The best way to approach life is through subtraction getting rid of superfluous things and stuff — 

Why is subtraction so difficult?

First, we generally have this idea in principle that more is better. But, would you want more disease more annoyances,  more toxicity in your life?

No!

how and where and what to subtract?

So the primary thing to consider is how what where when to subtract things. 

For example, heat loss water loss, general principles.

First, money loss. If you have even a 3% small hole and leak within a bathtub, you’re going to be at like 0% water in a matter of minutes days weeks months etc.

Therefore a simple economic principle: when your expenses outstrips your income, even by a small person… You’re always going to be in the negative.

As a consequence, what you must logically do then is to plug a plug in the hole, prevent water loss, and also heat loss.

Heat

So, thinking about heat, heat loss, a general idea in principle is similar to speaking, let us say that your home is a cozy 71°, and overtime, it continues to drop like a degree a day. By the end of 100 days, you’re in -21°, and your family will literally freeze to death.

Therefore as a consequence, it seems like one of the most intelligent ways to approach life than is to stop the heat loss! For example, putting those moldings in which prevent heat from escaping your house, as well as maybe updating your window pains, window frames, which prevent you from losing heat through the windows. And through the cracks.

Concentration.

I think a general Zen principle is concentration and focus.

So for example, if you’re a magnifying glass, do you want to take the sun, and focus it on a very very central point, in order to focus to raise the sun, to even burn holes through metal.

I think the last 20-30 years, we have been indoctrinated into thinking that actually, diversification, being “well-rounded” is a virtue. For example, modern day society tells us it is better to be above average in many domains, rather than a genius savant in one.

And if you think about the way that society progresses, it is typically through the ex extreme genius of an individual in a single or a double domain.

For example, Michael Saylor and bitcoin. Elon Musk and electric vehicles, as well as reusable spaceship rockets.  Jay-Z and entrepreneurship. Kanye West and music and fashion.

Why is it so difficult to concentrate now?

I think the issue is that our iPhones, notifications, social media the news etc., is pulling us in all these directions, kind of like those cruel ancient ways in which they will tie an individual with opposing limbs to a bunch of horses, and then whip the horses, dismembering The individual by being pulled in all these different directions.

Typically my personal belief is when you overreach, rather than focusing on your core competency, things begin to languish.

For example, Apple is losing her focus, the number one simple focus is to just make the best iPhone possible, that should be like 90% of the focus of Apple. Rather, Apple is bridging into strange things like television TV shows, in which she has no skill in? Even Amazon, Amazon prime… Technically the real skill of Amazon is delivery delivery services and logistics, also, not really television or movies. It seems that all these companies in search of new products and profits, will diversify into fields which don’t really make sense, rather than once again, leveraging their Archimedes lever to one single thing. 

Focus.

For example, Google, Google search. This is like 99% of the focus of Google and should be the focus. Even Steve Jobs gave sage advice to Sergey and Larry, telling them not to go into that smart phone android market, and rather instead focusing on search. 

Why is focus so difficult?

I have a theory; it is considered a vice to focus on one thing, and dominate in that one domain.

Also, maybe a structural issue is with bureaucracy; do you have all these managers and middle managers in these big corporations and tech companies, trying to make a name for themselves. As a consequence, once again they “diversify” into other superfluous things.

Curiosity is good

I still firmly do believe that in fact, it is good to search in domains you are not fluent in, out of curiosity. Then, I think it is a wise idea to intake signals and information, to figure out whether you should continue in that path or not.

A single man can only do so much

I think the race of technology is to outfit modern day man, with as many tools and accessories as possible to maximize his individual productivity. We now see this with AI, ChatGPT in the lake; it is true, even the simple thing is using TurboTax and the AI to automatically sort expenses, has literally saved me at least like 100 million hours during each tax cycle.

Also, I think the useful way to think about AI is that it is simply a supplement to man’s thinking, rather than being a replacement for man.

For example, my personal thought is AI is like a calculator on steroids; even now, real estate agents, tax attorneys etc., a lot of them typically will always bust out the Calculator on their iPhone, or even a standalone physical calculator, to make precise calculations themselves.

Even in today’s world, that we have advanced super computers, for some of our tasks, we still do prefer to seem to like using pencil and pad?

.

Focus in life.

It then seems wise to reduce your sphere of concern.

Consider your capacity. For example, how much strength power and care you could devote to your immediate family members, the first basic one is towards your wife, then your kid, then your own biological mom, etc. But beyond this, I do not believe that any additional care is sustainable.

For example, even thinking about myself… I’m like full-time self-employed, and technically, I have ultimate freedom of time schedule and mind. Yet, I am barely keeping myself and my family afloat! 

Which then makes me think and consider… How is it that an individual can stretch herself to encompass many domains beyond their own biological family?

I suppose it is different if you’re just like a single person, or a single person married or whatever, but once again… Assuming that your focus is like a saber, it is only focused on one point, not many.