Author Archives: stephboisvert

When to buy cheap when to buy expensive

I find it very hard to know ahead of time when you should just buy the cheapest possible version of something and when not to.

I think growing up, the expensive version usually meant the one that had a marketing campaign attached to it. Not necessarily a better product. That being said, the no-name Cheerios never tasted as good…

But now, There are so many variables. Is this thing going to break and just cause more “junk” and garbage in the world? Would the more expensive one last longer? Will it serve it’s purpose better? We bought a really cheap sliding mider saw…. It didn’t end well…. But, most of our tools are from the cheap brand because we don’t use them all that much. I don’t need a Makita if I’m just doing stuff a few days out of the year.

Technology also changes this. Okay so the headphones technology is not going by leads and bounds and good headphones that work now will keep working in the future but will I want it to be able to do better noise cancelling? Will I want it to be able to connect to my phone and my laptop at the same time and seamlessly change between them? Do I even need this new “feature” that I seemed to survive living without the last few years?

One thing I’ve found myself recently is doubting all of my purchases and taking wayyyy too much time to make decisions that in the scheme of things won’t matter in 3 months.

I have a few nagging suspicions why that is… But that’s for another post.

Indistractable

It’s a cliché to say that we live in a world of distractions, of instant gratification. I just right now got distracted from writing this to pick at my nails….

And while it’s easy to blame our phones, technology, technology companies, advertisement as the go to way to monetize something, etc. Just like my previous example shows. While the external doesn’t help, we can always find something to distract ourselves with.

I’ve wanted to start reading indistractable for a while now. Slightly ironic I know. One thing I’m trying differently is to do the exercises that accompny the book and to try to actually adopt it as part of my day to day life.

I find that too often I read a book, an article, whatever, on some way to better myself. I agree with the article / book, or in many cases I’m like, oh ya I already “know” this. And by know I mean I have the information on this topic. I already have all the information I need on how to be in better shape. How to lose weight. How to be happier. How to be better at task X.

And yet…. They don’t usually stick.

I did a speech at toastmasters recently and I might write a version out here later, but the point of the speech was that the initial action was useless. There are no big swooping actions that change the world. It’s not a single speech from Ghandi that ended the occupation, a single decisive action I took (paying for personal training) that helped me get in shape or a single challenging instance that makes you smarter at something. It’s the constant iterative small progress.

I’m just at chapter 2. But I’m hoping it will help me be more mindful of how I spend my time. I guess we’ll see.

Your past self was an idiot, Your future self will be amazing

I’ve always had this struggle where there seems to be clear evidence that if you think you’re awesome, or you think you’re going to win or whatever positive thinking thing, it will have an impact on the outcome. That’s just bananas right? It makes no sense, and yet it makes it that those BS books like “the secret” and etc are pretty scientifically proven to have an impact. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it’s actually the thinking itself. It’s probably how the thinking changes your behaviour or something like that. But regardless it’s pretty incredible.

The thing is, that being aware of what you’re not good at leads to better outcomes in many cases. Makes you more humble, makes you ponder things more and take a second before you jump to conclusions.

Mark Manson talked about this in his newsletter and had a good line

Here’s my conclusion: overestimate your future, underestimate your past. Acknowledging you know nothing and that you’ve accomplished nothing will give you the benefits of humility. But the positive expectation will give the benefits of higher performance.
Another version: “I still understand little, but I’m capable of accomplishing a lot.”

I like it, but I feel it’s needs to be a bit more punchy. I had your past self was an idiot, your future self will be a genius. But I want to try to make it not just about thoughts but about things like exercise and etc. I’m not yet sold on it, I think it still needs polish. Feel free to send me suggestions.

Happier Songs

Most of my “happy” songs can be described by a few artists: Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake.

I know… I know… Bring on the shade 😉

Here’s a few of the classics:

Love this music video
If you’re an animal then tear up the floor
If you’re a criminal, kill it on the floor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuvTszFZlVI
I woke up like this!
Not G rated. Wait at least until the 3 minute mark
Tous les enfants de mon quartier et même d’ailleurs
Et tout ce que le béton a fait de meilleur
Des qui voulaient pas payer l’entrée trente balles (trop cher)
Love the dancing and choreography here
I do that dance… Not well…
It’s Britney Bitch
I always have a thing for live versions
Yes, I like a song that is an ad…
I think it’s having Adam Scott in the background that really does it for me
Y’all… he brought sexy back
Sa ma prit way trop longtemp a figuré que c’est basé sur “The Four Seasons – December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)”
Fun fact, this is better service than Air Canada
I love that whatever sounds it is that just keeps repeating. It’s kinda like those ducks
uh oh uh oh uh oh oh no no no
uh oh uh oh uh oh oh no no no

impermanence and lost videos

I recall this video I saw once. It was a bit cheesy, you know most of it being a voiceover of nature scenes and the like. It touched upon impermanence and mentioned Nietzsche and some other philosopher sending each other letters and one (I’m going to guess Nietzsche really) talked about how impermanence was sad. And the other on how impermanence meant that this moment, this present moment you just witnessed was special, was unique.

At some point it pivots to Buddhism and the acceptance of impermanence being part of the noble truths. Something that a main cause of suffering, is not accepting how everything is transient.

At times I feel silly for liking some of those “I’m a hippy and philosophize about life” but I often find it’s good reminder. A bit like how people shit on quotes, but I really like them.

I’ve tried to find that video. I mean, I even looked on vimeo, (and looked thru my youtube history) And I don’t know if I’m using the wrong word. Kinda like how memory will trick you. Maybe the term was transience… Anyway, if anyone finds it, post it in the comments.

Feedback and gratification

It’s easy to shit on Facebook. That they and many technology companies have co-opted our need for gratification with gamification. And to be clear, I’m not saying they haven’t. Anyway, recently I received a few messages on the blog posts. Most of them very encouraging, some of them asking if I was okay.

Funnily enough, the past 6 posts were all written in the span of one hour Friday and scheduled to be posted. I think that’s why it’s easy to see a trend since there was a trend, but it was all in the span of one hour and not over 3 days, which means all the emo music didn’t really have a sort of long term message or anything. (seriously, this post is going to be published at 7 am. I’m never up at 7 am)

But back to the “point” of this post. It in a sense surprised even myself how much those messages from folks saying they enjoy the blog posts made me feel good. Like, ridiculous just smile to yourself good.

It made me think of social media co-opting this feeling and it made me wonder. Is it actually Social Media’s fault for using this? Or is the fault actually more in terms of how we live now a days? The lack of real communities where we belong. Yes, in a sense we’re more connected than ever and yes, it is easier to join a community, especially when you don’t feel like you fit in with those immediately around you.

I guess this is turning out to be one of those “What if the problem was inside of us all along?” kind of posts. And again, I don’t want to say the tech companies don’t have things to answer for. But perhaps we just need to fill this human need another way to be less susceptible to those tactics…

Sadly, I don’t think I have the answer to what that is.

Dormir Dehors

Une chansons que j’aimais vraiment quand j’étais jeune c’était Dormir Dehors par Daran et les chaises. C’était un des genre 12 CD que on avais a la radio étudiante a l’école et presque chaque fois que j’étais le “DJ” je la jouait.

Je suis pas sur a 100% ce qui m’attirais à la chanson a se temps la. Mais j’ai toujours aimer la chanson. je l’ai retrouver cla une coupe d’année et je pense que je l’apprécie encore plus. Et maintenant je comprends ce que y veut dire quand y mentionne “cuisine équipées”. C’est pu juste une random ligne qui fait pas de sense.

More Songs, Love & Heartbreak

Seriously, the live version of this gives me chills.
I want Bono to sing to me like that
I cannot sleep I cannot dream tonight
I need somebody and always
This sick strange darkness
Comes creeping on so haunting every time
And I don’t want the world to see me
‘Cause I don’t think that they’d understand
When everything’s made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am
What am I supposed to do
Sit around and wait for you
Well I can’t do that
And there’s no turning back
I need time to move on
I don’t believe that anybody
Feels the way I do about you now
And all the roads we have to walk are winding
And all the lights that lead us there are blinding
There are many things that I would like to say to you
But I don’t know how
Okay, maybe it doesn’t fit with all the others but man, Beyoncé is awesome, right?

Emo Songs

I think I was very emo in my teens / early 20s. I don’t recall that being a term at the time. But then again, vocabulary was never my (or rural Manitoba’s) strong suit. Regardless, I find some songs and music bring me back to that time. Not necessarily in a “I’m back in depression when I hear these songs” kinda way (although that has been the case in the past and I’m sure if I listen to too much of them it would happen). But rather in a I appreciate my past kind of way.

After posting a few of them I almost feel like they could each have context attached to them…. Maybe one day I’ll repost them one at a time and give a short explanation (Yes, there’s a lot of Radiohead).