141–150 of 305 posts
I’d shitpost online, read books, go to the coffeeshop, watch movies, go on walks, etc.
Took 3 years off in my 20s to do exactly that and it was incredible. Best years of my life. Would drop everything and do it again in heartbeat if I could swing it financially.
(1) Convince car manufacturers to add a battery port in the trunk. They can make smaller cars with 100 mile range which covers >98%[2] of the trips and anyone who needs more can rent extra batteries from their nearest retailers. Fast chargers don't work, queueing theory explains why: What happens when you add a new teller? [0]. Fast chargers won't work because we have to solve for the peak case, which is a third of US population driving during Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, Spring break, etc. Cars with smaller batteries will be cheaper, lighter and far more importantly we can make 3X the cars from the same battery materials. There will be a lone commenter who will complain that EV doesn't work for him, because he commutes every week from Miami to Seattle, but EVs work for most people's driving habits.
(2) Convince retailers to build battery banks, they can charge for free (or get paid for charging when electricity prices go negative!) and (a) rent fully charge batteries (b) participate in virtual power plants replacing natural gas, they can make bank[1]. This also increases their foot traffic, most of the big retail chains operate gas stations anyways as loss leaders. Batteries for rent will be extremely profitable, in addition to adding foot traffic.
(3) Change residential building codes to require 240V outlets in the garage, heat pump water heater, heat pump furnace, induction stove, solar panels, or better yet solar shingles. Solar shingles are coming up, may not be cost effective today, but probably soon? Also make the main panel and circuitry future proof -- home can be powered by vehicle (V2H - no need to generator for emergencies) and also V2G so everyone can participate in VPP.[2] I've already started working on this.
(4) Change commercial (anything non-residential) building code to require conduit before paving parking lot. Doesn't need to add EV chargers, but that makes the parking lot future proof, can make 10%, 20% or 100% of it EV ready whenever.
With (3) and (4) all new construction is energy efficient, future proof. People who buy these homes can have zero energy bills as well as make money from VPP.
(5) Everyone complains about high home prices. We see spirited discussions on HN once or twice a week. Convince builders to build homes to standards (#3 above) that make the old homes entirely undesirable to most people. There can be a huge building boom (builders benefit from this), very low sales of old homes, stopping the growth of home prices. Convince people to stop buying old homes.
(6) Work with cities on providing free charging at schools, parks, libraries and all city owned infrastructure.
(7) Work with HOAs/communities to build chargers in HOA managed parks, these are 10 - 100x more than city parks.
(8) Put shareholder resolutions to make companies either offer (a) fully remote (b) free charging.
(9) Put shareholder resolutions at Restaurants and Retailers to offer free charging. This is a win-win, they get high quality foot traffic, traffic that stays at least 30 mins.
I'm in my 40s, I think these are important and solvable problems, nothing more I'd love than working on these. Better yet, teach the younger generation on how to work on these. We can't change the world by thinking about fossil fuel led COP summits, Govts, but we can change by making decisions on where we live, work and shop. Gradually, then suddenly, everything will change for the better.
[0] https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2008/10/21/what-happens-when-... [1] https://electrek.co/2023/07/05/tesla-electric-customers-repo... [2] 98 percent of all single-trip journeys were under 50 miles in length: https://www.greencarcongress.com/2022/03/more-than-half-of-a...
Maybe doing something with biogas, CO2 capture
- writing non-fiction and fiction - making original music and podcasts - developing educational hardware/software projects - developing my own programming languages - continuing to refine and catalog our large home library - gardening and transitioning towards growing more of our own food.
I'd spend much more time involved with my kids since my wife and I already homeschool, but I can't put very much time into it now.
Socially, there are a lot of things that seem "silly" (euphemistically), and it's a blight on civilization that they are tolerated. That people in my country (USA, but can apply to many countries in the world) are homeless or starving is silly; if you were running a country, ensuring the citizenry have food and shelter might be an obvious top priority. The world can seem really complex at times and our systems become so convoluted that people rationalize why the things that seem obviously silly are too difficult to solve or worthwhile tradeoffs. I think it's generally a good heuristic to avoid doing things that seem obviously silly and fix the things that are (that is, it's often better to be naive about it!).
This portion of the comment is not a direct answer to the question but a related thought others may have further insights about. Practically, a situation in which you don't need money rarely materializes instantaneously; it usually arises from circumstances that have constituted a great deal of your life and identity. As a consequence of this, I think ego can become a real challenge that prevents people from pursuing possible "ideals". If you've been in a certain kind of position for a long time, there can be psychological barriers to pursuing something in a way in which, e.g., you are a true beginner or have less control. This tends to be something that can dissipate with age but can be especially difficult for people who've achieved financial success well before standard retirement age.
Been active most of my life and plan to do more of it - mountain-biking, racquet sports, skiing, etc.
My kids will be in their teens, and I hope to focus more on them and prepare them for life.
Get involved in the local community, and help less fortunate people. I do this mainly by contributing money but I hope to give time.
Travel - Not as a tourist which I've done for most of my life, but as a true explorer of cultures.
What an interesting question; thank you for asking it!
What I would spend my time working on...I guess I would continue with what I have been doing the past 15 years.
- continue working on improving my character
- fixing my past mistakes and learn from them
- enrich my knowledge with topics I may find interesting at any time
- learn to forgive and put myself in others' shoes to see their own POV
- embrace life
- appreciate little things; such as a smile, a hug, a kiss