[VALHEIM]: Brief Chat With HubHeim Owner, Mr Bungles.
I grew up in 70s. Middle and lower class people could and did ski. Lift tickets were like a dollar and you could rent skis for about the same. Downhill sking back then was like roller-skating, if you want to do it and lived in an area it was possible, no big deal.
Now, you have to be in the 1% to ski regularly. I can fly to Hawaii for the weekend for about the same as weekend of skiing at the main two hills in my area.
My sister (who IS rich, and then also married EVEN MORE rich) constantly says to me, JUST start a business, JUST go back to school, JUST take some time off to work on yourself....I asked her for a loan and she said no one helped her so it wouldn't be right to help me. She and her husband returned home from weekend vacation last night to go on a separate week long vacation. I have work tomorrow
▶️ 3Speak
For me, this was the right option - although I no longer operate a business, I just do work for folks that need it. Back when I was covering a mortgage, feeding and housing a family, and unschooling my kids personally, I simply provided services to neighbors in the community that happened to need the kinds of work I was doing on my own properties. This included unschooling their kids, tunneling under their buildings to pour concrete, and all manner of difficult work that required expensive tools*, specialized knowledge, and infrastructure. Since I was already doing these things I had the tools and was geared up for the tasks, which meant I just had to transfer the undertaking from site to site - or add kids to the mix when taking field trips, showing them how to learn what they wanted to know, and etc.
While doing all this work took time, I discovered that spending 40 or 60 hours a week at an actual job cost me money, that the wages I received as an employee didn't cover. Adding work for my neighbors to the work I was doing on my properties didn't take that much time, and did pay enough to fund my personal projects and make spending the time on it worthwhile. I was surprised that having a job cost me money!
I have a broad skill set (which I acquired by this process) so I had a wide variety of services to provide ancillarily to my personal projects, which ranged from unschooling, through building bespoke computer systems, wrangling investment and tax matters, to, as I mentioned above, tunneling under houses with a shovel through mud to form and pour foundations, as well as much more besides. I even provided janitorial services for a local tavern during the one hour a day (5am to 6am) it was required by law to be closed for that purpose, seven days a week, because I just had to walk across the street to get there and there was a hole in my schedule that I'd otherwise just sleep through. I have found mortgages and kids spice up your ambition.***
The trick for me was to add providing services to neighbors to the time and expense I was already undertaking for my personal projects, which made the cost of being able to provide those services to them essentially zero, other than the time it took. I had to have the equipment anyway. There was no advertising beyond the improvements to my property observed by my neighbors and drinking at the local tavern daily**** where my antics became a topic of discussion. Doing this business on the side only cost me the time it took to do it, while the equipment I needed became tax deductible as business expenses to defray the cost of all my personal projects, even when the business itself took a loss. I started a lot of businesses to do one job, and all of those businesses failed on paper because they only lasted for the one job or ten. There was a while where I was starting a business every day. Helping folks do things just became a part of getting the things done I needed to do organically, rather than anything I needed to plan and fund.
Now I still help folks do stuff, but don't bother with calling it a business, other than being a handyman. Since I avoid payment in money as much as I can and trade for services in kind, there's no income to tax and I don't have to bother with soul crushing accounting for all those dollars I don't get. I help little old ladies fix their leaky plumbing, and they help me maintain my ample waistline with copious batches of chocolate chip cookies.**
If you're not putting on big parties at home, adding catering services won't be an organic outgrowth of your personal projects, so having the capacity to whip up 60 plates of or d'oevres will require outlays you weren't already parting with. 'JUST starting a business' works great if you're just adding a couple clients to stuff you're already doing. Maybe you could add some Valheim n00bs who want to level up fast to your party since you're already playing the game? Mr. Bungles could add some advertising on the server he already runs, or charge a 1% fee on transactions at the market (if there's an external market for the in game currency, like there is on WOW), or something. That's how you 'JUST start a business'.
*Tunneling under buildings requires a shovel, a bucket, a rope (to pull buckets of mud out the tunnel) and some hand tools to make concrete forms. Washing windows requires a ladder, a squeegee, a rope (to hoist buckets of soapy water up the ladder) a bucket, and a sponge. Catering requires a grill, a spatula, rope (to lash food to your bicycle) a bucket, and a freezer. Growing pot requires a light, some scissors, rope (to keep the plants up to the light) and lots of buckets. If you do all of these things you'll have a tool kit that will enable you to do everything you can imagine wanting to do. Whatever you do you'll need a bucket and rope (which is all you'll need when it's time to reform government. You lash the corrupt up on top of the bucket, and then kick the bucket).
**There are unexpected medical costs to a diet exclusively consisting of chocolate chip cookies. Who knew?
***Spawning a litter will inspire you, because caring and maintaining a litter of whelps almost forces you to undertake personal projects.
****There are unexpected costs to advertising by drinking at a local tavern daily, which is tax deductible as entertainment expense.
Thanks!
Hey @valued-customer !
Sorry for the late response...I've been busy with my recent endevours in the digital world of video games. More about that in an upcoming video.
Hoping that your surgery went well and that you're on the path to recovering. How is it all coming along? And how is your Son? Please send him my regards, and to his personal family too.
Right on, there's many lessons i've learnt from your response!
You know in all my life, i have never stayed with a job more than 6 months out of principle. I figured out very early on in my fuck-about days that the corperate rat race is not for me. You want me to fit into the Chinese stereo type of being a Doctor, Lawyer, University Lecturer or even start my own damn Chinese takeaway? FUCK DAT!!!! The thought of me scared (and still scares me) to this day.
The rat race is set up like this, one of the many control mechanisms placed there intentionally to dull the aspirations of people by replacing these aspirations for living life how it should be lived, with lust, consumerism, the-next-dopamine-rush, and an artificial sense (illusion?) of progression in life. So i took to the road and lived semi-nomadically all throughout my late teens, all throughout my 20s, right up til the 30th year of being on this wonderful Earth.
Now, after 4 years of being locked down (hard lockdowns as we've experienced, and now these soft forms of "lockdowns" with everything getting expensive, money not easy to save, unemployment issues, changes in travel including visa's and working permits, etc etc), i find myself trapped in this place. I still have my eye on the fire exit, but it's a slow drag to get back to the place i was in my 20s. Free, on the road, no obligations, no drama, no trouble, just me, my walking boots, a backpack and the road.
The game is set up this way and i hope we all find a way to get outta it, because as you say, it costs too much to be part of corporate "normal" society. Not only monetarily, but beyond that too.
This i need your counsel on. I too have a broad range of skills (my weakest skillset is in permaculture, DIY, Carpentry and general trade skills like electrical wiring, plumbing etc - but i'm learning!) that is mainly based around the arts and people (i also come from an extensive background in Hospitality).
I am unsure how best to put my skillset to use in this current world-situation. I had a good idea when the world was relatively "smooth", but now things are rougher by the day and i find myself at a loss. I have aspirations to make my small slice of the world a better place, including the people around me, but there are so many obstructions.
I have a schematic of how i will uproot myself from this bollocks, but further counsel would be appreciated.
I have my eye on a few countryside communities i'd like to revisit, and rekindle our lost contact, so i feel thats where i need to be. In a place where i can re-invigorate my skillset, to do less corporate rat race stuffs and live more.
Thanks again for your time!
I cannot abide cities. I was raised in wilderness, and that's where I belong. In rural communities the personal relationships are more valuable, and money is less forthcoming, so that's a trade off, but I find it all to the good.
When things are roughest is when comfort is most desirable. I dunno what you have in mind, but that's a principle that always holds true. It is the rarest things that are most valuable, the things hardest to do that are most desirable to them than cannot get them done. If they can't be done, then do what can be done. Whatever is most lacking is what is most needed.
Edit: I have not had the surgery, all sorts of impediments have arisen. An additional medical need has arisen I will not be able to meet, because of financial costs in excess of $200k. Now I'm being extorted by a multinational bank, on top of everything else. All has gone awry, so I went and did some work for an elderly man who had no running water, and now he has running water. I prefer goodwill to good money all the way.
Thanks for asking after my son. He requested the name of a book I read him when he was a child. I remembered him laughing so hard he had tears running down his cheeks at the series of books by Keith Laumer about Retief the Galactic Diplomat. Good times.