Dumb Ways to Die (The Versions Nobody Sings About)

Last week my son David — nine years old — started playing “Dumb Ways to Die” in this the show he’s watching. I knew it instantly. That song is from 2012 — an Australian train company made it to stop people walking in front of trains. I’d half-forgotten it existed. Fourteen years later it’s colonising … Read more

Complaining Is Data Without an Address

In 2019 I wrote a post about how to stop complaining. I just reread it, and the strangest thing in it is one word I used without noticing where I’d taken it from. I wrote that repeated negative thoughts become “strongholds” in your mind. That’s not a self-help word. It’s Paul’s word — and I … Read more

I Preached Dividend Stocks for Years. I Now Own Zero.

In December 2019, I published my money theory. Point three read: “Invest ruthlessly in very defensive, dividend paying stuff (I tend to avoid growth stuff).” That wasn’t a passing comment. It was core, central of the engine of the whole plan I was preaching: “Live off dividends and interests and passive income. All active income … Read more

The Plaster Over the Fracture

If a patient walks in with a fractured bone and you strap a plaster over it, the photo looks fine. The patient looks treated. Everyone in the room gets to tell themselves something was done. And the fracture goes right on being a fracture underneath — quietly getting worse — until the day it announces … Read more