If you want to gain power, you have to break something.
In this case, it is drilling through the wooden floor so we can pull cabling to the kitchen island for a powerpoint.
But, I guess it could be used as a metaphor for gaining power of any kind - even if what needs to be broken is our own understanding of the power structures we know and "love". Love being used, because despite us not actually liking them, we seem to support their creation. Just look at all of those apocalyptic shows and movies and note that as soon as there are no rules, they start to build the rules that they know - the leader roles, the governance, the hierarchy and bureaucracy again - we are our conditioning - Creatures of habit.
Our habits define us in so many ways and are the driving force behind our results. Sure, luck and random play a huge role, but we can't control those, we can't drive them, just be prepared - and that preparation comes through controlling our habits. Good habits lead us to where we want to be, bad habits work against us to lead us away again, and at any one time, both are in play to some degree, there are always conflicts.
I was reading an article just before on a survey conducted by a bank, where one third of women feel that their financial situation is an obstacle to divorce. This makes sense, because in general, women don't earn as much as men and, they have less invested, even though usually they have more cash saved. There are various reasons for this, but it also raises an observational question from my own relationships past and present;
The habit of disinterest.
I have been on Hive and in crypto for almost six years now and while I have tried to get my wife involved to some degree, she just doesn't have the desire. She is happy enough that I do it and is interested in the potential, but actually participation has been very hard for her. This could be due to the perceived technical hurdles of crypto.
However, I was with my ex for six years and she wasn't interested in anything financial either, so as long as the bills were paid and we were surviving, there was no interest in the investment side of things. Most of my friends are women and on average, they are much the same, being far less interested in investment participation, even if they are good with their money, meaning they don't spend it on frivolity. Similarly, when I talk with my coupled-up male friends, they say the same, as while we are talking about the state of the economy, potential investments and the like, they mention that they can't have these conversations with their partners.
Extrapolate this interested and disinterested counterpoints out to eight billion people, and of course there are going to be variations in outcomes, as habit drives our behavior more than our thoughts. Even if we think we want more money, it doesn't mean our body goes through the processes to actually have more and this also affects other aspects of employment at the meta scale, which could at least in part explain some of the pay variance between men and women.
But, at the personal social level, should it be up to me to include my wife in my interests, or is it up to her to be interested because I am? After all, I am expected to be interested in her interests, regardless of whether they are interesting to me or not and, I'm happy to be, because I want to be part of her life and if she likes something, the least I can do is listen and learn about it, even if it does nothing to improve my skillset or capabilities in any way.
I wonder though - if we could collect the men and women who are equally interested in investing, which would perform better? In general, women are risk averse (again with many possible reasons), but they are also generally better able to control their instant gratification urges, which is a form of risk mitigation. Men seem to FOMO on opportunity, women seem to play more cautiously - the outcomes can go either way.
In terms of habits though, which path is going to end up having a better financial position, the one that actively takes interest in wealth generation, or the one that does the bare minimum? I think that on average and observed over time, the answer would be pretty clear, because that is the same for everything. For example, a person interested in dancing and who goes to lessons and practices, is going to very likely be better than someone who has no interest, doesn't learn and just moves however they do when music plays.
Is generating wealth a skill?
I think so. Or at the very least, there are learnable rules and conditions that can be applied to affect outcomes, and those who are interested in exploring these are going to more likely break their current habits and build new ones that will better satisfy the generation path. And those who decide not to learn about finance, will maximize whatever are they do focus their time and energy upon. That makes sense in my head, even if what that time is spent on, isn't valuable to us at all.
For example, I know a guy who two decades ago spent 70,000€ doing up a car that was worth less than 20K when he sold it, but, he also didn't own a fridge in his rental apartment, or a couch. His focus was elsewhere than wealth generation and he got the results accordingly. Some of my female friends were saying "what a waste of money" but, just because they have more in the bank, does that mean they aren't wasting it?
Money is a tool with which we can buy things. Yes we can buy a car or a holiday experience, but we can also by investments that generate income too or, not buy something and leave it in the bank to be eaten away by inflation - that is a waste too, isn't it?
A waste of investment potential.
There are a lot of social considerations in the background of this conversation, but I also think that we have to start taking responsibility for ourselves and acting more toward where we want to be. This means, we have to investigate where we are now and why, and at least to some degree, our own habits are holding us back from the future we want.
We can't control everything, but if we want to change something, we have to be interested enough in the things that affect it, to change ourselves first. If we want economic power, we have to empower ourselves.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
