Sunday, July 30, 2006
MMMB- Oooooo, this is KA fun!
Mopey!
I really think we hit on something this time! Yes, yes- how DOES a surfer dude support himself without worrying about money all the time? Answer: he lets Apu do all the work!
Granted, we have to come up with another metaphor for Apu. I don't want to be crass, or un-PC (really, I'm pretty PC for real, folks!). Besides, it's too convoluted a reference (I'd have to get into the whole Sims story, and most people won't know it).
I also want this "book" to be unpractical. Not a do-it-yourself thing. That won't sell. People feel too guilty about why they're not successful with money, and too apathetic when faced with the stress of handling their finances. I think self-help financial literature will be out of vogue, as the Boomers discover just how much trouble they're in financially in the next few decades. Money will go from being an intoxicating subject, to an overwhelming and unwelcome one.
So, I want to write more of an "interesting" book about money. We'll be the Malcolm Gladwells of personal finance, creating a voyeuristic way of thinking about money rather than a participatory one. No judgement at all- just what we've observed. The theme: anecdotal ways that money and social decisions intersect. Take the emotion out of it and just do some story-telling. Take the mystery out of it- one's financial situation is just a consequence of many, many tiny actions over many years. It's hard to see because the human mind doesn't grasp things longterm (no fire-fighting qualities needed here!). As we may recall, Steven Levitt gets into this a bit when he describes why policy-makers and the general public can't get their arms around the stats and see the truth in cause and effect- it's just not how the human brain works to see distant consequences of past actions, etc.
We could do it like this:
We describe a dude's life and break down his behavior into discrete segments, highlighting the various decisions, conscious or unconscious, that he makes along the way to lead him to his current position. There could be several characters we dissect in this way, each being a different chapter maybe:
1) a person in his/her mid-30s who hasn't changed his/her financial situation at all in an entire decade (who am thinking of here? ;))
2) the unconventional surfer who is living on muni-bond income (how does he do that?!)
3) the married couple in their early40s who want it all but unknowingly pared down their options when they had kids and are just now realizing it.
We make them mini-stories so that by the end of the chapter/book the reader starts anticipating the ending, happy or sad, financially independent or not for each character.
What do you think?
-Moops
I really think we hit on something this time! Yes, yes- how DOES a surfer dude support himself without worrying about money all the time? Answer: he lets Apu do all the work!
Granted, we have to come up with another metaphor for Apu. I don't want to be crass, or un-PC (really, I'm pretty PC for real, folks!). Besides, it's too convoluted a reference (I'd have to get into the whole Sims story, and most people won't know it).
I also want this "book" to be unpractical. Not a do-it-yourself thing. That won't sell. People feel too guilty about why they're not successful with money, and too apathetic when faced with the stress of handling their finances. I think self-help financial literature will be out of vogue, as the Boomers discover just how much trouble they're in financially in the next few decades. Money will go from being an intoxicating subject, to an overwhelming and unwelcome one.
So, I want to write more of an "interesting" book about money. We'll be the Malcolm Gladwells of personal finance, creating a voyeuristic way of thinking about money rather than a participatory one. No judgement at all- just what we've observed. The theme: anecdotal ways that money and social decisions intersect. Take the emotion out of it and just do some story-telling. Take the mystery out of it- one's financial situation is just a consequence of many, many tiny actions over many years. It's hard to see because the human mind doesn't grasp things longterm (no fire-fighting qualities needed here!). As we may recall, Steven Levitt gets into this a bit when he describes why policy-makers and the general public can't get their arms around the stats and see the truth in cause and effect- it's just not how the human brain works to see distant consequences of past actions, etc.
We could do it like this:
We describe a dude's life and break down his behavior into discrete segments, highlighting the various decisions, conscious or unconscious, that he makes along the way to lead him to his current position. There could be several characters we dissect in this way, each being a different chapter maybe:
1) a person in his/her mid-30s who hasn't changed his/her financial situation at all in an entire decade (who am thinking of here? ;))
2) the unconventional surfer who is living on muni-bond income (how does he do that?!)
3) the married couple in their early40s who want it all but unknowingly pared down their options when they had kids and are just now realizing it.
We make them mini-stories so that by the end of the chapter/book the reader starts anticipating the ending, happy or sad, financially independent or not for each character.
What do you think?
-Moops
# posted by Moopy and Mopey @ 11:09 AM 
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