Advice to those under age 30

Looking at the history of musicians, artists, writers, rock bands, composers, and any creative artist, it seems that their peak, their masterpeices that define their career, their signature artistic acheivement, are all created when they reach the age of 30.

Age 30 is when Zappa released “Hot Rats”
Age 30 is when Radiohead released “OK Computer”
Age 30 is when Brian Eno released “Music for Airports”
Age 30 is when Pink Floyd released “Dark Side of the Moon”
Age 30 was the age of the guys in Coldplay and Umphrey’s McGee a few years ago at their peak.
Age 30 is when Mozart composed his biggest masterpeices.

etc etc

It’s a magic age, 30.

Age 30 is when you’ve mastered your craft, done your youthful explorations, made your big mistakes, and learned your big lessons… but still have youth and promise and a young person’s body, enthusiasm, energy, ambition, and stamina.

Age 30 is when you’ve learned the ins and out and all the details of your art and the tools of your craft and everything including the business that surrounds it.

My advice to those still under age 30: use your time wisely. Prepare and learn and be ready. Make sure that YOU are setting the direction you’re going in, so that when 30 rolls around, you’re exactly in the place you want to be, and using your talents towards the peak of the career YOU want to have, leaving a legacy that will last your entire life.

I am now 42. What was I doing at age 30? Of all the meaningless, worthless things: launching a fucking network switching product. It was rather a good launch, and I’d spent the prior 10 years learning how to do it properly. But, what the fuck? Why was I wasting my time doing such things at all?

The peak of my life was wasted on the BayStack 350 launch.

I cannot think of a more pathetic and disgusting mis-use of human potential, than that.

We are the New Bulgaria

A friend here in the Bay Area bought a house in Bulgaria as an investment a few years ago, knowing that they were about to be admitted into the EU and the price of property would go up dramatically. He was right; it did. He’s considering selling it to pay off his Bay Area house with the profits.

Why would he stay here? Why not move to Bulgaria when the shit hits the fan here?

He said, when the shit hits the fan, this will be Bulgaria. No need to move, there will be tons of work here, more than there will be there.

Huh?

What he meant was, cheap wages are kind of like strange loop. If your country falls apart, and your currency devalues, then you are more attractive as an employee for global corporate capital, because you’re working cheaper.

Living here, he reckons, with tons of work that Euro-based corporations are eager to pay for with worth-less-than-toilet-paper dollars, while living in a paid-off house, will be a better deal than living in Bulgaria, which will be much more affluent by comparison, and with fewer jobs available.