Resolute Love

This past week people celebrated St. Valentine’s Day.  Also, I’m willing to bet this was the week that a lot of people gave up on their New Year’s Resolutions.  

Why is that?  Why do so many of us start off the year with a bang and then fizzle out 6 short weeks later?

It took me a long while to figure out how to set goals and actually achieve a few of them.  The past few years I’ve set about 7 or 8 goals and reached about 5 or 6 of them.  Not nearly where I’d like to be, but certainly better than before 2014.

First, I researched about how to set goals.  What makes a good goal?  Once I set the goal, what are the action steps to achieve that goal?  

I learned about SMART goals and breaking up goals into achievable chunks; instead of just the moon shot and feeling like a failure if I didn’t reach it today, right now.

After I started dating my wife, naturally I had to think of goals in that area.  Not everyone is into personal growth and productivity like I am but I do think everyone should at least have some goal or long term aim for their relationship.

Our amazing attempt at a heart :)

For us, I mainly set goals that are more like habits.  I try and make sure we either go to dinner or some other type of date a couple times a month.  I either write her a love letter or buy her chocolate or flowers once a month as well.

I’ve started using an app called ‘Goalmap’ that I really like, simple interface, simple to track and helps me stay focused.  

I would highly recommend it for anyone that wants to start implementing and tracking their goals.  Or for anyone who needs to get back on the New Year’s Resolutions wagon  :)

The Coming Crisis, Part 3

This is a follow up to my first 2 parts about ‘The Coming Crisis’.  

These are some basic recommendations about what might be part of the solution.

To refresh your memory, in my first 2 parts I wrote about how driverless technology has the capacity to wipe out millions of truck driving jobs.

So, the question is, what do we do about it in advance knowing that it’s coming?

I have loved the idea of a decentralized grid for electricity ever since I heard of it.  A simple way of thinking about a decentralized grid is that every other house would have a solar panel roof that would power itself and the house next to it.  

As it stands now, most cities in the USA have a centralized form of electricity generation.  In addition to being extremely inefficient, a centralized grid is also a huge security risk.  All you would have to do to knock out an entire city’s electricity is target a single power plant.

Solar power has come down in costs per kilowatt hour significantly in the past decade.  Now it’s just about competitive with fossil fuels, depending on who you ask and which fuel source is receiving how much in terms of subsidies.

Nuclear power is by far the most efficient fuel source.  Many people view this as a way forward.  The more I’ve thought about this coming jobs crisis though, the more I think we really ought to be looking more at solar.  

From what little I know about energy sources, it seems like nuclear carries quite a bit of risk.  Even if you can store the waste safely, it takes forever to build a nuclear plant and again the problem of a centralized power station is present.

Solar power requires way more manpower immediately for installation.  More manpower means more men (and women!) are needed, which of course provides more jobs.  I have no doubt that nuclear plants require a lot of manpower to build as well.  However, and to be sure I haven’t done the research on it, I’m guessing you can create many more jobs in many more areas of the country with solar roof installation.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could put unemployed people to work making and installing solar panels?

The Coming Crisis, Part 2

2 minute read

Economists reassure us that efficiency is a great thing and something we should welcome.  The people who lose their jobs as a result of creative destruction will be freed up to do more useful jobs that they find more satisfaction in.

I love the idea of efficiency and the promise that technology can offer for better standards of living around the world.  However, I am concerned about all the jobs that have been lost in the past and will continue to be lost in the future with the rapid and never ending pace of technological innovation.

What do you do in the modern economy when jobs are being replaced by machinery and new technology continuously? As a former teacher, I’m a big believer in education.  Undoubtedly though, we need to rethink at least some of our educational models.  

Retraining needs to be offered in a quick and efficient manner to get people back to work and earning an income again.  Also, what do you do during the time of retraining in order to avoid disincentivizing work?  If you offer an overly generous social safety net in the meantime, you run the risk of creating dependency, right?

Clearly, there are no easy answers.  It is something we do need to start thinking about and planning for though in my opinion.  Believe me, I love tech just as much as the next guy, but there are definitely downsides we need to evaluate more honestly.

One possible solution in my idealistic thought pattern over the past decade?  Put tons of people to work making and installing solar panels and other forms of renewable energy.  

The Coming Crisis

2 min read

Normally, I consider myself an optimist in relation to how things will improve in the world.  I still hold to that belief but there is something I am quite concerned about.  It is the potential to lose over 3 million jobs in the states and I’m sure many other countries as well, but it will most likely start in the USA.

What could possibly destroy 3 million jobs in one fell swoop?  Well, it won’t be in one fell swoop to be sure, but it is rather inevitable in my mind.

There’s a basic idea in modern economics known as ‘creative destruction.’  The premise is that many times when a new technology is created, it destroys jobs that it can replace easily.  It has happened again and again since the Industrial Revolution in particular.

The new technology that I predict will destroy 3 million or more jobs within 10 - 15 years?  Driverless vehicles, specifically semi trailers.

To be clear, as I have expressed to my wife and anyone else when the topic enters the discussion, I am hugely in favor of driverless vehicles.  Personally, I hate driving with a passion.

Additionally, the amount of car wrecks caused by human error is over 90%.  It stands to reason then, if you get rid of the human element of driving you drastically reduce the number of car wrecks.

In 2013 I commented to a friend that taxi drivers’ bigger concern one day would be driverless cars, not platforms like Uber and Lyft.  It would appear that is soon to be a reality rather than a crazy prediction.

Just how many jobs can and probably will be lost due to driverless technology?  Over 3 million truck drivers to start with. Taxi cab drivers, school bus drivers, city bus drivers.  The list goes on and on.