J.D. Moyer

science fiction author, beatmaker, against fascism

What is Metaprogramming?

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On June 8, 2010

In Metaprogramming

John C. Lilly, the only scientist to have two horror films based on his life.

For a number of decades I’ve been interested in self-improvement via a method I like to call metaprogramming.  I was first exposed to the term via John C. Lilly’s Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer (a summary report to Lilly’s employer at the time, The National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH]).  Lilly explored the idea that all human behavior is controlled by genetic and neurological programs, and that via intense introspection, psychedelic drugs, and isolation tanks, human beings can learn to reprogram their own computers.  Far out, man.

As the fields of psychology, neurophysiology, cognitive science have progressed, we’ve learned that the computer/brain analogy has its limitations.  As for psychedelics, they have their limitations as well; they are so effective at disrupting rigid mental structures (opening up minds), that they can leave their heavy users a bit lacking in structure.  From my own observations, what the heavy user of psychedelics stands to gain in creativity, he may lose in productivity, or stability, or coherence.

Those issues aside, I still love the term metaprogramming.  We are creatures of habit (programs), and one of the most effective (if not only) way we can modify our own behavior is by hacking our own habits.  We can program our programs, thus, metaprogramming.  This is a slightly different use of the term than Lilly’s; what I call metaprogramming he probably would have called selfmetaprogramming (he used metaprograms to refer to higher level programs in the human biocomputer; habits and learned knowledge and cultural norms as opposed to instincts and other “hardwired” behaviors).

Effective Metaprogramming

Effective metaprogramming requires a degree of self-awareness and self-observation.  It also requires a forgiving attitude towards oneself; we can more clearly observe and take responsibility for our own behaviors (including the destructive ones), if we refrain from unnecessary self-flagellation.

Most importantly, effective metaprogramming requires clear targets for behavior.  In my experience, coming up with these targets takes an enormous amount of time and energy.  It’s hard to decide how you want to behave, in every area of your life.  It’s much easier to just continue on cruise control, relying on your current set of habits to carry you towards whatever fate you’re currently pointed at.

And what if you pick a target for your own behavior, implement it, and don’t like the results?  Course corrections are part of the territory.

Religion (Do It Our Way)

If you don’t want to come up with your own set of behavioral guidelines, there’s always someone willing to offer (or sell) you theirs.  Moses, lugging around his ten commandments, or Tony Robbins, with his DVDs.

Looks like we might be down to five commandments.

Religion has historically offered various sets of metaprogramming tools; rules for how to behave, and in some cases, techniques and practices to help you out (like Buddhist meditation). If you decide to follow or join a religion, you have to watch out for the extra baggage.  Some religions come with threats if you don’t follow the rules.  The threats can be real (banishment from the group), or made up (banishment to Hell).  Judaism is perhaps the exception; there are lots of rules but the main punishment for not following them (as far as I can tell) is that you simply become a less observant Jew.

I’m an atheist, more or less, and a fan of the scientific method and scientific inquiry.  I also appreciate the work the philosopher/evolutionary biologists Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins, both of whom have taken up strong stands against organized religion.  These stands are excusable, insofar as they attack outmoded religious beliefs (creationism, the afterlife, inferiority of women, and so forth) or crime (like the abuse of children by priests — Dawkins is actually trying to arrest the Pope).  But religion offers much more than belief, and in some religions (like Judaism) belief matters very little.  Religions offer behavioral systems, practices, rituals, myths, stories, and traditions, all of which are tremendous, irreplaceable cultural resources.

Daniel Dennett, aka Santa Claus.

Some religions are attempting the leap into modernity.  The Dalai Lama has taken an active interest in neuroscience.  My wife’s rabbi is a self-proclaimed atheist.  The Vatican has put out a statement suggesting that Darwinian evolution is not in conflict with the official doctrines of the Catholicism (a nice PR move, but in my opinion it’s only because they don’t fully understand the principles of Darwinian evolution — Daniel Dennett called Darwin’s idea “dangerous” for good reason).  In the long-run, religions are institutions, and they’ll do what they have to in order to survive.  The term “God” will be redefined, as necessary, to keep the pews warm and the tithing buckets full.  Evolutionary biologists (with their logical, literal thinking) are tilting at windmills when they attack religion; they are no match for the nimble, poetic minds of theologians.

As much as I value religions in the abstract, I haven’t yet found one I can deal with personally.  My wife finds the endless rules of Judaism to be invigorating; following them gives her real spiritual satisfaction.  I find them to be bizarre and confusing (maybe this is because I’m not Jewish, but I suspect some Jews would agree with me).

Still, I have liberally borrowed from the world’s religions while devising my own metaprogramming system.  Jesus’s Golden Rule.  Islam’s dislike of debt.  A good chunk of the Buddha’s Eightfold Path.  And at least a few of the Ten Commandments.

Help Yourself

Want to win friends and influence people? Change the spelling of your last name to match that of a world-famous captain of industry!

The self-help movement has been around at least as long as Dale Carnegie.  Decades later, the psychedelic and cross-cultural explorations of the 60’s (Richard Alpert hanging out and dropping acid with Indian gurus, Timothy Leary dropping acid and reading The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Werner Erhard experimenting with Zen Buddhism) added fuel to the fire of the self-help movement.  East meets West meets L.S.D. = Total Transformation of the Human Psyche!  We all know how that turned out.

The modern self-help movement has had its share of both inspired individuals (like Tony Robbins) and charismatic but ultimately abusive (like the late Frederick Lenz).

I’m a fan of Robbins, for example, because his teachings are open (he does sell products and seminars, but he also gives away an enormous amount of content).  Same goes for Steve Pavlina, Les Brown, and even Timothy Ferriss.  All offer up their own insights and behavioral modification (metaprogramming) systems with a “try this and see if it works for you” attitude.  It’s clear they are interested in spreading their message first, in making a living second, and not at all interested in controlling people or accumulating subjugates.

I’m also fascinated by the late anti-guru U.G. Krishnamurti (not to be confused with the more popular J. Krishnamurti).  U.G., by all accounts, was unequivocally an enlightened being.  The interesting bit was his absolute refusal to attempt to teach, pass on, or even recommend his own higher state of consciousness.  Throughout his life, he refused to take on any followers or officially publish any of his writings.  I’ll write about U.G. in more detail in another post.

Frederick Lenz -- charismatic but mad as a hatter.


Sinister Intentions

At the unfortunate intersection between religion and self-help lies the world of cults.  Cult leaders and cult organizations can be spotted by the following attributes.  Stay away!

  • secret, often bizarre teachings
  • brainwashing techniques (sleep deprivation, emotional trauma, isolation, sensory overload)
  • enormous fees required for membership and/or access to teachings
  • requirement to cut off contact from family and/or friends (nonmembers)
  • use coercive methods to control their members (intimidation, blackmail, even violence)

NEVER challenge a hack sci-fi writer to invent a religion -- he might succeed!

Cults often seduce new members by offering up simple, effective metaprogramming techniques.  Scientology offers “clearing,” a method of reliving painful emotional experiences and thus removing their negative subconscious influence.  There’s nothing wrong with clearing — the problems come later, when you’re maxing out your credit cards and babbling on about “operating thetans.”  Frederick Lenz instructed his followers in chakra meditation.  The young, impressionable, and idealistic are especially vulnerable to seduction by cults, but these dangerous organizations are easy to spot if you know what to look for.  They’re not looking to spread a message of truth, love, and higher consciousness; they’re looking for subjugates.

There’s nothing wrong with using somebody else’s self-improvement/behavioral modification/metaprogramming system, either ancient or modern, in whole or in part, as long as you shop around carefully.  Or, you can invent your own.  As a third alternative, if you are already happy with the current state of your habits (and where they are steering you in life), you may not feel compelled to bother with changing yourself.

Baby with the Bathwater

The field of self-improvement is full of half-truths, hucksters, pseudoscience, charlatans, snake oil and snake oil salesmen, bizarre beliefs, true believers, smelly hippies, narcissistic baby boomers, pitiful cases, get-rich-quick schemers, crystal wavers, cult leaders, and weird dieters, and is thus always ripe for parody (my favorite is this video parody of The Secret).  A down-to-earth, rational person could be excused for steering clear of the self-improvement realm altogether.

On the other hand, energy we invest in improving our own habits (programs), including habits of thought and perception, is probably one of the best investments we can make in our own lives.  Even minor improvements can yield enormous dividends in the long-run.

I’ll continue to share my thoughts about metaprogramming in this blog, including my core metaprogramming principles (not as a prescriptive, but rather in the spirit of open-source code sharing).  As a quick preview, I’ll offer that my own principles involve the following areas:

  1. Maintaining a High Quality of Consciousness
  2. Taking Radical Responsibility for All Your Actions, and Every Aspect Of Your Life
  3. Creating a System of Functional Vitality

Working Abroad Adventure: Week Two-And-A-Half

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On June 5, 2010

In Lifestyle Experiments, Travel

A view from the beach, which could benefit from a two degree rotation in Photoshop.

I’m in the midst of a six week “working abroad adventure.”  The idea: rent a house in the jungle on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, and attempt to do and deliver all our work remotely (Kia is a motion graphics artist, I co-run Loöq Records, do freelance database consulting work, and write fiction).  Why?  To change things up a bit, to break up our normal routines, and to experience a change of scenery and culture.  It’s a “workation”; a vacation without the giant financial hit, and without the risk of boredom from too much beach and hammock time.  If it’s not already obvious, we both like our work — this is not some version of Tim Ferriss’s 4-Hour Workweek (though we were inspired by his book).

The Good News

The girls.

I’m happy to report that approximately two weeks into our trip, we’re getting some work done, and appreciating the natural and cultural gifts that this beautiful part of Costa Rica has to offer.  Every day we take a trip down to the beach; we tend to hang out on an idyllic stretch in front of the Caracola Hotel with calm water and tidepools teeming with life.  We feast on fresh mango and papaya, local grass-fed beef, fish caught hours ago in the Caribbean, and drink the best coffee I have ever tasted (with extra-healthful Costa Rican milk).  At night we listen to the sound of rain on our roof, and in the morning are awakened by the sounds of howler monkeys, toucans, and parrots.  On clear nights we look up at a sky densely packed with stars, and during one evening walk encountered a living Christmas tree, a giant black silhouette lit up by lightening bugs, blinking on-and-off.

Mentally, I feel awake, alive, and engaged.  Emotionally, I feel powerful love for my wife and daughter, and more closeness with my parents, brother, in-laws, and extended family.  I feel love and appreciation for my friends even though I’m far away from most of them.  In the broadest scope of my life, I feel like I have expanded the realm of what is possible and doable.

Have there been hard times?  Definitely, and I’ll go into those, but I wanted to start with the positive.  I’m glad we decided to go on this adventure; I don’t regret the decision.

The Client

In my last post I mentioned my choice to not inform all my clients that I would be temporarily relocating to a house in the jungle on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica.  One client had requested a face-to-face meeting, and I wasn’t sure how to handle the request.  Turns out the problem went away; I had already informed another person at the organization about my trip (and then promptly forgotten).  I haven’t had a single complaint about my unilateral decision to work remotely for six weeks.  I imagine some of them are withholding judgment for the moment; can J.D. get the job done from anywhere?  If so, no problem.

But Can I Get The Job Done?

Brain coral.

My productive output has suffered a precipitous drop, by any measure.  We have childcare a few hours a day, at most (from my mom, who decided to visit us here and rented a place down the road, or from a local babysitter we met recently who our daughter fell in love with).  The rest of the time we trade off, or do activities as a family.  We both try to work efficiently during the times our daughter is being cared for, or sleeping, but there is no shortage of distractions.  If we try to work in the evening we get attacked by mosquitoes (we’re only really safe in bed — under the mosquito net).  We’ve also had a number of internet and power outages that bring our work to a screeching halt.  There’s also the temptation to go the beach instead of working, or just lie in a hammock and read a book.

Despite these challenges, we’re getting some work done.  This aspect is harder than I expected, but not harder than I should have expected.  I knew most of the variables going in.  The key for me is setting a few clear, achievable goals for each day.

Fixing the Internet

Sometime into our second week, our internet went down.  If you read my previous post, you’ll know that our only connection to digital civilization, our clients, Skype, etc. was a mysterious ethernet cable, encased in a plastic tube, disappearing into the jungle.  Three days of biking down our rocky road to the Art Cafe several kilometers away was proving inconvenient (though it’s a great place to work — beautiful women serve you delicious fruit drinks while you bask in the wi-fi).  Finally, I decided to investigate, and followed the cable across our yard and through a dense tropical thicket.  The cable snaked upward through the trees, eventually joining some power cables and crossing the road towards our neighbor’s place.  From my vantage point amidst the palms I could only see a large Bob Marley flag, and a high, densely-constructed wooden gate.

Land crab (far from ocean) in front of our jungle house.  Trying to slice our internet cable?

I shared the results of my reconnaissance with Kia, as well as my plan to regain our connectivity.  I would attach the cable directly to my laptop, type in the router address directly into my browser, hack into the administrative control page, and then do a remote reboot.  That’s what I do at home when the internet doesn’t work — I reboot the modem and the router — it seemed worth a try in any case.  My plan worked up to a point, I did in fact navigate my way to the user and password prompt for the router.  I typed in numerous iterations of admin, user, bob, marley, jah, one, reggae, nation, love, etc. … all to no avail.

Kia eventually took a more down-to-earth approach, going next door and introducing herself to the neighbor, a Tico woman renting the place.  The nice lady let Kia enter her home and turn her power strip off, and then on.  Internet service restored.

Out of the Frying Pan …

One morning I woke up with a headache, feeling weak and utterly lacking in energy.  I recovered quickly enough with coffee, water, some vitamins, and breakfast, and wrote off the episode to mild dehydration and overexertion.  Two days later I experienced the same symptoms, combined with drowsiness, foggy-headedness, sluggishness of limb, irritability, and a dry cough.  Do you suspect malaria?  Some of the symptoms match.  It crossed my mind too, but the incubation period for malaria is quite long, and the disease is rare in Costa Rica except near banana plantations.  I think what I experienced was DEET toxicity, especially considering that the onset of symptoms in both cases occurred within six hours of applying a repellent cream containing DEET directly to my skin.  I’m fully recovered now, but it was a nasty experience.

I generally try to avoid applying poison directly onto my skin, but the mosquitoes really love my blood (as does the Red Cross, but at least they don’t inject me with an itch-inducing digestive enzyme right after they withdraw my O positive).  I had over 100 itchy, red bumps, mostly on my feet, calves, and forearms, before I resorted to DEET.

Turns out DEET is a potent neurotoxin, and can cause genetic damage.  Severe cases of poisoning can result in disorientation, incoherence, tremors, seizures, respiratory failure, delusions of grandiosity, and death.  We’ll never use it again.  Currently I’m experimenting with an herbal alternative; a strongly brewed local peppermint tea spritzed directly onto exposed skin — it seems to be working so far — no new bites yet.  Update: not only does the mint tea spritz not work to repel mosquitoes, the mosquitoes added insult to injury by landing in our open saucepan of mint tea, apparently to lay their eggs.

As a side note, it’s possible my regular intake of the local Pilsen brew might have something to do with my attractiveness to the bloodsuckers.

What we really need around here is one of Nathan Myhrvold’s mosquito lasers (or click here for the full TED talk — fascinating).

Leaps and Bounds

Our two year old daughter is enjoying life in the jungle.  She loves looking at the lizards, frogs, monkeys, butterflies, and birds, and for some reason the mosquitoes don’t like her (maybe because she doesn’t drink beer, or maybe it’s that she never stops moving).

In front of Pirripli market.

The locals kids here are really independent.  It’s not uncommon to see a little kid, three or four years old, walking alone on the road to run an errand.  Our daughter is picking up some of that can-do attitude, and is learning to swim (or at least splash around) in the ocean (when we arrived she was terrified of the surf — she didn’t want to be put down anywhere near even the smallest of waves).  She’s also lost her fear of dogs (she used to hide behind momma’s leg when approached by a friendly Labrador; now she will calmly put her shoes on next to a dozing Pit Bull).  I think and hope she’ll remember the time we’re spending in Costa Rica, with all the novel sights and sounds.

The Big Picture

Off to the lavandería.

We’re slowly getting it together.  We have a house, two bicycles (one in need of repair), internet (that works most of the time), and a babysitter.  We buy our groceries at the Pirripli market, and get our laundry done by a friendly Jamaican woman down the street (Bet-El lavandería).  We’ve enjoyed delicious meals at Jungle Love, Bread & Chocolate, and Soda Johana.  Tomorrow morning we’re going to visit the Jaguar Rescue Center and get a closer look at some of the wildlife.

Is the working abroad experiment working?  I’m not sure yet.  Life is physically harder than I’m used to, but I’m fitter than I’ve been in years (and not quite as pale).  There have been moments of extreme stress, but at least as many sublime experiences.

It might have been a better choice, at least for me personally, to have arranged a break from my consulting work and just focused on my creative work.  But if I’d done that, I might be worried about money, considering this is such a long trip.  On that point, I think I’ll need hindsight for clarity.

Gecko!

Leaf-cutter ants (click for video)

30 Day Experiment – Be More Lucky

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On June 1, 2010

In Lifestyle Experiments, Metaprogramming

We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like? - Jean Cocteau

Today launches a new 30-day experiment, during which I will try to be more lucky. I’m basing the experiment on the research of Dr. Richard Wiseman, who, starting in the 90’s, conducted a series of experiments investigating the nature of luck, and whether or not being lucky was a trainable skill (he concluded that it was).

This article by Wiseman explains his experiments and results succinctly.  Wiseman’s “lucky” subjects would probably would fare no better at games of pure chance than the rest of us, but they have better fortune in life.  Opportunities fall into their laps, they seem happier, they know all the right people, and so on.  Who wouldn’t want a bit more luck juice to sprinkle on their fate?

From his research, Wiseman concluded the following about his lucky subjects:

“They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities, make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.”

A nice cake, if you can bake it.  But how do you get from here to there?  How do you turn an unlucky person into a lucky one?  Wiseman prescribed various exercises to help his less fortunate subjects develop the necessary attitudinal traits.  After following the simple exercises for a month, the less-lucky subjects reported dramatically better luck; fewer mishaps and more happy coincidences.  Wiseman’s exercises were along the following lines (in his own words):

  • Listen to your gut instincts – they are normally right.
  • Be open to new experiences and breaking your normal routine.
  • Spend a few moments each day remembering things that went well.
  • Visualize yourself being lucky before an important meeting or telephone call. Luck is very often a self-fulfilling prophecy.

In other articles, like this one from Forbes, Wiseman focuses on the social side of luck; luckier people have larger social networks (and keep them active, staying in touch with people).  He also notes that luckier people are far more observant than their less fortunate brethren; they are more likely to notice details outside of “what they are looking for,” and this serves them well.

If you view all the things that happen to you, both good and bad, as opportunities, then you operate out of a higher level of consciousness. - Les Brown

Self-Analysis

Where do I currently stand, on the luck spectrum?  I consider myself fairly lucky, with room for improvement.  I tend to have a good attitude and look on the bright side, but I’m not immune to occasional bouts of self-pity or gloomy pessimism.  I have a decently large social network, but I’m horrible at striking up conversations with strangers; I tend towards minding my own business (and even shyness at times).  I trust my gut more often than not, but sometimes plow ahead despite “having a bad feeling about it.”  I’m open to novel experiences and breaking my routine, but I’m spectacularly unobservant at times.

Customized Exercises

Every day in June, I plan to do the luck-building exercises below.  I’ve designed them to addresses my particular weaknesses, build my strengths, and be easy and fun enough to do every day.

  1. Principle: Focus on the positive / Exercise: Discuss and tweet favorite three experiences of the day
  2. Principle: Expand opportunity / Exercise: Talk to everyone — strike up a conversation at every opportunity
  3. Principle: Follow intuition / Exercise: Consciously consult “gut feeling” at all significant choice points
  4. Principle: Resilience / Exercise: When something “bad” happens, consider possible upsides (and refuse to be demoralized)
  5. Principle: Expand opportunity / Exercise: Observe and record (journal) at least three anomalous details every day

I don’t know if these exercises are perfectly designed, but I don’t think it matters.  They should get me going in the right direction.  It’s worth noting that the opportunity cost in each case is low; none of them take very much time or involve much risk (the possibility of initiating an awkward conversation seems real, but bearable).

Opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. - Thomas Edison

So far, the experiment is going well.  Hacking away at a coconut this morning, standing on slippery leaves in bare feet, I managed to not hack off my foot, and while stabbing at the inner shell with my Swiss Army knife, I miraculously avoided cutting off my finger when the blade suddenly jackknifed closed (I escaped with only a laceration, easily staunched with direct pressure and a number of Band-Aids).  This resulted in an opportunity to provide a safety lesson for my daughter, and elicited a tender outpouring of concern from both my wife and daughter, making me feel both loved and needed.  I’d say the day was off to an excellent start!

Working Abroad Adventure: Week 2

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On May 26, 2010

In Lifestyle Experiments, Metaprogramming, Travel

This particular neighbor is, fortunately, a vegan.

When I last left the dear reader I was in a black mood, heading to the storage shed to fetch a machete.  A thought had entered my mind; the remedy to my grumpiness was in doing something I could only do here in the jungle.  I roamed our large yard, filled with towering tropical plants, gigantic flowers, and insects as big as my hand, until I found what I was looking for — a fallen green coconut.  I hacked at my victim with abandon.  My sword was dull and my foe was tough; only a series of full-strength overhead blows removed the outer shell.  I pierced the inner fruit with a smaller knife and was shocked by the loud popping noise and spray of liquid.  I poured the coconut water over ice and shared it with Kia (our daughter declined).  Slightly sweet, a little sour, and refreshing.

Big bug.

Soon after the air cooled and it began to rain.  With the change in temperature, all three of us felt a sense of relief.  Things weren’t so bad.  We had food and a roof over our heads.  We were in tropical paradise.  The mosquitoes were letting up a bit, and our problems were starting to feel solvable.

Manufacturing Happiness

Happiness comes in two flavors — the kind you feel when you get what you want, and the kind you make up when you don’t.  Psychologists, with their clever tests, have determined that the two varieties are indistinguishable in quality (you can tell I’ve been watching TED videos — I actually logged on to watch the penultimate episode of LOST, but discovered the joys of Hulu don’t extend to Costa Rica).

If you, like me, are only semi (and not fully) enlightened, you’ll sometimes forget you know the trick of manufacturing happiness in spite of your circumstances.  Bug-bitten, hot, foggy-headed, bike-less, in an unfamiliar place, with only the wire-from-the-jungle connecting me to civilization, I briefly forgot that the secret to happiness is (more or less) deciding to be happy.  That, and doing whatever you can to influence your own fate.  Of course it’s not an instantaneous switch, but I’m convinced the greater part of happiness is intention.

We’ve got wheels!

The next morning — Sunday — we walked to Eric Haller’s house. He made us delicious coffee — incredibly smooth — and we took a taxi into Puerto Viejo. We stopped at Gallo’s bike shop on Eric’s recommendation and bought a used mountain bike for 40,000 colones (about US$75) and attached our kid’s “iBert” bike seat. Gallo’s place only had one bike for sale, so we rented a beater for the day — transportation problem half solved!

While buying the bike, we ran into our old friend Matt Grinnell who we’d known in San Francisco, back in the dot-com boom days.  Turns out he’s been living twenty minutes up the road for the last three years.  We picked up some Toña beer (not great, but better than the watery Imperial) and stopped by the beautiful beachside Caracola Hotel (managed by a friend of Matt).

On the beach, with warm water on my feet, a cool breeze on my face, and a beer in my hand, I suddenly lost my need to synthesize happiness.

Actually Working?

The concept for this experiment was to work abroad, as opposed to “go on vacation.”  Kia and I both brought work (and deadlines) with us.  With no childcare, productivity is currently on the low side.  A good chunk of time is also dedicated to learning how to feel comfortable in the tropics (three or four cool showers a day, at least until we adjust, endless applying of various creams/repellents/antihistamines, arranging the fan to drive off the most mosquitoes, etc.).  I’m really selling this, aren’t I?  On the other hand there has been no shortage of sublime encounters with the local fauna; four types of lizards, two types of frogs, the howler monkeys (still only heard, but hearing them is thrilling), and of course the giant insects, which include enormous blue butterflies, 1000-watt lightening bugs, and the above-pictured Godzilla roach.  I’m especially excited for our daughter — it’s not everyday that a city kid needs to coax a large frog to leave their bedroom before going to bed.

Ribbit.

We are getting some work done and delivered though, and that in itself is kind of a thrill.  I’m getting paid, from the jungle.  Take that, cubicle man.

I shouldn’t boast though, because my creative output has taken a hit.  I’ve been prioritizing my time and willpower towards the needs of my clients, and also just getting basic stuff dealt with (buying food, buying a bike — as of today we have two).  No fiction writing and no music composition for at least a week now, and I’m feeling it.  I hope to give you some good news on that front by my next post.

The Mind-Blowing Bit

As I sit here in my hammock, looking out at the black night and listening to the rain and the din of a million insects, I’m shocked by how easy it was to “change it up a bit.”  It was only a couple months ago that we decided to temporarily relocate to Costa Rica, almost on a whim.  It makes we wonder what else I should just decide to do (on a whim).  I realize that not everyone has the flexibility to do their work remotely, but are you taking advantage of whatever flexibility you do have?  For the most part, I wasn’t.

Possible Glitch

So … a client just emailed requesting a face-to-face meeting.  They don’t know I’m in Costa Rica for the next five weeks or so.  Not quite sure how I’m going to handle this …

Working Abroad Adventure: Week 1

By

On May 23, 2010

In Lifestyle Experiments, Travel

View from the second story.

Kia and I have been talking, for years, about the possibility of living and working abroad for a period of time.  We love living in Oakland — the Bay Area has an amazingly high quality of life, and most of our friends and family live nearby — but the world is a big beautiful place and it doesn’t make sense to experience just one corner of it.

We bounced around quite a few ideas.  We considered living three months in the south of Spain — close enough to my Dad’s place in France to visit him there — but the high cost of living and exorbitant cost of flying to Europe these days scared us off.  We finally decided to live in Costa Rica for six weeks.  My friend Eric Haller lives near the town of Puerto Viejo, on the Caribbean side, and I’d been following his photo-stream for some time.  Life in a tropical paradise looked tempting.

Kia and I have been trying to find our “vacation groove” for years.  We’ve enjoyed some trips, but often find ourselves feeling restless and unsatisfied, even in the midst of spectacular beauty.  The thing is, we both like to work.  We like to be engaged and productive.  Sightseeing and delicious meals — nothing wrong with that — but if there’s nothing to balance it with, it feels a little hollow.  We decided to give up on the vacation concept and try something else: working abroad.  Bring our work with us, and really settle in for awhile — that was our plan.

Logistics — It’s All Going to Work!

No need to wash the windows.

Once we had committed to the idea, the planning came together fairly easily.  We booked our flights, and found a beautiful house to rent via craigstlist.  We also rented out our own house for the duration to someone we like and trust (Facebook came in handy on that front).  Our folks were a little upset about the prospect of being separated from their granddaughter for six weeks, so two of them decided to visit us in Costa Rica (my mom arrives next week).  Everyone else we promised to keep in touch with via Skype.

Our rental house promised a DSL connection; this was a must if we were going to get any work done.  I knew I could do my Loöq Records work remotely, especially with Spesh handling any local business in San Francisco.  In terms of my freelance clients, I figured they didn’t even need to know I was working from the jungle.  The vast majority of my programming/database work I could do and deliver remotely.  I’m not keeping it a secret that I’m here (obviously — I’m blogging about it) but there are some clients I only plan to tell if they ask.  Kia is also able to do her freelance work — motion graphics production — remotely.    Since we were unsure about the speed and reliability of our internet connection, she negotiated the outsourcing of some of her larger renders (the idea being to avoid having to upload gigantic files).

Why hello there.

For phone communication, we went 100% Skype.  We each purchased a local 510 area code Skype number, Skype voicemail, and Skype credits for a total cost of about $30 each.  We then forwarded our regular mobile phones to the Skype number.  Anyone calling us locally then goes to Skype; if we’re online we answer, if not it goes to Skype voicemail.  When we call from Skype, it appears as a 510 number.  For local Costa Rica calls, we rented a cell phone from our landlord for $25.

Week 1 — Reality Sets In

Getting to our jungle house was a  smooth journey, with only a few stressful moments.  This is amazing considering how heavily we packed.  Among our possessions: a car seat and a bike seat for our two-year-old, and warm clothes that we won’t wear at all while we’re here.  We knew it would be warm, but we didn’t realize how warm.

We flew in to San Jose (in Costa Rica — there’s also a San Francisco in Costa Rica, as well as a Liverpool — this proved confusing to our daughter, who fully expected to see her beloved Auntie Lorelei when we arrived in San Jose), and stayed the night at the Hemingway Inn.  Eric had some business to do in San Jose and met us there.  The next day we all took the four hour bus ride to Puerto Viejo.  I was half-expecting a cramped ride on a rickety bus along terrifying roads, with live poultry as co-passengers.  In fact the bus was modern, spacious, and cool, and the road was newly paved with large shoulders.  At this point I realized I need to reevaluate some of my thinking regarding “first-world” vs. “developing” countries.  Last night I watched this TED talk from Hans Rosling that pretty much nails the problem in my thinking.

From Puerto Viejo, a taxi took us to nearby Cocles (not quite a town, a collection of a few homes and businesses near the beach), and up a very rough dirt/rock road to our house in the jungle.  At this point we started to have some misgivings.  There was no way we were going to be able to bike up this road (especially with a kid on a bike seat attached); it was too steep and too rough.

Our internet wire comes from … the jungle.

As you can see, the house is beautiful.  The “DSL”, however, turned out to be a 100+ foot ethernet cable strung through a long plastic tube which disappeared into the jungle.  “The internet,” explained the house instructions, “is from the neighbors.  The cable is quite fragile, and can easily be damaged.”  Uh-oh.

As evening fell, the mosquitoes set in.  We also received a few stinging bites from ants, of which we immediately observed at least three varieties.  The largest has the nickname of “bullet ant” because being bitten by one feels like being hit by a bullet.  Fortunately I’ve yet to experience either, so I can’t confirm or deny the similarity.

We cooked our dinner from food we’d picked up from the market in Puerto Viejo, and went to bed soon after dark.  That night there was a terrific rainstorm, with the most thundery thunder I’ve ever heard, answered with raucous defiance by the howler monkeys.  Kia speculated as to the origins of religion — obviously, to the howler monkeys, there must be a big bad howler monkey in the sky making tons of noise and pissing on everyone.

Some happy times …

The first few days were mixed.  All three of us found the daytime heat to be oppressive, the mosquitoes were biting us, and it was difficult to get anything done (ever tried to concentrate while being dive-bombed by blood-suckers?).  On the other hand, we were surrounded by incredible beauty, and the house had a fair number of amenities.  Eric came over for dinner and we cooked up some steaks.  Both Kia and I managed to get a little work done.  We plugged our spare Airport Extreme into the infinitely long jungle ethernet cable, and miraculously, we had wi-fi.  Twenty minutes later it went down, but then ten minutes after that it came up again.

On the afternoon of Day 3 we hit a low point.  We were all hot, tired, and itchy.  The mobile phone we had rented had a dead battery, and no configuration of the universal charger would give it any juice.  The internet was down about a third of the time.  Our only transportation was on foot, with the nearest market being twenty minutes away.  Safe to say we were all grumpy and miserable.

… some grumpy times.

A clear intention started to form in my mind.  I went into the storage room and grabbed a machete.

To be continued …

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