Josh.works: Half-way through 2020, themes and books
Josh.works Monday Update
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This is a different email than the sorts you've gotten from me before, and I'm going to keep doing emails like this.
I've written two new blog posts recently, and I'll explain what/why later:
New Blog Posts:
Updates on the year, current status
I've written probably 60,000 words this year in various places, but almost none of it as blog posts on my website. I feel suspiciously close to being done "blogging", but I'm not sure what would replace it, or even why I'm so over it.
My father-in-law died somewhat unexpectedly mid-January, and my wife and I spent almost two months on the east coast helping her mom pick up the pieces. He had prepared for his death in many ways. His preparation was an incredible kindness to his family during those particularly challenging first few days after his death.
Next, I put in my notice and wrapped up my job in late March, and did a few months of contracting. I've wrapped up that contracting, and am working on a few different projects. More on those projects in future emails.
My father-in-law's death was weighty.
If you are human and think you might die, here are some resources I've found helpful in thinking about my own death:
Tactical items related to death:
- What Matters Most: The Get Your Shit Together Guide to Wills, Money, Insurance, and Life’s “What-ifs” Chanel Reynolds's husband was hit by a car while on a bike ride. In a vegetative state for a few days, and she had to decide what to do. They had not prepared for that moment, and an already difficult situation was made much harder by a lack of preparation. This book will help prioritize/game-plan actions to care for your family/survivors after your death.
- Term Life Insurance. Basically, you and the insuring company (USAA in my case) agree that if you die between now and a specific number of years from now, your surviving family gets a lump sum of money. Common terms are 20 years and 30 years. It is rather cheap, because it's statistically unlikely that you'll pay it out. Most people who are alive and well at 25 and 30 years old are going to live until they're 60. A healthy young professional could get a $1 million dollar policy for 30 years at $90/month, or $300k policy, 25 years, $35/month. Kristi and I use USAA. I would suggest exploring this yourself. It's super cheap when you start it while you still feel invincible and with no pre-existing health conditions, and if you die, your family will be left in good shape. I started my policy shortly after Kristi and I got married. If you've got a significant other, check it out. Here's NerdWallet on the topic.
- Password manager. Kristi and I use 1password religiously to manage all of our digital lives. I only know two passwords: my laptop password and my 1password password. After Kristi's dad died, we started rounding up all the passwords we could and saved them to our account, shared them with her brothers and mom, and now when her mom forgets a password, any of her kids can look at a single source of truth to see what it is. If I die, Kristi can access every single account I have because of my 1password account. Bank accounts, bills, email, etc. Imagine what accounts your loved ones would need access to if you died. Do they have access to them now?
Strategic items related to dying
- Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. I humbly propose that you give it a read.
- Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World's Largest Religion It's rare that I've found a book related to Jesus Christ that I'm comfortable making a general recommendation for. Most books get heavy qualifications. This book, on the other hand, is pretty good. Not perfect, but better than most books on the topic, which are terrible.
Those two blog posts
Like I said, I wrote two blog posts; it is part of some large updates I'm making on my Prepare for the Backend Program at Turing series.
Many (a few hundred) students over the years have worked through the series and found it to be helpful. Some have attributed their success in the program to the early exposure they got to important concepts in the series.
I'll talk more about Turing and this series in another email, but for now, two thoughts:
- Turing is completely remote right now, and will stay remote for a while. I've been advocating for Turing to many friends and family. Basically anyone who's considering college or any sort of graduate school/masters program would likely be better served (and far more quickly and affordably) by an institution like Turing.
- I was going back-and-forth in email with so many family members, friends, and prospective Turing students that I put this behemoth of a page online: 4500 words on Turing: https://josh.works/turing
- Josh
PS: George Floyd. I've started and deleted this sentence/paragraph a 25 different times. I literally don't know how to say what I want to say, which is some mix of:
The media makes money by creating division and conflict, so please, please, do not demonize "the other" based on what you pick up from news sources. Dan Carlin's 1.5hr podcast from April of this year is exceptional: A Recipe for Caesar (Common Sense with Dan Carlin podcast). He attempted this episode 30 times before finally publishing it.
Do you disparage any groups? Liberals, Trump supporters, boomers, NIMBY-ers, people who do/don't wear masks, #BlackLivesMatter, southerners, hillbillies, Hispanic people, immigrants, people from the Indian sub-continent, etc? If you single out a group and unilaterally dismiss it, you are intolerant. Please see: I Can Tolerate Anything Except The Outgroup (Scott Alexander). Most people say they're tolerant, but actually are not. If you don't see yourself as tolerant, no big deal, carry onward. If you see yourself as tolerant, please read the above post.
If you wanted to better understand what it's like living in, say, Japan, you should probably read a book written by someone who's spent time living in Japan. But a book written by someone who's seen a lot of YouTube videos about Japan? You wouldn't read that. To that end, if you have not read books by Black people about race in America, please prioritize Black authors. Here's The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin, from 1963. Such a good book, you can read it in almost a single sitting.
PPS: Apologies, sorta, for this monstrous email. I'm working on finding the right cadence for writing things online. I'm "digging out" of a six-month writing hole, so this email and the next few will all be a bit long. They still won't be more than 1 email a week. If you've got thoughts on this, or just wanna say 👍, hit reply and let me know!