrats to some purple states like Ohio, Florida, or Iowa. The country as a whole would  be better off. Sadly, these three states aren't very appealing for me personally).

A hospital for women near my apartment. Looks like a mansion or mini castle (note: I love castles).

Lovely sidewalk view -->

Closeup of one of the trees in photo above.

Below 3 photos are from a park right across the street.

Green, red, orange, yellow....pretty!

<-- Along the emerald necklace bike/walk path

Walden Pond, Concord MA -->

The Money Pit

Assuming you have an income, aside from unavoidable taxes, you have the choice on where your money goes. However, if you are not careful, it can seem like your money is disappearing into pit or black hole. Unless you really sit down and write down all your bills and expenses, it's hard to know exactly where you money is going and in what percentage of your total income. This is why you need a budget. 

As I become more financially literate, I wonder why I did not learn this stuff earlier. Why has no one told me about it? Why did I not learn this in school? College?

You start to wonder if there is someone benefiting from me not knowing how to properly manage my finances. By me not being financially independent, others are benefiting. My money goes somewhere if it's not in my pocket afterall. I'm now convinced policy makers and school curriculum makers keep this knowledge out of our hands for their benefit. Someone is actively working to keep others ignorant. 

Imagine if we're all required to learn the basics of investing for retirement in high school or college? How about just basic personal finance? Imagine if we were all educated on how credit cards and credit scores worked? I feel if we were all given this proper education, there might not be such gigantic wealthy inequality in the United States. 

If people really understood where there money was going, how interest rates worked, and how important it was to save money for retirement, people would be in less debt and have a much better financial outlook.

So much critical information is hidden from you. Legally, this information is public. But, the only way you learn something is if you seek it out or if someone teaches it to you.

I'm embarrassed and angry to admit I didn't know the existence and value of an individual retirement account (IRA) until age 35. Knowing about the benefits now, I really wish I started one 10 years ago. I lost out on A LOT of savings.  But, how was I supposed to know? I discovered the existence of IRAs randomly during a conversation with an older coworker. Luckily my employer signs up all of their employees with a 401K plan by default. Besides the 401K I had with my employer, I had no idea there was another retirement/investment vehicle I should have been taking advantage of.

Even then, I didn't know all the details of the 401K. I suppose it's partly my fault for not looking into it, but let's face it, personal finance and saving for retirement is boring! I figured I was young and didn't need to worry about it yet. My first job out of college put me in a fund with a very high expense ratio by default. I didn't discover this until earlier this year. I had no idea I had the option to change this. In retrospect I feel I was somewhat taken advantage of. Luckily my current employer has a very low expense ratio for the default fund.

In addition to the hidden information, there is also a lot of misinformation that spreads. Believe it or not, some people believe that you need to carry a balance on your credit cards in order to build credit. That's crazy! Even more crazy, many people carry balances in general and end up paying astronomical amounts in interest. 

Some misinformation is hard to decipher. You really need to educate yourself and sometimes read between the lines. I often read that many people avoid investing because it's too risky. The thing is, it is risky. But, it's not too risky if you do it right. There's risk involved in most things you do. The fact is, investing over the long term in right funds carries very little risk. Another scary fact is that on the flip side if you don't invest, you're at very high risk of not being able to retire. 

In general I'm pretty disgusted with America's education system. But now, my feelings are stronger. Why are we forced to learn about the Unit Circle and systems of equations, but not how to balance a checkbook? I majored in mathematics in college, so I'm one who appreciates the study of the subject - however most of us will never use the more complex stuff in our lives. If there is a curriculum change in the future for pre-college years, teach up until basic algebra. After that, teach personal finance.

Personal finances should be a required class all high school students need to take before they can graduate. But guess what? Since it's not a requirement, certain wealthy people and corporations are benefiting from our ignorance. Are we set up to fail? It does seem that way. But, if you are ask good questions, do your own research, or be lucky enough to have someone inform you, you may just be okay.

Sources / Additional links 

https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/jec6tc/dow_jones_falls_410_points_as_covid19_stimulus/

Frames per Second, Blinks per Lifetime

Frames per second, one typical measure of a video capturing device. The more, the better. Video is simply a bunch of sequential pictures (frames) displayed very quickly back to back. The more frames per second you display, the more seamless the video is. 

Here's a simple animation I created in 2005. It's a style called 'stop-motion'.

https://youtu.be/LrogHSFyhtk

This video probably has an average framerate of 6 or so frames per second. It's 30 seconds long, which means this video is comprised of approximately 182 individual photos. I bent the paper clip, took a picture, bent it again, took another picture and so on. As you can tell it's pretty choppy. If I took more photos between each bend of the paperclip, the video would be much smoother. If you've ever seen films from Tim Burton like The Nightmare Before Christmas or Corpse Bride, this is exactly the kind of animation he uses. It's an insane amount of work! In any case..

Lately, my life seems to have been speeding up. It also feels like experiencing less frames per second. I seem to be jumping from one point in my life to the next in the blink of an eye. I feel like I'm missing out on so many moments in between. It's almost as if my body's 'camera' for capturing life has degraded over time as I've gotten older, giving me less frames per second. 

But, is it really age related? Maybe it has something to do with being busy with work and graduate school. Perhaps when I have more free time I won't feel like this. It may also have something to do with constant distractions like social media and smartphone addiction. We pick up our smartphones an unhealthy number of times per day. Checking text messages, social media notifications, refreshing Twitter or Reddit to get that quick shot of dopamine. Before we know it, the day is over. Huge blocks of time disappear. Was it time well spent? Likely not. 

I need to take control of my life's camera. I need to capture all the precious moments that I have. Not only capture those moments, but fill them with meaning. I can't let them just pass by without much notice. I need to create a story. Add color, excitement. Or, simply enjoy the moment, perhaps in form of meditation. Most importantly I need to be there, engaged, living in those moments. I don't want to be distracted by things that ultimately don't matter. 

The other day I caught myself in one of those distracted states that may cause your life to fast-forward. I snapped out of what felt like hypnosis, jumped out of my chair and bolted out of my door and headed up to the roof and spend the next 20 minutes there to observe the city around me, witness the sunset, and snap a few photos while I was there. Afterward, I felt more at peace. More alive. More conscious. 

Appreciate and take advantage of all of moments you have! Grab hold and take control. Take yourself in a different direction. Go for a walk! Go a different route than usual. Go sit on a bench of you've never sit on before. Walk down a street you've never been down. This is a pretty common practice to increase your mental health. Just wander aimlessly:

https://www.mindful.org/aimless-wandering-mindfulness-practice-video/

A similar term for the same technique is flaneuring. Flaneur: an idle man around town. Another is forest bathing.

Another problem I think we have nowadays is technology-induced attention deficit. We can't focus. When we're awake, we go from one topic to the next. Our eyes are constantly looking around, never really focusing on anything for more than a few seconds. Rapid eye movement or REM is what occurs during our deep sleep. REM is good during sleep, but when we're awake we need to make sure to control and slow down our eye's movement. 

There are many methods and techniques to control our focus and mental health and awareness, which include many forms of meditation. What I like to do sometimes is to shut all the lights off and light a candle. All I do is focus on the flickering flame. That's all that matters for the time being. Lose yourself in the flame. Let your mind go blank. Breath deeply. Don't look away. Blink slowly. This might be boring at first, but keep at it and until you feel calm. Life's distractions will try to pull you away. Don't let them. Focus on what matters, which right now is this small manifestation of light energy dancing in the air.

Sources:

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/07/17/536676954/forest-bathing-a-retreat-to-nature-can-boost-immunity-and-mood

https://lifehacker.com/how-and-why-you-should-wander-aimlessly-1845464723

https://www.mindful.org/aimless-wandering-mindfulness-practice-video/

It's Okay To Be Different

Not many of my posts here contain pictures. Here's one with 3 pictures! I captured all of these over the past weekend in Boston. Unusual, but totally acceptable growth patterns. As said in Jurassic Park, "life finds a way". 

This first one is along the Emerald Necklace path, Boston. 

Baby tree decides, 'I want to be an 'S' when I grow up.'

Along a sidewalk in Jamaica Plain, Boston

'I'll just grow here, in this old dead stump... that okay with you?'

Found at one of the entrances that lead to Jamaica Pond in Jamaica Plain, Boston.

'Gravity is a pain... in the bark! That's okay, I've got this.' (FYI: perfectly healthy tree)