Search the Community

This is my argument The reason why people have a passion is because they believe that they can change something and that it is important. In fact, all emotions are true in such a way. Emotions are simply involuntary responses to our rational observations. A child observes what he is good at and that is how a passion develops. It is very obvious to a child. Everyone as a child had figured it out, but not many people actually followed their passion. Since all passions are rational, then if society is rational, following one’s passion will lead to prosperity. However, this is not the case with our current society. If I want to become a philosopher in North Korea, my prospects are very low or I will not make enough money to survive. This would never happen in a free society because passions are always valuable. However, state intervention prevents the pursuit of an individual’s rational self-interests. It subdues free will. There was a man who did a major in philosophy but who after regretted it because he hadn’t been able to make money from it. It as at this point that people break with their passions. He concluded that passions are not necessarily good and he implicitly accepted nihilism rather than recognising that evil was done unto him. It makes it hard for him to recognise it since sophism is state sponsored in philosophy departments. The majority of people share a similar story. Whether it is coercion from the state, or their parents, or their peers, an adult or child is in some way rejected for following their passions and the adult or child concludes that he cannot trust his emotions. This is the very essence of evil. It is why people did not trust the invisible hand of the free market for tens of thousands of years. Essentially, their self-esteem was so destroyed that they did not trust their own rational faculty. It is the greatest contradiction that ever existed. A virtuous man would find a work-around. He knows that his life is meaningless without passion. He knows that if he were to look back at his life without following his passion, he would regret it and wonder what could have been. There is no alternative for him. Every action we make is motivated by emotion. A person cannot simply think and do. They must think until they feel that they can do. An artificial line has been created between emotions and thoughts. Emotions simply are an expression of our deepest and truest thoughts that we may not even be conscious of. It is analogous to the arbitrary distinction between qualia and meaning. We see red because we associate it with everything else that is red. A person void of passion then, is a robot without free will, following the instructions of others without even being consciously aware of it. So, the virtuous man has no rational choice other than to find alternatives to the best of his ability. This does not mean that the virtuous man will be unsatisfied. The passion arises only from what can be done. If man finds that his passion is unreachable, his passion will naturally change. So, the virtuous man is a force that cannot be stopped by anyone or anything. It is as clear as sunlight what his objective is. A rock cannot turn into a tree, nor can man change his neurological predispositions, particularly once he becomes aware of them. Even if a man is destroyed for following his passions, he will never be the same. He will always be at ease, because he knows what must be done so he will inevitably build himself back up. He is the man who works. But if a man does not immerse into his passions, he will always live a shallow life not knowing what he could have been. “Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it” – Lao Tzu.

I am a psychology major undergraduate and have a couple days to apply for a job/internship at the Centre for Cognitive Work and Safety Analysis which is a part of the Department of Defence Science and Technology, Australia. Australia is an ally of the United States of America and fought beside them in all the major wars. Australia is a Commonwealth so if Britain declares war, Australia must contribute to the war effort. Australia is actively involved in the war in Afghanistan and the war against ISIS. Australia is also part of the Korean war. My duty might involve improving the displays of fighter aircraft which would directly effect bombing missions in the middle east. Other duties I could be involved in is research, transcribing, conducting interviews and analysis. This internship would last for 4 months maximum. There are many benefits to getting this internship. There are not really any other jobs in the market for students that would challenge my research and cognitive skills. I'm thinking of becoming a neuropsychologist so it's really important, especially when I go for PhD (In Australia it is required). Also, the pay is good and I have no shame for taking taxpayer money while I am young. Also, the centre is literally in the same suburb that I live in, and halfway between my house and my university. Also, it could teach me something about the psychology of those in the military which is very unique knowledge for a libertarian to have. If it were not for the initiation of force, there wouldn't be many better jobs that I could be doing at the moment. While what I'm doing might be directly working for the military, but morally speaking, it's not necessarily different to other work I could be doing because my taxes would go towards the military anyway. Violation of the NAP is wrong, but what I could be doing could help me prevent violations of the NAP more than actually violating the NAP. Also, if I were at any time uncomfortable, I could quit. Still, it bothers me that what I would be doing would be directly contributing to the murder of innocent people. How could I find a balance in this scenario? (did you forget it's valentines day?)

Hey Everyone! After 3 years of thinking about this, ive finally put out a call on thsi forum for fellow Building Entheisiasts be they Architects, Architect students (like me), engineers relating to buildings or building in some way. I would like to connect with those whom i nto onyl share MORAL values but also academic and Career related values! Because as you may already know it is a damn shame and also really depressing if you find philosofy but then find out you have little or nothing else in common with thsoe engaged in rational discourse. If anyone wants to contact me and have friendly chat about philosofy AND career and mutual interests. Well post her first and then we shall see. PS. Other interests include, problems solving, science, chesmistry, food, health, video games, CREATIVITY and Fantasy art/DND. ect. PPS. I can hear my childhood self going like this atm:

An article I wrote on doing hard work and reaping the benefits! https://selfknowledgedaily.com/reaping-the-fruits-of-hard-work-698866ed2faf#.j4flxhws2

Are you a System Administrator? Do you have a server in your home or work? Do you have some spare time to setup a virtual machine? Do you want to be part of something that will change civilization? If you can answer yes to these questions then I would like to talk to you. I have patents pending for a new kind of eCurrency. See www.CloudCoin.global for more info. I have a registered trademark in process "CloudCoin" I have figured out what is the essence of money. I have invented the most perfect money to date. I am highly certified. PhD ABD in Computer Information Systems. This is a chance for you to make a hell of a lot of money and I really would like to work with people who think like Molyneux! If you are interested, please go to Protonmail.com and setup a free encrypted mail account. Respond back to my email address: [email protected] Here is what the future of money looks like:

I'm looking for anyone philosophically or scientifically minded in gwynedd or liverpool, I'll be traveling to liverpool for a short stay in the near future but my current residence is in Gwynedd. I'm also looking for work, so if any of you want a smart, competant and committed philosopher/scientist to work for you, I am here, waiting for your call / message / email. I'm pretty desparate for work at the moment, I'm really poor and I'm in a bad situation which I'm trying to get out of so that I can live a more virtuous life.

Hello, I'm not totally sure if it is right to post this here, but I teach Icelandic online and have been doing so for 2 years now. If you are interested in lessons, feel free to send me a message. Also, if you have any comment or criticism, let me know. I am a native Icelandic speaker. I have an excellent handle of both English and Icelandic. If you want to get a better handle of the Icelandic language, I‘m here to help you. Whether you‘re new to learning – or if you want to take your existing skills further, let me be your guide. It can be both difficult and frustrating, learning Icelandic all on your own. The task may seem daunting at first, and you may have been putting it off for fear that the language is simply too difficult to master My lessons are geared towards solving your problems. The focus is on practical use of the Icelandic language. Examples used apply to real-life situations. I aim to simplify the learning process and tailor it to your specific preferences. If you have any questions, don‘t hesitate to drop me a line. If you feel like you‘ve been putting off the task of learning Icelandic for too long, there‘s no time like the present. All it takes is one little step. I invite you to discover the language of Iceland with me. best regards, Your Personal Icelandic Teacher

In my web browsing and IFTTT alerting it has come to my attention that there is currently a great work from home job editing scientific papers for clients in academia in Asia. They are looking for people with at least a masters preferred with expertise in different fields such as bio-medical, engineering etc. This may be of use to some people here more qualified than I am. Not sure of the pay, but it looks promising for people looking to work from home. Looking for qualified editors compensation: Working Home, No age limitation employment type: contract Harrisco is a scientific paper editing company which edits research papers written by non-native speakers. Harrisco was established in 1996 to meet the increasing demands of Asia Universities for high quality medical and scientific editors. We continue to specialize in this area and today are providing this service on an exclusive basis to the leading Asia universities and medical colleges. en.harrisco.net harrisco.net Now, our company is expanding our area to the world, fast. So. we're looking for editors in all fields, including Medical, and Life Science; Physics, Chemistry, Molecular Biology, Virology, Microbiology, Geology, Psychology, Sociology, Physiology,Mechanical, Material, Chemical, Nuclear, Civil, Computer, Architectural, Environmental and Electrical Engineering; Semiconductors, Electronics, Information Technology; Biomedical, Biochemical, Biomechanical, Bioelectrical, Economics, Business Administration, Accounting, and Mathematics, etc Working for Harrisco is an exceptional experience. There are no age or geographical limits for our work. You can do the editing work as part-time, full-time editor, or anything in between. Anywhere you have some free time and an Internet connection, you can do this. We are looking for qualified editors who can give us good work and establish a long-term relationship with the company. Harrisco has been doing good work for over 15 years, and many of its editors have been earning good money for most of that time. Editors qualification we want is as following, Foreigners whose native language is English. (American,Canadian,English,Ausrailian,etc) Full-time worker preferred. Working time is 9 am to 6 pm or Flexible and Negotiable Payment: negotiable. To part time editor I hope you could think our work as possible forever work or hobbies at your later future. 1. Over master degree is preferred. 2. There is no limitation of age, gender and location. 3. Retired researchers and professors are welcomed. 4. Internet access is essential. Contact way Send your resume to following email, [email protected]

Title says it all really. I'm a philosopher trying to find sanctuary in a world of zombies. If any of you live in Liverpool (in England) or know of any accommodation or anyone hiring, please message me; I am looking for a flat and income... although the purpose of the income would be just to pay rent! So if anyone wants to give me a room for free, I won't need to find a "real job". I am currently working as a handyman doing odd jobs, this brings in enough money to sustain me but I need to get away from people in my life who are toxic to my happiness and sanity. Please get in touch with me if you can help, send me a message or post a reply.

Holy crap.. I'm sitting here listening to some classical music and it feels like everything is in place now. It feels like i found the last piece of the puzzle that was making me so unproductive. This morning has been the most joyful and hopeful morning I've had in the last 3-4 months of darkness. Let me share with you my story and hopefully help someone in the community with similar problems. I'm also wanting to share this because I'm afraid I'm wrong and want some feedback. OK so i finished school in October, and was eager to work in the free market and make a living after being in a pretty bad internship. I started programming but found it really hard to work for more than 1-2 hours a day. At first I thought it was because I wasn't used to working solo, without obligations, and that with time I'd increase work hours. Didn't happen. Then I thought rage against my family would be a good motivator. It wasn't (don't get me wrong, the rage was totally justified). I thought about so many things that could be the origins of my problems and worked through them but nothing changed my behavior, and I became more and more sad and hopeless. I started to think nothing would work, but I kept on looking. I decided to hear http://www.fdrpodcasts.com/#/1076/procrastination-and-crushed-ambition-listener-convo-video-recommended Stef said something among the lines of: If we're not doing something that would benefit us we should look into the past and see if we were attacked for it. So I did, I started thinking about how my parent's would make me unmotivated. When I found something I enjoyed, they managed to crush it with countless reasons why it was hard and all the complications I could encounter (thinking about this reminds me of my own behavior, thinking about all the possible negative outcomes of everything). At the same time they would also complain that I was lazy. That was a big one in my childhood. I was just lazy. I would get good grades and when proudly talking about it with my parents they'd say "That's just your obligation". When I'd get bad grades, I was punished. They'd take the playstation or the internet "rights" from me. Even worse: Videogames were the only thing I could commit to. I loved them. I remember when I got my first playstation i played tony hawk the entire day - no complaining from my parents. I played it a lot during the next weeks and little to no complaining. So I grew up playing videogames as the only thing my parent's wouldn't bring up reasons against. They would never say "Oh but later levels may be too hard for you" or "This game is easy but the next one will be harder". It was the only thing I wasn't afraid of. So they threatened to take away from me the only thing I could find pleasure in. If you were a sadistic person in search of children to torment and abuse emotionally, this would be a fucking master plan. When those things were taken away from me i would go to my bedroom in rage and think about suicide. It was terrible.. After thinking about all this I then went to program and it was fun. Not perfect, but not nearly as hard as it has been. I'm still afraid I'll get attacked, but I'll continue to work on it, also reminding myself of the terrible childhood I had and that I'm doing the best I can considering what I went through. I'd love to hear your thoughts

I'm pissed. I'm feeling something I haven't felt in a looong time. I'm really angry at my parents, and I'm happy that I'm this mad. I was listening to http://www.fdrpodcasts.com/#/766/maternal-suffocationand I just had this amazing awakening moment. I just felt all the rage from the listener towards his parents and it made me remind myself of all the rage I felt during my teens. I thought about suicide for a year. I counted every minute in school. I felt like shit for not studying stupid subjects. I was bullied. I was pressured by everyone to get a girlfriend. I felt like a big failure with no future. I was put in the worst school in the city under the pretext that it would teach me life. I felt my life threatened among kids whose parents have been in jail. There were cases of rape in the bathrooms. If a kid from 5th grade asked me for my money I had to give it to him even though I was 4 years older, because if I didn't and escalated, his family and friends would be waiting for me outside. I was put in this situation by the people who are supposed to take care of me. The people I should be able to trust. Writing this made me feel really sad and even angrier! All this inside a 16 year old mind, who had no one to share it with. I could never ever trust my parents with this. I would never share it with them. They made fun of me when I talked about this girl I liked when I was about 6. My parents and grandmother, at the table, laughing at me for liking this girl. Mocking me... BAH IM SO PISSED!! So with this all inside my mind I got super pissed at them but I repressed it... until now. All this time I've been trying to get work done and be productive only to find myself procrastinating. It was like my brain was saying "There are more important stuff for you to deal with!". And I ignored it and played videogames. And then I felt like shit because I was being really unproductive, so i go work and the cycle continues... Today I figured out what my feelings were trying to tell me. Why I couldn't work for more than 30 minutes without going back to videogames. Why I wasted over 7000 hours playing fucking video games!!!! I'm so fucking pissed I wasted ALL THAT TIME. I could be living alone far from this hellhole getting a good salary. I denied job offers because I would feel depressed when i thought of working. Maybe because I had all this rage built up inside of me! I repressed all that I felt towards my parents and didn't face it! I hid behind videogames to waste time purposefully! I probably thought that work would be videogames 2.0 to repress my feelings towards my parents, since at leaste while playing I can listen to podcasts and think about my life. I'm starting to feel less anger and it's probably because I'm disconnecting emotionally... I'm super scared of letting this general feeling go away, and go back to where I was. I am afraid of continuing to live a unproductive life, feeling inferior when other people ask me what i've been up to.. "Oh you know just played 100h of league of legends, what about you?" I'm feeling sad and scared now and stopped feeling anger. All this time growing up i've had little to none emotional support and useful life lessons. I've never trusted my parents advice (thank god) and was going in a really bad direction until I found FDR. Thank you Stef Mike and Stoyan for doing this. You are literally saving lives. Thank you so so much. I wanted to share this with all of you and if anyone can help me out I'd be very very grateful..

Hi there! I am an unschooling mama to a bright, creative, and ENERGETIC (almost) four year-old. So... that's how I spend most of my time. But in my 'downtime' (like when I'm nursing her to sleep) I listen to a lot of podcasts, watch Youtube videos, and am always learning something new. I am an intactivist, breastfeeding, birth, and children's advocate, as well as being very outspoken about our corrupt school system. We are very health-conscious, love riding our bikes, hiking, enjoying the sun and water, and exploring together. Even though I have lived in/around Seattle for most of my life, I am very affected by the rain, clouds, and general dreariness. Stefan Molyneux didn't show up on my radar until I watched a video of his on circumcision which I shared around on facebook (when I was on there) and then later shared one on spanking. Some of my husband's coworkers listen to the show and recommended them to me. So for the last month I have been listening as much as I can. My husband and I (and his coworkers) have been sharing episodes back and forth. (And a few times my husband and I have been able to listen to the show together.) The shows offer a lot of challenging information that I am happy to soak up... and process. The topics brought up in the shows have springboarded us into a lot of new conversations, or have revisited old ones. While I am interested in anarchy (just listened to one of Stefan's books), general philosophy, and other political issues, it's the parenting, feminist, and personal development issues that have really resonated with me. For example, my husband and I became pregnant out of wedlock (stupid, I know!) and decided to move in together, get married quickly, and figure out how to make it all work. We did not have enough money to live on with just his income so I took a part-time job where I figured I could leave my little girl with my friends (no family available nearby) and go to work at six weeks post-partum. What I hadn't planned on was the needs of my child. She's extremely 'spirited' (high needs), would not take pumped milk, nor was she comforted by anyone but me. So I started taking her to work with me - which was only a little less miserable, but at least we were together. I totally agree with Stefan when he says that you can make it work for one parent to be with the child/ren - it does take a lot of sacrifices, but it is possible. Anyway, the job only lasted one year and by that time my husband (began to take his career more seriously and) received a raise almost equal to what I was contributing with my job. And to make a long story short, he would not be where he is today in his career if we had both been working full-time jobs. Even though we were home-birthing and everything, we didn't know about 'attachment parenting,' 'peaceful parenting,' or anything like that until after she was born. I am just so thankful we did come across these ideas so we could become sensitive and respond appropriately to our little one's needs. Something that struck me last year was that even within the intactivist movement - where we'd shout about how awful genital mutilation is all day long - there seemed to be a split whenever anyone spoke out about other harmful acts against children like spanking, cry-it-out, or the school system. So as I have been listening, I am impressed with is Stefan's consistency. OK I don't want to go overboard sharing, but wanted to share enough for you all to get an idea of who I am and if we have something in common or you'd like to share new information with me, that'd be awesome Also, go easy on me, like I said, I am a new listener, eager to learn more, and feel like I'm doing a lot of catching-up with ideas, philosophies, and terms you all use frequently.

What are good/bad fields to work in, when you want to avoid interference from the state, and having the state as "customer"? What type of job minimizes the chance you will be placed by your employer on a gov. project, or required to implement unjust laws, or your company starts receiving massive subsidies, more than they loose in taxes, and they are becoming an agent of the state? Or when you already have a particular job, what is an advisable way to deal with this issue?

Hi everyone. I'm hoping to get some feedback and thoughts on an idea that I have for educating my son and potentially some other children of like minded individuals, at least from an education perspective like minded. I think this idea can work well if the group is on the same page in terms of how to run things. At this point, I'm really looking to engage in a discussion to hear others' ideas. This is a controversial topic, I have found, when I discuss it with people face to face. I get the knee jerk reactions of this won't work, they need to be in school, "how will they be socialize" (love that one), etc. Honest feedback from intelligent, open-minded, perhaps experienced individuals is what I'm looking for. As a side note, I was extremely impressed with the recent Freedomain call in show where Izzy helped host with Stef. She held her own and exhibited a true curiosity about each of the callers that I myself have difficulties with at times. She exhibited characteristics that I admire and would like my son to learn as well. I am an entrepreneur who runs a home business. My motivations for doing so is for freedom of what to do with my professional time and flexibility with my time to be able to spend time with my son, who is 4 years old, but currently attends a private preschool. The idea that I have, that is only in the infancy at this point, but I think certainly worth discussing is to join a group of families where a single parent, or both parents, can take a day off of work a week to provide educational experiences for the group of children. For example, I would take Mondays to provide opportunities for my son, and the children of two of three other families. This can come in the form of home based learnings, field trips, nature walks, reading, writing times etc. Anything. I typically subscribe to an unschooling method, but want to have at least some formal curriculum for learning the basics of mathematics, letters, numbers, reading. Here are some of the advantages that I can identify: 1) the children can receive personal, intimate connection with other children, not necessarily of their own age group, in a small group where they have the supervision of an adult to help in dispute resolution, an adult that has the time to aid in that development. 2) open sourced learning for the children involved in a curriculum that the children help create. 3) children can focus on activities that bring them inspiration and encourage their creativity, both their own and to participate in activities that encourage that type of learning from another's perspective 4) personal attention to my child, rather than the group attention of a school setting. Here are some of the disadvantages that I can identify: A) the children may be in a group with children they don't like, or the parents don't like, therefore creating the need for the parents to fill the gaps if that child is no longer participating in the program. B) my child would inevitably receive the best of my attention during my days, and similar for the days that other parents have the group. I.e. each parent will typically cater towards their child's needs and wants first, then to the other children. C) if a member of the group moves or decides to quit the program, how is that spot filled? Filling an open spot for something like this, I would imaging, could be difficult. D) I occasionally have to travel for work. How can the group adapt to this type of situation? E) How can the group handle family vacations? I greatly appreciate any feedback that anyone has, and would be even interested in a Skype or Google video/audio chat to discuss further. Thank you, ahead of time, for responses and reading.

I have an idea: It takes more time and work to create than it does to destroy something. Examples: 1. A kid spends an hour building a sand castle, another kid jealous of the construct comes over and stomps on it, destroying it within seconds. 2. It takes a long time to build a good reputation, it can be destroyed(or greatly tarnished) in a couple days if a secret/scandal gets loose. 3. In 3 months a house is built in Pakistan, a button is pressed sending down a missile from a drone destroying it in a minute. etc.. Definitions: Creation: The action or process of bringing something into existence. Destruction: The action or process of causing so much damage to something that it no longer exists or cannot be repaired. I feel like there may be exceptions, but I can not think of any. Please provide counter examples!

Got my first sales job starting on Monday. It's telemarketing for a company that specializes in SEO, branding, internet presence, etc. Anyone with sales experience wanna recommend books or videos for commission sales people?

Hello hello to anyone that takes time out of their day to read this! I'm rather new to the forum and I am trying to get feedback on this question I have regarding education. I recently have taken great interest in philosophy and am considering getting a B.A. in philosophy. I just have no idea if I can acctually get a job with a B.A. in that field. What jobs are open to me if I were to pursue this goal? Thanks! -Jeremy

Train of thought prior to: I find many of Generation Y seem to be directionless, or suffer from any number of psychological conditions, diagnosed or otherwise self imposed, as the result of childhood trauma inflicted on them. I think in part it has to do with absence of fathers and positive male role models growing up. The thought: The only thing my dad would talk about when it came to work, was what a pain in the ass it was. The train cars following: He worked for the state, so not a big surprise there now, but the formerly subconscious moral was that working sucks, side projects are more fun. That's the theme from my childhood. Thanks dad! Side projects are where I do have fun, and my bachelors degree and experience gained from those projects makes me a reasonable candidate for jobs which are remarkably similar to my hobby and side projects. Man, brain is looking out for me. Non-sequiturs man, my brain connects trains. Was it projection? Yes, but then I stood in front of the projector, and sure enough, it's on me too. I'm really excited to have connected these things. I take a lot of pride in it. It's shifting the responsibility around, so I know the part of me that's saying I'm not going to like working is a dad narrative. So cool. Thanks for reading! What are your thoughts?

Hi everyone, Thank you for taking the time to stop in read. I am currently updating my resume and I have a huge gap in job history that I don't know how I could possibly answer to a potential employer. The gap is from late 2011 to currently. It's not that I haven't worked but, I've made many bad decisions over the last year in a half to either get fired from a workplace or to just not show up at work. The reason for that is I keep choosing places that for the most part are really bad work environments. One example is that I was a cook at a resort. While working there I would undergo constant verbal abuse from my manager. he would get in fits of rage and throw things across the kitchen. I'll try not to go too much into detail but,one time in particular I went on break without first getting his approval, which I should of in that regard. He walked by me eating and looked at me and then the food and proceeded to splash his near boiling tea water all over my food and a little onto myself. He then began yelling at how he wished he and the rest of the cook's could eat and after his rant he then sent me home. That was an extreme example of similar job experiences I've dealt with. So, I'm not sure what to do on my resume that would excuse this gap in my work history. Should I just go ahead and put it down anyways?

I’ve reached a point in my life where I’m trying to work out a path forward in life. I’m 24 years old, born and raised in Sweden. Educational background For the last two years I’ve been studying economics at the undergraduate level at a university in Sweden. The reason for this was that I initially wanted to engage in politics to change the system. I wanted to be able to contribute to the debate in economic/overall policy and provide research and statistics to support the libertarian/voluntaryist cause. My expectations of the quality and the methodology of the educational material were never really high and I knew that I would have to withstand some pseudo-scientific elements during the course of my education. But it turned out to be far worse than I expected. One doctoral candidate took notice of my briefcase from the Ludwig von Mises Institute and told me that he thought that the Austrian methodology was superior to the methodology used by most economists but also told me that the Austrian methodology was unlikely to find any widespread support amongst professors and other economists because the implementation of Austrian methodology would render many of them unemployed. During the course in public economics/finance the professor stated that she was insulted by a comment made by a student wherein he stated that any valid measure of value is impossible in the public sector due to the coercive nature of the transaction (the personal stakes/interests for the professor in these matters makes rational analysis impossible in this situation). It has become ever more evident to me that one of the core purposes of the publicly funded and approved education in economics is to find semi-sophisticated excuses for government force and intervention and a lot of obstacles for anyone daring to claim otherwise. It got increasingly hard for me to pass exams in courses based on faulty methodology combined with mathematical and statistical methods which seemed to increasingly lack relevance for a true study of human action. After failing 7 out of 8 courses in a year I’ve decided to take a break and probably change the path forward for me. I would still enjoy the increased awareness that could be provided by studying economics but this awareness will not be realized through studies at my university. I’m quite confident that I will be able to reach this awareness through self-studies in Austrian economics with some help from the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Thoughts on future education or human capital accumulation I’ve also come to realize that a focus on personal development, self-knowledge and personal relationships will do far more to improve society and the cause of peaceful interactions. Following this path I would primarily work on my own self-knowledge and my own personal relationships. I’ve been thinking about studying psychology or something similar to eventually be able to support others with their self-knowledge and personal relationships. However, I don’t know really where to start. If I were to work with people in this field I would most of all prefer to work with parents and children at an early stage. But I don’t know if there is any demand or market for this. The most interesting case that comes to mind would be to work with people thinking about having a child and support them in their thoughts about parenting/child raising. But perhaps I’m looking on this from the wrong angle. Maybe it would be better and more realistic to work with people individually with self-knowledge as a psychotherapist or something of that sort. One concern I have regarding this topic is that the government authorities would try to intervene if I were to advice people in some way that went counter to the approved goals and methods of the government if I were to work as a licensed psychotherapist for example. What are your thoughts on this subject? Is it possible to work/find work in this area (I would like to help people in similar ways as Stef is doing but with more in depth application to specific cases like talk therapy. I think Stef is doing a phenomenal work but I don’t think that podcasts is the right format for me and I think that this area would profit from some division of labor)? Should I pursue formal education? If so, should it be mostly in psychology, behavioral science, sociology, social work or something else? If not, what should I do alternatively to accumulate the human capital necessary to provide some real value in this area? Do you think that my concerns regarding government intervention in my practice is valid? If so, what should I do to make the best of it given this environment? Strategic relocation As long as I can remember I’ve felt an unsettling and frustrating lack of control over my own life and elements of my surroundings that I feel I should be able to control to some degree. I’ve been bossed around and told what to do in school for 12 of my formative years only to find myself steadily unemployed and unqualified to do most anything. I can see the very same chaotic symptoms and consequences of forced economic planning in almost any aspect of my life such as healthcare, law enforcement/provision of security, the food industry, the financial industry, building and construction etc. It should be noted that I’m in the process of starting therapy to work on my self-knowledge after several failed attempts to find a therapist that would help me within the public sector. The only therapist I’ve been able to meet within the public sector was the one responsible for an initial assessment of my mental health. After scoring high enough on a standardized test for depression she started talking about medication and when talking about my lack of motivation she asked me about lack of motivation in school when I was young and said that she was scanning for symptoms of ADD. The only treatment available for public funding was a 6-12 session long treatment for certain specific problems. With potential shortcomings in my self-knowledge in mind I would say that the most damaging aspect of my childhood from my perspective would be the time spent in school with many years of forced schooling robbing me of my inner drive and power of initiative (much like Stef's video on procrastination). As noted above I believe that a focus on self-knowledge and personal relationships is the best way to achieve freedom. Peaceful parenting and minimizing abuse is crucial for the formative years of human life. That is why I believe that one of the most important things if I were to ever have a child would be the freedom or ability to raise my child independent of government influence or intervention. Sweden recently became one of the most restricted countries in Europe with regards to educational freedom (Sweden and Germany being the two most restricted in Europe). This is one of the most important reasons why I’m looking for alternative countries/places to live my life as independent of government influence as I can. I would also prefer to live amongst other unschoolers and peaceful parents/people. The United States is one of the places I’ve contemplated. Do you have any thoughts with regards to strategic relocation? Is the US a good alternative or would you suggest another destination?