Freelance living

I am listening to a great audiobook at the moment, Quitter by Jon Acuff.

For those who know his story, can I please say that I started blogging before I got this book. I hope this makes me look less lame.

There are many awesome pieces of wisdom in his book, carried across in a relaxing conversational style. Only one of these nuggets I want to write about today and expand on slightly.

Jon discusses his previous job before his dream job and starts talking about how he was stealing from work when it came to work hours. His employers paid him to work for a certain amount of time but his blogging ended  up leaking into his work time. Excuses like 'I can do the work they need me to do in less time' and 'my real passion is the one that's more important' both rob your employer of funds that they are spending on you per hour. If we were the employer it would be very easy for us to agree that those reasons are total BS.

I started thinking about what my employer pays me to do and my attitude towards it.

Let me give you some background into what I do for a living. I work at a company that buys foreign money from partner banks at lower margins. You might not know this, but depending on where you live and which bank you use, you're not getting the same rate as on the TV or radio for the forex you buy when you travel, pay invoices or emigrate. This is why there is a market for our company. I run the corporate dealing desk, making me in charge of the margins and profitability of this side of the business.

My day consists being available for my clients and staying in touch with them about their FX requirements. When they have to buy some USD, CAD, GBP, or whatever currency they might need, then I would give them a price and send them the invoice for it. Viola! Money in the bank! Literally!

...Unfortunately it's not that simple. I won't bore you with the details but the description above is the basic premise of our business.

The part where Jon's wisdom comes in to challenge me is that I feel like there definitely are times that I do things that are not what my business pays me for. I might end up doing things like trying to help a client with a query that someone else in the business is much better suited to. Or using company time to look at watches I want for my birthday. Or trying to position myself in a way that would make me do less of what I am paid to do and more of what I want to do.

The last point is probably the most relevant. You see, I really want to spend more time on niche clients and do analysis on their business and their needs. I want to work on products that we don't have yet and would set myself up to be too good for the job that I am doing now. It's quite natural I guess.We always want to be pushing ourselves forward. But I still feel like my approach could be different in this regard. I have a feeling that I could make more time to do the basics things that I was employed to do in the first place and be more effective in the way that my performance is measured at the end of the day.

Jon's solution to this problem is to think of our employer as a client and our salary as billable hours. We wouldn't dream of billing a client that we were doing freelance work for for hours that we spent doing something outside our mandate. The same should go for work.

My thoughts drifted to the other areas of life. At the end of the day I felt like it was a question of resources. One party had spent spent some of their resources on another with a specific expectation or outcome in mind. The second party received resources on the premise that they provide a certain return.

Consider algebraically that the two parties and the resources are interchangeable with different elements of a persons life. I am the employer who engages my resource of time with my friend whom I expect to provide me with the outcome of a friendship and increased trust. If my friend takes my resource and gives me something less than what I expected then I would feel like my resource could perhaps have been spent better on something else. Perhaps another friend that would have got the job done. Wow. It's an incredibly robotic view of people, but are our basic needs that much more complicated?

What are my resources? Time, money, emotion, energy. What do I spend them on? What am I getting for it? What resources are others spending on me? Am I getting a good deal on what I am spending or am I being short-changed? Am I a good employee when it comes to what others spend on me? 

Makes you feel like making a list doesn't it? 

AIDS, Acronyms and Game Theory

I am fortunate enough to be a part of a wonderful community of individuals, the Western Cape chapter of the MENSA society. 

Last night we got together to hear from a young virologist, Dr Britta Flach, who told us all about the HIV virus and how finding a vaccine for HIV has been a very tough road to navigate for scientists working in the field. 

A few things stood out for me. First, let me make a quick disclaimer; please do not be offended by my thoughts or opinions. When addressing a topic which involves the suffering of others it is always hard to make sure you communicate empathy as well, which I do profess.

To start, both Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) both have the word Immunodeficiency in them, yet the acronyms use this word differently. If the rule was 100% commutable it would either be HIDV and AIDS, or HIV and AIS. Is there a word for when this happens? Furthermore, HIV or HIDV would still have to be spelled out since it is uncomfortable to pronounce and AIDS or AIS could still be pronounced in word form. This rules out the thought that it may have been done for some communication related or linguistic convenience. 

The second thing that was very interesting was the idea of how a vaccine would traditionally work and why it doesn't work with HIV. A standard vaccine introduces a kind-of-dead version of a virus to your system with a very low initial response by your immune system. The response is enough to teach your immune system how to fight of the virus when it is encountered at a later stage. With HIV, the infection targets the immune system itself so you are left with nothing to fight with. The talk ended with this quote; 

"AIDS: a time to return to basic science"

Very interesting. Newton said that he accomplished what he did from "standing on the shoulders of giants" (and he did so rather tongue-in-cheek apparently). In this scenario it would be suggested to get down from the giant's shoulders and find another or be your own!

The last thought I had relates to a podcast by the authors Levitt and Dubner (from Freakonomics fame) who mentioned that email scam artists are pretty good at game theory. They send the same story out without changing anything so that when they get a bite, the victim is likely to fit all the criteria that they require for a successful con. The criteria being a strong dose of naivety, a little greed, a touch of stupidity, some money and internet access. Bob's your uncle (Who also happens to be a Nigerian prince that would like to send you his money). The game theory part comes in here. If they tried to change their strategy, they won't know for sure if replies come from suitable victims or not, since the scam might be too good. 

When it comes to HIV, there is an extremely sad parallel to this story. The most common method of infection is unprotected sex and unlike cancer which does not discriminate, a lot of HIV victims fall into a rather specific category. Rural areas, low level of education, low levels of understanding of the communicability of the disease and, in all likelihood, cultures where sexual promiscuity is less likely to be condemned by society (wrongly or rightly). 

I was infuriated by comments on an article of a gentlemen who had suffered a fatal shark attack, even though he went out while the warning flag was up. Readers commented that he was stupid so deserved his fate. Would those readers feel the same about the AIDS victims or the people who fall for scams? It would be a tragedy if they did. 

Welcome to my blog

Dear reader, 

Whether you are here by accident or intention you are most welcome. 

This blog's reason for taking up negligible space on the internet is simply to post things I like or find interesting. The content is likely to vary from interesting articles and video's to ideas for the workplace. 

Although participation and discussion is not anticipated, it is not discouraged and will in all likelihood be noted and acknowledged in some way. 

Wherever, and whenever, you are, I hope you have a great day.

Warm regards, 

Danie