Plenitude: the new economics of true wealth

After Homeward Bound I read "Plenitude: the new economics of true wealth" by Juliet Schor. I had read another of her books, The Overworked American, at university so her name was familiar when I saw this book referenced in Homeward Bound.  I hadn't read an economics book since university but it was quite an easy read and was pretty inspiring.

The book sets out why the "business as usual economy" is incompatible with the current environmental challenges we face.  Schor points out that the blinkered pursuit of economic growth is contributing to excess consumption, waste, intense resource use and long working hours.  She puts forward a new way - the Plenitude model - which is based on four principles:

1. reduced hours of market work
2. high productivity self provisioning
3. "true materialism" - an environmentally aware approach to consumption
4. revitalisation of community and social connection

All sounds lovely doesn't it? Initially I felt a little cynical about these ideas and thought they were only really the choices that people can make when they are wealthy enough to have that luxury. But Schor hasn't written this book to convince the rich to change their ways, she has ideas for everyone.

The appeal of fewer hours of market work is obvious, but the downside is having less money. The book covers both of these dynamics, and I really liked this quote:

"...income is positional but leisure time is not. The benefits of more vacation days or shorter hours are durable, remaining even when others gain free time."

In other words if you had a 5% pay rise but everyone else got 10%, you'd probably feel hard done by even though you have extra money. But if you have more leisure time you'll enjoy what you have even if others have even more.  

On the productivity point, I wondered how we are meant to achieve this if we are doing everything ourselves? Homeward Bound talks about the downside of spending all your time in the garden or in the kitchen...Schor instead focuses on innovations to maximise output so time is freed up for other things. One such innovation that she talks about is the vertical garden.  Highly productive, they have been used on tower blocks, they can reduce energy consumption by insulating a building to keep it cool in summer and warm in winter, purify the air and look beautiful...wow.  I looked up the French landscaper Patrick Blanc, who invented the Vertical Garden and the results are amazing...as you can see here.

The concept of "true materialism" is about caring about the things we have and what we buy, not over buying and throwing away.  There is a great section in the book on fast fashion, i.e. buying cheap, low quality stuff and throwing it away as soon as fashion changes (or it falls apart).  Schor doesn't think we should be living in homemade hessian sacks, she'd rather we buy special things we'll love and keep for as long as possible.  I have to say...this did put me off shopping in the January sales (well, not completely).

The last principle is about community and social connections. If you're spending less time at work then of course you will have more time to spend with other people.  One of the other things Schor talks about is how self provisioning can bring you closer to your neighbours, and I know this to be true based on our own early endeavours in back yard growing. After a glut of green beans we ended up distributing them to the neighbours and it was always a nice excuse for a chat.

All in all a powerful book that made me think about what we spend our money on, whether we really need that stuff, and what we throw away.

Hacking your Education

I've had my nose stuck in Hacking your Education by Dale J Stephens since I wrote my last post.  It's aimed at young people contemplating university, and I've already been, so I've been reading out of curiosity rather than to learn tips to apply to my life. Was it still a worthwhile read? Yes...

In a nutshell, the book is pretty much a "how to" guide for any young person who wants to map out their own path outside the traditional (and expensive) university route and get a great job or start their own business at the end of it. It's full of case studies of friends and acquaintances who, for whatever reason, didn't attend university at all or dropped out and made successes of themselves through grit, determination, good luck and a fair amount of blagging and hustling.

Stephens thinks there are 3 main reasons why we go to university: the social experience, to get a job, and to learn for learning's sake.  He argues we can get these things in the real world, without having to pay out for university and have more fun in the process.

So far, so good. But how? Stephens has tonnes of suggestions.  Figure out what you're really interested in.  Commit to learning outside the classroom. Make a to-learn list, find someone or a group of people to keep you accountable, and put yourself out there (he suggests setting up a personal website that becomes your online portfolio of experiences).  Learn in groups with other like minded people. Figure out your talents and how you learn best. Find mentors and teachers. Network, have lots of coffees. Use technology, become a writer or a programmer! Gate crash conferences and university lectures! Take advantage of free educational resources. Have your 2 minute pitch ready! Start up a company. Travel the world! Don't pursue traditional jobs through traditional routes (never send in your CV!). Get a job through your network. They'll call you! (Well, sort of - that happened to some of the people in the case studies). Phew. As he says at the start, this is not a book about dropping out and taking the easy option.

In the book he also talks about Peter Thiel, the tech entrepreneur and co-founder of PayPal, who set up the Thiel Fellowship in 2010 to give grants to people under 20 to spur them to quit college and pursue their own ventures (Stephens is part of this programme). This quote from Thiel made me think back to my post on expectations:

"The problem that exists with schooling is that it ends up convincing most people that they're mediocre, and then the talented people get regrouped and are forced to compete with each other, and then most of them get convinced they're mediocre as well, and you sort of cycle and repeat, until people's dreams and aspirations are badly beaten out of them over time." 

What did I learn from all of this? Well, I had no idea that universities like MIT in the US had made their course materials available for free online (yes, really! See here). Not only that, you can listen to university lectures on iTunes U, including from Harvard, which I think is pretty amazing.  I'm tempted to take a few modules...  Also the case studies in Hacking your Education are full of examples of young people basically designing their own jobs, just as Roman Krznaric suggests in How to Find Fulfilling Work.  It's reinforcing the message to put aside other people's expectations and do your own thing.

On reflection, it made me realise that there are loads of examples of people who have "hacked their education".  Dynamo the magician (who I wrote about here) could quite easily have been a case study in this book. Someone else I'm a fan of, the writer Caitlin Moran, could have been too - she educated herself in her local library and subsequently blagged her way to becoming a writer. Also, these twin sisters taught themselves to embroider by watching youtube videos and are now sought after artists.  I find these stories so inspiring. You can learn anything you want! It's all out there waiting for you.

How to Thrive in the Digital Age

I had a mini obsession with the School of Life books recently, and read 5 of 6 of the first series of books in quick succession. Then I convinced a good friend to ask for the whole set for her upcoming birthday (handy, because they weren't all available at my local library - thanks Alex!).  I haven't managed to blog about them all yet...but given some of my recent ramblings about technology it seemed like a good time to write about "How to Thrive in the Digital Age" by Tom Chatfield.

I picked up this book purely because it was in the School of Life series, I didn't have any particularly strong views on technology or the digital age, so wouldn't have chosen to read it based on the subject alone. I haven't got an iphone or an ipad (I know, how do I survive!), but I've got a Facebook account, this blog, a work email account, 2 personal email accounts, a mobile, a Blackberry and an insulin pump (I'm type 1 diabetic). That's enough technology for me.

Chatfield makes some interesting observations in the book. Since technology has become mobile, we've experienced a huge increase in media consumption.  We don't need to set aside special time to use it, we can be "plugged in" all the time and multi task with technology while doing other things.  Despite all the advances in technology, we have not found a way of increasing the amount of time we have available in a day.  Obviously technology has enabled us to use the time we do have more efficiently and be more productive, but it has also created lots of new ways to waste time.  It also means we are more available to others, more of the time, and can be more easily interrupted.  

Chatfield argues that we need to be more mindful about how we use technology, and makes the case for carving out plugged and unplugged time.  He remarks on the fact that people are becoming more interested in holidays where they can venture "off the grid" to places with no mobile phone reception - being uncontactable is our ultimate idea of luxury.  One of the best holidays I've had in the last few years was when I was pregnant with my first child - my husband and I drove around Tasmania and over the course of 8 days I only had mobile and blackberry reception on 2 of them (in the main towns, Hobart and Launceston). Once the reception bars disappeared it was utter bliss being totally present in the moment, watching what was going on around us, talking to each other, and not being bothered by anyone. It wasn't a luxurious holiday by any stretch but we relaxed completely, and being unplugged was a big factor. We couldn't google things to do in whatever area we were in, we had to talk to people and ask for recommendations and write things down!  It was no surprise to me to read in this month's Elle magazine that e-tox breaks are being offered at an upmarket resort in Tasmania, although at astronomical cost!  Although it costs nothing to switch off your own devices and stick them in a drawer, some people clearly need a bit of help and encouragement to do so.

So if you're not going on a cold turkey break like this, how do you build unplugged time into your every day life?  For a long time, I was the sort of person who would check my blackberry last thing at night and first thing in the morning.  Not anymore. Earlier this year I read an article (Is There Life After Work?) by Erin Callan who said she realised only after losing her high powered job in finance that she had slipped into this habit (along with various other workaholic tendencies), to the detriment of all her other relationships, and when the work was gone she realised there wasn't much else left in her life.  As a working mother, time in the morning with my kids is precious (even though it's hectic and messy getting everyone out the door sometimes) and I have imposed a rule on myself that I won't check my blackberry until my kids are up, dressed, breakfasted and ready to go.  It's about priorities I guess. I don't always manage to stick to this rule but I'm trying hard.  

Wading through Walden Pond

I have been reading Walden this week by Henry David Thoreau.  It's something I thought I should read given the number of other books that have referenced him and his ideas.  He's quoted all over the place.  This book was written in the 19th century and is about the author's experience of living away from civilisation in a house he built himself at Walden Pond, when he maintained himself for 2 years without any formal "job".

There are some brilliant flashes of wisdom and funny observations, much of which are still relevant today, but the bits in between aren't so engaging and I've found my mind wandering off (which is why it's taking me ages to read...).  That said, I thought I'd take stock now by sharing some of the highlights for me so far.

On what we wear (and why we bother wasting money on more clothes than we need):

"No man ever stood the lower in my estimation for having a patch in his clothes; yet I am sure that there is greater anxiety, commonly, to have fashionable, or at least clean and unpatched clothes, than to have a sound conscience." 

"It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes."     

"I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes." 

"Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new."

On housing (and keeping up with the Joneses):

"Most men appear never to have considered what a house is, and are actually needlessly poor all their lives because they think that they must have such a one as their neighbours have."

On luxury rail travel (he sounds unimpressed with the railways throughout the book to be honest):

"I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion."

Later he says:

"If we do not get out sleepers, forge rails, and devote days and nights to work, but go on tinkering upon our lives to improve them, who will build railroads? ... But if we stay at home and mind our business, who will want railroads? We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us."

On avoiding life's complications:

"Our life is frittered away by detail...Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail."

He would have enjoyed the internet:

"If we live in the Nineteenth Century, why should we not enjoy the advantages which the Nineteenth Century offers? Why should our life be in any respect provincial? If we will read newspapers, why not skip the gossip of Boston and take the best newspaper in the world at once?"

Anyway, back to wading for me.

Magic, according to Dynamo

My parents were visiting recently from the UK (I moved to Australia 7 years ago) and we were catching up on what we were into watching on the TV. They started raving about Dynamo, a British Magician, who I had never heard of.  My mum grabbed the remote control and started cruising the channels, and, lo and behold, Dynamo's show was on TV at that very moment.  Since then I have been mildly obsessed with him (much to my husband's amusement).  He has made it onto this blog because I just read the book about his life, Nothing is Impossible.

First of all, if you haven't seen his TV shows, seek them out - they are highly entertaining and completely baffling.  I started out a cynic but was quickly sucked in.  When I first saw him performing magic on TV I felt a strange sensation of delight and disbelief that often made me burst out laughing.  I was talking about him in the office the other day and one of my (completely normal, sane) colleagues said "He just brings joy!" Exactly.   

What is magic anyway? Dynamo quotes Joseph Dunninger (he says he was a pioneer of magic):

"For those who believe, no explanation is necessary; for those who do not, none will suffice." 

This reminds me of the end of the Life of Pi and its religious undertones. Dynamo reflects on this quote and says:

"I think magic is a feeling, it's an emotion. It's something that is brought out in someone when they're witnessing something they can't explain. They think, I can't explain that, it must be magic."

Secondly, please don't dismiss this book as a shallow "celebrity autobiography". It's not.  This book is an inspiring story about standing up to bullies, coping with a chronic illness (Crohn's disease) and long spells of hospitalisation, the life transforming influence of his grandfather (who introduced him to magic) and being totally focused on magic and excelling at it. It's about taking opportunities, joining forces with other people, having great ideas and being dedicated to pursuing them. He's a great role model.  Despite all his success and celebrity friends he comes across as being completely modest and down to earth.

It's funny, I was thinking while I was reading it that (by accident rather than by design I'm sure), Dynamo looks like he's ticked all the boxes Roman Krznaric talks about in "How to Find Fulfilling Work" - he's covered all the elements essential to meaning: he's cultivating his passions and talents (magic), he is doing work that makes a difference (entertaining people), he's earned money and gained status (fame and respect for his skills) - and pursued them in that order, which in my mind makes him seem like an all round great bloke.  He also ticks off flow (pursuing magic for its own sake, not the rewards it brings) and freedom to do as he pleases. Dynamo's found fulfilling work!

On freedom and "having it all"

In his book, How to Find Fulfilling Work, Roman Krznaric talks about the importance of freedom.  In the short section in the book on "freedom" he addresses, among other things, the idea of "having it all."

He quotes Shirley Conran, the British author and journalist, who wrote the 1975 book, Superwoman, in which she famously said "life's too short to stuff a mushroom".  She was lamenting the implicit message our culture is peddling that women who aren't able to shine in both their job and as mothers (while doing something esoteric on the side like learn Japanese) are somehow inadequate.

Krznaric brings a male perspective to the issue and reframes it as being relevant to both parents.  He thinks "can women have it all?" is the wrong question to be asking (I agree), and argues that the question should instead be:

"How can parents support each other so they can both have some of it all?"

I was at a drinks function after work one night last week and met two other women who were both qualified lawyers, one was looking after her children full time and one was working part time after returning from maternity leave.  This topic came up in conversation and I mentioned the "you can have it all, just not all at once" idea and they both said "that's what Quentin Bryce said".

Quentin Bryce is Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, and a pretty remarkable, inspiring woman. She said this in an interview in 2008 (you can see it here). My favourite quote is this, and I think it's relevant to men and women:

"For a very long time now I've been saying to young women, you can have it all, but not all at the same time. How important it is to take very good care of yourself, of your mental and physical and spiritual wellbeing, it's hard to do. It's easier to be a workaholic than to have a truly balanced life. It's very tough for a lot of women teetering on that tight rope of balance and balancing too many responsibilities."

How true.  It's so easy to let work take over sometimes, and so much harder to stop it.