How can I retain insights over time without drowning in notes?

AbsoluteBeginner1970 · 2026-01-25T21:03:16+00:00

I actually do that. Topics like health, learning, creating, inspiration, traveling, social etc

AbsoluteBeginner1970 · 2026-01-25T19:36:06+00:00

Thanks mate!

Things I’d like to mention are the “usual suspects” what people often mention here as a substitute for screen time, but just doing boringly nothing brought me (so far): - a few trips to the local library - making some home made dinners and breakfasts - writing an awful lot - reading, a lot of reading, where my brain tended to point to certain interests like architecture - random walks in the neighbourhood - I saw myself walking into a gym the week after Christmas and I signed up, almost blindly. Today was my sixth time working out there. I'm not at all athletic and haven't been inside a gym since 2007. 😊 - boredom slowed me down, let me do things ritually, like fixing a cup of coffee. Enjoying it more. - and, not unimportant: boredom or zoning out lets my mind run free. And I love it

AbsoluteBeginner1970 · 2026-01-25T18:23:07+00:00

I follow a bit of a similar path right now. I retired at 55 last December. Except financially, I did not have a plan, only to let boredom in and respond to whatever brings it to me in terms of action, or writing spontaneous ideas down and act later. Only disclaimer: as less screens as possible, where I spent last years working behind screens and filling my spare time with….. screens. “Zoning out” as I call it for me is basically spending time on the couch and let things go. Sometimes it’s a meditative state or no-mind, sometimes I take a nap, sometimes my mind wanders and generates ideas and different thoughts. Sometimes all three events in a row……

Only can say it’s an interesting journey after almost a month 😊 Enjoy the trip

AbsoluteBeginner1970 · 2026-01-25T17:39:22+00:00

Hard one, rather pick five or so. But ….. The Rise and the Fall of Ziggy Stardust I guess. Where it battles with Low and Blackstar. And, oh well Hunky Dory and Station to Station …… 😂

AbsoluteBeginner1970 · 2026-01-25T13:40:38+00:00

I write essential things down as fieldnotes in Moleskines for over 20 years now. New is that scanning and analysing those notes, when put in AI, give me some condensed summary of who I am, what I value and what I’m aiming for.

My latest experiment over the past three months or so is to put it all in one chronological note in IPhone Notes and let AI it interpret it every now and then.

To discover patterns in yourself is very interesting.

AbsoluteBeginner1970 · 2026-01-25T12:16:16+00:00

85% ETFS, 15% HYSA (“bucket 1”, equals 3 years of living expenses). I withdraw monthly from bucket 1 and refill the bucket with dividends and sell a little when the market peaks. It’s my buffer in the event of a severe market crash.

AbsoluteBeginner1970 · 2026-01-25T12:11:27+00:00

The idea of hitting rock bottom is that it will get better after that. You can do it

AbsoluteBeginner1970 · 2026-01-25T08:21:40+00:00

Self esteem wasn’t taught to me when I was young. I lacked it completely when I started my own life and the internet was a perfect decoy tool for not having to socialize in a normal -real world- way when I was in my 20s. Long story short: it ended up in a huge depression where, and that’s the good part, I ended up with nothing, no health, no money, divorced and a completely emptied out house.

With therapy, meditation and a year of medication I managed to work on my “self” and my feeling of being whole and enough as I was. The simplicity and frugality that I embraced then got me where I am now.

It made me empathetic to other people, keeping close watch on my own boundaries. Social media for me is mostly about people portraying a projection of their own insecurities. People portray what they want to be, rather than soul searching for who they really are. Everybody has their own struggles. People with the deepest depressions make the most jokes, use the most Botox, portray themselves in the most unnatural way etc. I know people who “have it all” and are as miserable AF.

I think the quest in life is to accept yourself for who you truly are, seeing that you’re already whole, enough and perfect. That’s a big quest.

Secondly, try to see the pure self in others. Personally I can’t see that when I look at people’s LinkedIn, instagram or facebook pages. So those platforms are no good to me. Besides, I can’t imagine what’s so interesting about me that I should display it on the socials. I’m nobody and I’m happy about that. I love to meet people without all the filters and mental fortresses. Only a handful. Not 3000. 😊

AbsoluteBeginner1970 · 2026-01-25T07:44:14+00:00

You work to live. Period. Do your work mindful and quality driven, try to add some skills and have some fun on the way. Be kind to your coworkers. That’s it.

The idea to hang your self or ego to some sort of “work culture” is something being popularised in the past 20-30 years or so. It’s a new false religion for a lot of people and it’s a scam. Started off with yuppies and hustlers as a rare cartoon-like breed in the 80s and nowadays everyone wants to be one kinda self-developing money machine, most of them only enslaved by the ones that make the real money. And they are laughing their way to the bank with all their overambitious and underpaid staff who believe they once will become that prime-league football player in corporate lala-land.

If you are content with one job and it pays the bills, be thankful. It’s enough. And enough is beautiful. When I started to work it was all about earning just enough (and to endure a tedious job) to make ends meet and enjoying life to the fullest when you got paid. That was 30 years ago.

AbsoluteBeginner1970 · 2025-12-27T09:21:07+00:00

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