Projects I want to work on

Recently, Paul Graham wrote an essay with the observation that many kids often experience the excitement of working on projects of their own, but many adults rarely do. Mr. Graham’s point about our customs hits particularly hard: We treat "playing" and "hobbies" as qualitatively different from "work".

The reason for such customs is the ages-old concept that what we choose to work on must help us to make a living somehow. Few people - aside from children - have the carefree confidence to just start projects without any regard whatsoever for whether they’d bring some financial return in the future.

“It's a bit sad to think of all the high school kids turning their backs on building treehouses and sitting in class dutifully learning about Darwin or Newton to pass some exam, when the work that made Darwin and Newton famous was actually closer in spirit to building treehouses than studying for exams.” - Paul Graham

“Projects of one’s own” disproportionately move mankind forward. This is still the case even today. Some of the most important inventions from recent years, from Google’s original PageRank algorithm to Bitcoin, were created as side projects long before they exhibited any glimmer of commercialization potential.

While I have no particular interest (or ability) in doing some heavy lifting to move mankind forward, the freedom to work on projects of my own is a primary motivation for me to reach FIRE.

I recently asked a couple of good friends about retiring early, and their response was: “If I don’t work, what would I do instead?” They believe that they cannot sit still (坐不住) and that they must keep progressing professionally because success is important in Chinese culture.

Either they lack imagination, or I just have a different mindset. How much money do we need to retire on? I’ve heard answers from 30 million RMB to 10 million USD. In my case, I think the target amount is whatever would allow me to work on things without worrying about getting paid. I also think it’s possible to have too much money - because after reaching a certain point in wealth accumulation, we may feel like doing nothing at all.

If I had the freedom to work on anything I want, there are a number of things I’d rather do than make money by helping students on their graduate applications. An easy one would be to mentor others for free (since I love this aspect of my job), but with the condition that I get to choose whom I mentor.

I’ll conclude this post by sharing a couple of projects that I want to work on when I've reached FIRE. Perhaps they can spark ideas for you as well.

Learn to DIY most things

In our highly specialized world, most of us have no clue how to:

Build a functional dwelling.
Wire a new home and connect it to public utilities (power, gas, water, septic).
Grow and harvest food.
Fix most things with simple tools.
Employ basic survival skills such as start a fire, find water, fish, make camp, identify common edible plants, and so on.

I’m somewhat concerned that I could talk to 100 people these days and perhaps not a single one would possess significant value-generating skills outside of those needed for their chosen profession. Over-specialization could result in scenarios where a major crisis occurs and very few people can survive without aid.

I’m not predicting impending doom by any means, but I do feel a growing interest in DIY projects that coincides with a growing desire to live off-grid and away from potential conflicts in the world.

Gain expertise in solar technologies

I think we’re not far off from a world where:

Most new homes built will have off-grid capabilities.
Clothing made of solar fabric will power our portable technologies throughout the day.

Current experimental solar cell technologies are approaching 50% efficiency. High quality commercial solar panels with 21%+ efficiency are now available, and solar energy systems can achieve payback periods of under 1.5 years in many locations. Improvements in battery technology due to electric vehicle development (as evidenced by products such as the Tesla Powerwall) are also helping to push solar and home energy storage to the mainstream.

Perovskite solar cells, discovered in 2009, are an exciting new area of research due to very fast recent gains in efficiency and their comparatively low cost of production. Emerging applications of thin-film technology include their incorporation into textiles, which may eventually enable futuristic “power-suits” that can sustain our phones and wearable technologies.

Physicists would tell us that a civilization's energy usage determines its technological capabilities. I think it's also fair to say that how we generate, store, and utilize energy in the future will determine how we will live and interact with others. Solar, as the frontrunner in renewable energy, is a deeply interesting subject and most certainly worth learning about.