Free time – beneficial or detrimental?

Since the creation of food storage methods, Man have been able to free up time from hunting.

Without the ability to store food, we had to constantly hunt and worry about the next meal.

But with storage methods, we can now store food over a longer period (and through tough periods too).

I believe this is the secondary reason for the speedy evolution of man.

Today, we are exploring automation, AI and many more ways to reduce the need for man hours.

In the future, we could have cities running seamlessly, without the need for human intervention or labor.

What would the free time be used for?

Futurists and philosophers think that humans will take over high level thinking positions. And the human race will improve and evolve even faster.

But really?

Take a look around you.

What do people really do with their free time?

We should learn how we can exploit the free mental energy that will be unlocked if automation and AI really comes to fruition and are executed.

But, be aware.

The time will not be free.

If you are not the entrepreneur or leader, your mental energy will never be yours.

You will ultimately need to trade it for something else.

Which side would you play on?

Would your time be beneficial or detrimental?

Ulysses Pact - how to prevent your future self from screwing up

Ulysses (aka Odysseus) is a Greek hero and King in Homer's Odyssey which describes his journey home after a long, drawn out war. Along the way, his ship had to pass by the Sirens, whose songs were said entice sailors to change course and suffer a shipwreck. Like any of us, he was curious about the Sirens' songs and he wanted to hear them for himself. But he also wanted to make it back home without a shipwreck. What did he do? Source: Wikipedia As the captain of his ship, he ordered all his men to cover their ears with wax so that they do not get seduced by the Sirens' songs. Next, he made a pact with his men to bind him up on the mast, to ignore his demands of changing the course of the ship while they passed the Sirens and to have their swords on hand in case he breaks free from the mast. They survived the journey passed the Sirens without a shipwreck. This became known as Ulysses Pact or Ulysses Contract - a decision made in free-will today,...

‘Free’

Should ‘Free’ consumers be treated as customers? If you have been in the business scene / entrepreneur scene for some time, you’d have noticed a common advice from the veterans. “Don’t give your products/services away for free”; simply because ‘free’ customers are the most difficult to deal with. I’ve had the same experience myself. I think this stems from 2 issues; Internal ‘Struggle’ When you give your time/product/service for free, there’ll always be a internal debate of “how much time/effort should I be spending on this project”. This struggle will always be present, whether conscious or not. I find myself holding back for free projects at time, especially when coupled with the 2nd issue. (generally) Demands from the free consumer It could be a general bias that stems from the previous point. But I’ve found that free consumers tend to ask for more. Or try to get more than what was originally promised. Since its all ‘free’, the additional requests cost nothing to th...

Midlife Crisis at work - who's to blame?

There are many causes of midlife crisis. But if the workplace is the main trigger, it could very well the fault of the manager. At least that's what Lencioni suggests in his book: 3 Signs of a Miserable Job Using a long fable to illustrate his triangle of job misery, Lencioni has kept me on edge for a good 2+ hours as I followed the journey of Brian and his adventures to revitalize a small single owner restaurant and a chain of sports stores using: The Triangle of Job Misery Lencioni busts the myth about the role of a manager, which is often assumed to be to strategize and push profitability or pushing papers and reporting on financials. Rather than the above, a manager should...manage. And the Triangle of Job Misery gives managers a simple framework to manage their team. They should aim to reduce the following. Irrelevance: This is when a member feels as though their work isn't important or relevant. People need to be needed, and they need to be told so of...

the subtle lessons

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