Pay Yourself First?

The origin of "Pay yourself first" is perhaps the most important lesson from the "The Richest Man in Babylon" book by George S. Clason.  The novel, with lessons on finances, takes place in Babylon where working class individuals are inquiring to their wealthy friends on how to become wealthy. One said advice was to "pay yourself first".

What does it mean?

It doesn't mean spending money on yourself but to save it for your future self. According to the book, we ought to put aside 10% of money earned on our future self. Once we've accumulated enough, then we can use some of that money for investing - only investing the money we can afford to loose.

A friend of mine spends all her money because "she doesn't know how long she has to live" and was using that as an excuse. Her philosophy isn't wrong but it's not uncommon for people today to live well into their 80s.

"You can be young without money, but you can't be old without it" 

-Tennessee Williams

Today, not only are people not saving (sometimes they can't) they borrow from their future selves instead - putting themselves in a situation they can't get out of. 

How you live is up to you but I would encourage you to find ways to save money. You'll sleep better at night with a nest egg than without one.

Would Philosophy/Science Come Back?

I once argued that Philosophy, like Science, would eventually come back following a catastrophe that would wipeout all human knowledge. However, if we look throughout our history we understand that the stars would need to be perfectly aligned for either to come back...

• For thousands of years of recorded history people who have pursued ideas that were against the status quo, or religious beliefs, of their time could be prosecuted and put to death.
• For ideas to flourish, we must be living where our survival needs are met.
• It's rare for a civilization to allow, or consider, the pursuit of wisdom as a valuable endeavor.
• It's rare for an individual to want to pursue wisdom (even today) - only a small fraction of the billions of humans that have ever existed have been known for their contribution to science/philosophy.
• The event that caused the destruction of knowledge could deter future generations of attempting the pursuit of science/philosophy as to not replicate said catastrophe.

I hope we never loose the knowledge that we've acquired as it could take thousands of years to reach this point again - this is assuming that humans would still be around following the even that wipe out all of our knowledge.

Wisdom Is The Most Important Thing?

"...those who live without being consumed by business or distractions can find their lives to be more than sufficient."
-Seneca, On the Shortness of Life

Seneca believed that pursuing wisdom was the most important exercise of the human experience. I'm of the opinion that health and relationship are also important to live a fulfilling life as without those life becomes an annoyance and lonely.

“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.”
-Seneca

Monetary gains is important to live but one shouldn't dedicate their lives to it as it's relatively meaningless. There's no limit to the amount of things we can acquire and we carry nothing with us when we die.

Savings Could Be The Plan

“Why should God bring an opportunity your way if you are not in a position to take advantage of it? If you were God, to whom would you give opportunities? Wishful thinkers? Dreamers? Or planners?”
-Andy Stanley

If you don't have a plan for your life then being able to save money may open opportunities you otherwise wouldn't of had.

Years ago, I moved to a new city and the word on the street was that the local I.T. company had been sold. Before signing the papers, the owner had given his employees the opportunity to buy shares of the company - many became overnight millionaires in the deal.
I always wondered what happened to those that weren't able to take advantage of the opportunity... 

While life is short, and we only have the one, we ought to save part of what we earn. If an opportunity ever present itself then we'll be ready.

Self-Improvement In the A.I. Age

A.I. is an accumulation of all human knowledge - it's not possible to know more than it does. 

What does that mean for Self-Improvement?

Self-Improvement is about improving the self. What will "self" be once we're all interconnected with A.I.? What will there be to improve if we all have access to all the information we've ever produced? Will we be better once we're all starting from the same point? Will we just be copies of each other?

Even today, some people don't make any major decisions without first consulting an A.I. However life is unpredictable - can a user blame A.I. for making the wrong decisions? Will the user learn from the A.I.'s mistake the same as he would from learning from his own mistakes?

There are a lot of unknowns about the future of A.I.'s relationship with humanity. For now, Self-Improvement still has value and A.I. can be our greatest assistant.