I get distracted easily. This can easily be inferred via a brief examination of any blog or tweet I’ve penned longer than 32 characters. Over the past few months as I’ve “focused” myself towards career “excellence”, I’ve felt trapped by it. I belive that it’s mostly been negative, having a job. Even if AV is somewhat interesting. I’m still being coerced into having to be someplace at a certain time for 2/3 of the month. It’s annoying for something to nag on my space AND my time. I guess being human is all about navigating our limitations in clever ways. Now I finally get my chance. I’m saving up money to start my watch trading business. This one should do serious numbers.

I’m in my red room with a hoodie and a full stomach. I’m back to normal. Or… it feels like it. As I type to forget before I forget to type, I know that the stars above me are setting themselves down to rest. I can rest too if I choose, but I cannot. Alas, stars are not heroes because they are not universal constructors. They are marvelous, dazzling — like trees — but they cannot subsume the mental heritage of my race, so they are of no present interest to me. I seek truth and I care for beauty. Another day passes and I forget my moral imperative: daily wisdom-acquisition, according to Munger and Cicero, but I am still a hero because I set my moral compass, and I followed it. Life can be a dream when avoiding the present, but to live means to be present, as the most meaning is found in the cascade of novelty once the ego becomes still. This is Thoreau and Whitman’s most profound contribution to humanity: translating the subtle oriental philosophies into modern life. Star Wars too.

My latest forays have been related to my job so that I can have more comfort in being good at my job. I think that’s a fine way to spend time if I’m having fun, but most of the time it’s just drudgery. AV is robot work. I would rather be pursuing deep tech one day. For now, computer science is fine, like the web dev I’m learning is cool. Ruby on Rails to create a web app for my job. An app called Starlet to automate gear allocation conflicts per-event for the upcoming months is useful. A beautiful UI is useful. Some bitmap-esque font, glyphs, and a TUI a-la-LazyVim in a browser would be so fun to work with everyday. I’ve mostly given the project to AI after I planned out the MVP, but then I plan to reverse-engineer it. I want to make my website for alfredos.blog and alfredoand.co using Rails as well, and maybe use a similar UX. But I haven’t studied any Rails today. And regarding my AV “career” (I plan to quit 12 months after I buy my first watch), I told myself I was going to study for my CTS certification, which is kind of fun, and pretty useful for work. But I didn’t.

Steven Universe, why is it so familiar? I’ve felt this ever since I first dropped out of community college all those years ago (my 40-yr-old self laughs). I abhor coersion. I can feel it from a mile away, the intense lack of empathy. What is the cure? I don’t want principles, hacks, prescriptions, 5-step programs… 5-step pogroms. Reading Deutsch helped me understand why I have such an aversion to school. That understanding abated my anger, and now that important heartache of my history has been extrapolated into something productive. Rather than be angry at my teachers and parents and colleagues, I knew even before that knowledge, that I had to move forward. Something keeps pulling me forward. Man’s search for meaning, or reason & rationality, from which philosophy and moral advancements stem; science and technological advancements as well. I am the same human as the man who invented fire, with the holy power of rational memes & rational optimism. My problem-set is unique, and so are my genes. The latent / potential energy of these ingredients are of no present interest to me. Napoleon and I share statures. It’s all mental. It’s all possible. Problems are soluble.

Watch trading will help me earn enough money to be free from my immediate coersion. The next level will be more complex, as I’ll be playing the millionaire game. Then, I quit. Thoreau has tips on that.

The title is in relation to the fashionable aka timely nature of my hobbies. I am in search of timeless, holistic solutions. Not to be confused with universal ones, because those tend to be found accidentally.