PUA Blogger

This was going to be a long sweeping article about how wrong we are when we care about different things: how many megapixels a camera has, how much electricity we use by keeping the lights on, using cell phones on airplanes, and swimming in the water when there’s lightning out. But instead of trying to weave all those things together, I’m going to focus on the biggest one.

Water.

This one is near and dear to me, because I am a bad showerer and I got in trouble for it as a kid. I’d wake up on a cold New England morning, snow outside, and tip toe across the cold wood floors.

When I was cold I would hold my hands in front of my chest, hands clasped under my chin. No one else seems to do this, by the way. My brother once told me that I “don’t look like a ninja” when I did it, which apparently is what he guessed my motivation was.

Once in the bathroom, which always seemed colder than the rest of the house, I’d reach into the even colder shower and turn the knob to hot, shivering and counting down the seconds until I could get under the hot water. When the steam finally poured out from behind the shower curtain, I would jump in and exhale in cozy satisfaction.

And then I would do nothing for about ten minutes. I would stand, half asleep, staring at the wall of the shower, probably looking a lot like a dog when he gets his neck scratched. Fifteen minutes later I would be jolted back to reality by my dad, knocking on the door and telling me to hurry up.

Now, even as an adult, long showers are a guilty pleasure.

But how much does it really matter? Do short showers save money? Do they save the planet’s precious scarce water supply?

As you may have guessed by now, it turns out that long showers really don’t matter at all. A showerhead puts out around 2.5 gallons per minute. An extra ten minutes in the shower per day, then, is twenty five gallons. Multiply it out for the month and you’ve just wasted 750 gallons of water.

Sounds like a lot, right? Well, it’s not. That amount of water costs about $1.13. Not a bad monthly fee for an extra five minutes of luxury every day.

On the other side of the coin, how much water do you waste by eating a hamburger?

That sounds like a stupid question with the obvious answer of, “Nothing”, but that’s not actually true. Meat requires far more water consumption to produce than vegetables do. In fact, according to waterfootprint.org, a meat eater’s water footprint is some 185,000 gallons higher per year than a vegetarian’s.

To put things in perspective, the vegetarian could shower for an extra THREE HOURS every day and still use significantly less water per year than a meat eater. Eat one fewer pound of beef per month, and even by the meat industry’s clearly biased numbers, you’ve earned fifteen minutes extra in the shower every day.

My point isn’t that you should necessarily take long showers and stop eating meat, but rather that dogma isn’t always correct. Sometimes things we feel guilty about are actually more innocent than we imagine, and sometimes things we never even thought about are actually pretty big deals.

Related posts:

1. Ice Cold
2. From Carnivore to Vegan Overnight
3. Living in an RV : Day 10

This was going to be a long sweeping article about how wrong we are when we care about different things: how many megapixels a camera has, how much electricity we use by keeping the lights on, using cell phones on airplanes, and swimming in the water when there’s lightning out. But instead of trying to weave all those things together, I’m going to focus on the biggest one.

Water.

This one is near and dear to me, because I am a bad showerer and I got in trouble for it as a kid. I’d wake up on a cold New England morning, snow outside, and tip toe across the cold wood floors.

When I was cold I would hold my hands in front of my chest, hands clasped under my chin. No one else seems to do this, by the way. My brother once told me that I “don’t look like a ninja” when I did it, which apparently is what he guessed my motivation was.

Once in the bathroom, which always seemed colder than the rest of the house, I’d reach into the even colder shower and turn the knob to hot, shivering and counting down the seconds until I could get under the hot water. When the steam finally poured out from behind the shower curtain, I would jump in and exhale in cozy satisfaction.

And then I would do nothing for about ten minutes. I would stand, half asleep, staring at the wall of the shower, probably looking a lot like a dog when he gets his neck scratched. Fifteen minutes later I would be jolted back to reality by my dad, knocking on the door and telling me to hurry up.

Now, even as an adult, long showers are a guilty pleasure.

But how much does it really matter? Do short showers save money? Do they save the planet’s precious scarce water supply?

As you may have guessed by now, it turns out that long showers really don’t matter at all. A showerhead puts out around 2.5 gallons per minute. An extra ten minutes in the shower per day, then, is twenty five gallons. Multiply it out for the month and you’ve just wasted 750 gallons of water.

Sounds like a lot, right? Well, it’s not. That amount of water costs about $1.13. Not a bad monthly fee for an extra five minutes of luxury every day.

On the other side of the coin, how much water do you waste by eating a hamburger?

That sounds like a stupid question with the obvious answer of, “Nothing”, but that’s not actually true. Meat requires far more water consumption to produce than vegetables do. In fact, according to waterfootprint.org, a meat eater’s water footprint is some 185,000 gallons higher per year than a vegetarian’s.

To put things in perspective, the vegetarian could shower for an extra THREE HOURS every day and still use significantly less water per year than a meat eater. Eat one fewer pound of beef per month, and even by the meat industry’s clearly biased numbers, you’ve earned fifteen minutes extra in the shower every day.

My point isn’t that you should necessarily take long showers and stop eating meat, but rather that dogma isn’t always correct. Sometimes things we feel guilty about are actually more innocent than we imagine, and sometimes things we never even thought about are actually pretty big deals.

Related posts:

1. Ice Cold
2. From Carnivore to Vegan Overnight
3. Living in an RV : Day 10

This was going to be a long sweeping article about how wrong we are when we care about different things: how many megapixels a camera has, how much electricity we use by keeping the lights on, using cell phones on airplanes, and swimming in the water when there’s lightning out. But instead of trying to weave all those things together, I’m going to focus on the biggest one.

Water.

This one is near and dear to me, because I am a bad showerer and I got in trouble for it as a kid. I’d wake up on a cold New England morning, snow outside, and tip toe across the cold wood floors.

When I was cold I would hold my hands in front of my chest, hands clasped under my chin. No one else seems to do this, by the way. My brother once told me that I “don’t look like a ninja” when I did it, which apparently is what he guessed my motivation was.

Once in the bathroom, which always seemed colder than the rest of the house, I’d reach into the even colder shower and turn the knob to hot, shivering and counting down the seconds until I could get under the hot water. When the steam finally poured out from behind the shower curtain, I would jump in and exhale in cozy satisfaction.

And then I would do nothing for about ten minutes. I would stand, half asleep, staring at the wall of the shower, probably looking a lot like a dog when he gets his neck scratched. Fifteen minutes later I would be jolted back to reality by my dad, knocking on the door and telling me to hurry up.

Now, even as an adult, long showers are a guilty pleasure.

But how much does it really matter? Do short showers save money? Do they save the planet’s precious scarce water supply?

As you may have guessed by now, it turns out that long showers really don’t matter at all. A showerhead puts out around 2.5 gallons per minute. An extra ten minutes in the shower per day, then, is twenty five gallons. Multiply it out for the month and you’ve just wasted 750 gallons of water.

Sounds like a lot, right? Well, it’s not. That amount of water costs about $1.13. Not a bad monthly fee for an extra five minutes of luxury every day.

On the other side of the coin, how much water do you waste by eating a hamburger?

That sounds like a stupid question with the obvious answer of, “Nothing”, but that’s not actually true. Meat requires far more water consumption to produce than vegetables do. In fact, according to waterfootprint.org, a meat eater’s water footprint is some 185,000 gallons higher per year than a vegetarian’s.

To put things in perspective, the vegetarian could shower for an extra THREE HOURS every day and still use significantly less water per year than a meat eater. Eat one fewer pound of beef per month, and even by the meat industry’s clearly biased numbers, you’ve earned fifteen minutes extra in the shower every day.

My point isn’t that you should necessarily take long showers and stop eating meat, but rather that dogma isn’t always correct. Sometimes things we feel guilty about are actually more innocent than we imagine, and sometimes things we never even thought about are actually pretty big deals.

Related posts:

1. Ice Cold
2. From Carnivore to Vegan Overnight
3. Living in an RV : Day 10

A couple weeks ago I did an “I Am A” on Reddit about being a former pickup artist, which meant that thousands of people could ask me questions about it. And they did. The questions flooded in faster than I could reasonably respond to them, which meant that sometimes I didn’t answer in as much detail as I should have.

In a hurry to finish a question I wrote “There’s more to life than picking up girls, of course, but I’d say that social skills are probably THE most important thing in life.”

It struck me as an obvious statement, one that wouldn’t need justification even if I had the time to provide it. Some people agreed, but a couple violently disagreed with me.

What? What’s more important than social skills?

I guess if you find yourself being attacked by a ninja, you might have a good case that for you self defense would be more important, but for the rest of us I don’t think anything trumps social skills.

Someone emailed me recently, asking for advice on whether or not to go to school. It’s no secret that I’m a proud dropout, and a lot of times I get the idea that people email me about this stuff because they’ve already made up their minds and want to have their instincts confirmed by SOMEONE, since almost no one will tell you to drop out.

I learned a little bit of Chinese in college, a tiny bit of Japanese, and I took a good SCUBA diving class. I took a psychology class which hasn’t left too many memories, but I’m sure I got a few good things out of it. Mostly, though, I learned how to socialize. I made friends, many of whom I still have today, and created memories with them. I made mistakes, too, and started to fill in the mostly-blank map of social dynamics in my head.

I replied and told him I’d consider going to school, not for the classes or the degree, but for the people. Stay, socialize, and then drop out when you’re ready.

At the risk of sounding like the hippie I’m often accused of being, it’s the shared experiences we have which define life’s highest peaks. I’m a huge nerd, so I get a great amount of enjoyment from my computer. Working alone on a tough problem (like trying to make my phone system even more insane) is fun and rewarding. Writing gives me a hearty sense of satisfaction sometimes. Playing Monkey Island is fun.

But there’s no substitute for an adventure with a friend, the unconditional love of your family, or the delicate dance of flirting with a girl. I forget that sometimes when I’m huddled away behind my screen.

That’s why I stick up for pickup. I don’t do it for the shady marketers who promise to teach you how to become a player. I don’t do it because I think it’s a completely pure and wholesome practice that has no dark side. I don’t do it because I like arguing with idiots.

I do it because to me it represents prioritizing social skills, and I don’t know anything more important than that.

Related posts:

1. The Most Important Trait
2. Update: The World is Out to Get Me
3. My Interview on Sirius and XM

My friend Elisia asked me to help her move. Moving is one of my least favorite activities (which partially explains why I live in an RV), but I gladly agreed to help. Why? Because she followed the golden rules of asking favors. If you want people to do you favors, or, more importantly, feel good about doing you favors, make sure you follow these rules. They’re written from the point of view of someone asking me for a favor, but I would also follow them when asking favors of others.

1. Your Benefit Must Greatly Outweigh My Inconvenience

If you’re asking me for a favor it should be something that I am particularly good at or well suited for. If a friend of mine asks me to help him set up a blog, I’m happy to do it because it’s something I have experience with and am good at. What could take my friend five hours to set up, I might be able to do in thirty minutes.

The same goes for favors where I’m in the right place at the right time, even if I don’t have specific skills for the job. If a friend asks me to pick up some bananas while I’m at Whole Foods, I’m more than happy to do it. If he asks me to pick up bananas while I’m home in the middle of writing something, that’s a ridiculous request.

2. You Should Make it as Easy as Possible for Me to do the Favor

Earlier this year the Austin Society asked me to give a short talk on pickup. Besides following rule number one, they also immediately offered to pick me up and drop me back off after the speech. That shows that they value the favor and are willing to do what they can to minimize my inconvenience.

When I arrived at my friend from the first paragraph’s house, she had everything boxed and ready to go. She offered to load it all into my RV and unload it by herself. I helped her load and unload, but appreciated that she was trying to make it as easy as possible for me. Imagine if I had gotten there and had to wait around for hours as she boxed up her stuff. That’s what “helping me move” usually means.

3. Ask immediately, Don’t Small Talk

If you’re going to ask for a favor, just ask. The worst is when someone makes small talk for five minutes and then says, “Oh, by the way… can you watch my dog while I’m out of town?”. That feels like I’m being used. This one just happened to Todd, who reminded me of it.

The same goes for doing preemptive favors in order to obligate someone. “Here are some cookies I made you. Any way I can borrow your computer?”.

4. Do Everything You Can First

If someone has tried to solve a problem but can’t, I’m happy to help them. If they haven’t even tried, I’m annoyed.

People email me asking for travel or pickup advice all the time. If they’ve bought my book first, I’m happy to answer their questions. If they’re asking me stuff that I’ve already taken the time to write down in the book, I’m offended. You’re willing to take up my time, but not willing to pay me for my work?

The most common manifestation I see of this is in airport rides. Taxis are ridiculous, as are shuttles, so I’m usually really happy to pick people up from the airport. An hour of my time can save them a lot of money and hassle.

In Austin you can take a shuttle from the airport to downtown for fifty cents. Taking the shuttle and having me pick you up downtown saves me half an hour of driving or more. If someone wants me to pick them up from the airport but doesn’t offer to take the shuttle, they’re basically valuing my time at one dollar an hour. Disrespectful!

(There’s one person reading this who MIGHT take this the wrong way — that was a different set of circumstances, though!)

5. Reciprocate

Don’t be the person who asks for favors but never does them for others. It’s old fashioned, but I always try to send people gifts or at least a thank you card if they do me a favor. If you stay at someone’s house for a week, thus saving several hundred dollars, the least you can do is have some small present shipped to them. The idea isn’t necessarily to compensate them for their hospitality, but rather to show that you don’t take it for granted.

Final Thoughts

I’m not some sort of weird favor miser who only does people favors if they follow the rules exactly, and you probably aren’t either. But I am more likely to do someone a favor if they are considerate about it, and much more likely to be happy about doing it.

I almost didn’t post this, thinking it’s common sense and doesn’t need to be said, but it’s been on my mind because I’ve seen a few bad favor askers recently.

Related posts:

1. A Two Second Favor
2. The Art of Being Late
3. Polyphasic Sleeping in Paradise

My friend Elisia asked me to help her move. Moving is one of my least favorite activities (which partially explains why I live in an RV), but I gladly agreed to help. Why? Because she followed the golden rules of asking favors. If you want people to do you favors, or, more importantly, feel good about doing you favors, make sure you follow these rules. They’re written from the point of view of someone asking me for a favor, but I would also follow them when asking favors of others.

1. Your Benefit Must Greatly Outweigh My Inconvenience

If you’re asking me for a favor it should be something that I am particularly good at or well suited for. If a friend of mine asks me to help him set up a blog, I’m happy to do it because it’s something I have experience with and am good at. What could take my friend five hours to set up, I might be able to do in thirty minutes.

The same goes for favors where I’m in the right place at the right time, even if I don’t have specific skills for the job. If a friend asks me to pick up some bananas while I’m at Whole Foods, I’m more than happy to do it. If he asks me to pick up bananas while I’m home in the middle of writing something, that’s a ridiculous request.

2. You Should Make it as Easy as Possible for Me to do the Favor

Earlier this year the Austin Society asked me to give a short talk on pickup. Besides following rule number one, they also immediately offered to pick me up and drop me back off after the speech. That shows that they value the favor and are willing to do what they can to minimize my inconvenience.

When I arrived at my friend from the first paragraph’s house, she had everything boxed and ready to go. She offered to load it all into my RV and unload it by herself. I helped her load and unload, but appreciated that she was trying to make it as easy as possible for me. Imagine if I had gotten there and had to wait around for hours as she boxed up her stuff. That’s what “helping me move” usually means.

3. Ask immediately, Don’t Small Talk

If you’re going to ask for a favor, just ask. The worst is when someone makes small talk for five minutes and then says, “Oh, by the way… can you watch my dog while I’m out of town?”. That feels like I’m being used. This one just happened to Todd, who reminded me of it.

The same goes for doing preemptive favors in order to obligate someone. “Here are some cookies I made you. Any way I can borrow your computer?”.

4. Do Everything You Can First

If someone has tried to solve a problem but can’t, I’m happy to help them. If they haven’t even tried, I’m annoyed.

People email me asking for travel or pickup advice all the time. If they’ve bought my book first, I’m happy to answer their questions. If they’re asking me stuff that I’ve already taken the time to write down in the book, I’m offended. You’re willing to take up my time, but not willing to pay me for my work?

The most common manifestation I see of this is in airport rides. Taxis are ridiculous, as are shuttles, so I’m usually really happy to pick people up from the airport. An hour of my time can save them a lot of money and hassle.

In Austin you can take a shuttle from the airport to downtown for fifty cents. Taking the shuttle and having me pick you up downtown saves me half an hour of driving or more. If someone wants me to pick them up from the airport but doesn’t offer to take the shuttle, they’re basically valuing my time at one dollar an hour. Disrespectful!

(There’s one person reading this who MIGHT take this the wrong way — that was a different set of circumstances, though!)

5. Reciprocate

Don’t be the person who asks for favors but never does them for others. It’s old fashioned, but I always try to send people gifts or at least a thank you card if they do me a favor. If you stay at someone’s house for a week, thus saving several hundred dollars, the least you can do is have some small present shipped to them. The idea isn’t necessarily to compensate them for their hospitality, but rather to show that you don’t take it for granted.

Final Thoughts

I’m not some sort of weird favor miser who only does people favors if they follow the rules exactly, and you probably aren’t either. But I am more likely to do someone a favor if they are considerate about it, and much more likely to be happy about doing it.

I almost didn’t post this, thinking it’s common sense and doesn’t need to be said, but it’s been on my mind because I’ve seen a few bad favor askers recently.

Related posts:

1. A Two Second Favor
2. The Art of Being Late
3. Polyphasic Sleeping in Paradise

On Tuesday I announced a contest to help Ramit promote his upcoming six week financial bootcamp. The premise was this: we played five rounds of Liar’s Poker, and whoever could guess the final score and guess the final digits on our last dollar bills would win.

Before I show you the video with the results, I have a few comments. First, I wish that everyone won who predicted I would win 5-0. If I had giant buckets of money, I would buy each of those people a baby elephant for a pet. I would also buy wild hungry crocodiles for each person who said that Ramit was going to win 5-0.

So who won? The ex professional gambler or the bestselling financial advice author? Well, I’m not going to tell you — you’ll have to watch the video and find out!

(If you don’t understand the game, here are the Liar’s Poker Rules)

More info on the bootcamp:

The bootcamp is a six week interactive program that you do from home. It costs $200, which you’ll easily make back if you just follow ONE of Ramit’s tips (and if you don’t, you can get a refund). Unless you’re totally satisfied with your finances and financial habits, I think it’s a pretty clear no brainer to give it a shot. On a personal note, I know Ramit and can vouch for his commitment to providing EXTREMELY HIGH VALUE. I’ve also seen some of the materials he’ll be sharing during the bootcamp, and they look very good.

To sign up, or to get more information, click here to check out the bootcamp.

Related posts:

1. VIDEO and CONTEST – Ramit Sethi’s Financial Bootcamp
2. Gizmodo Lenovo Contest Entry
3. Becoming a Pro Poker Player

On Tuesday I announced a contest to help Ramit promote his upcoming six week financial bootcamp. The premise was this: we played five rounds of Liar’s Poker, and whoever could guess the final score and guess the final digits on our last dollar bills would win.

Before I show you the video with the results, I have a few comments. First, I wish that everyone won who predicted I would win 5-0. If I had giant buckets of money, I would buy each of those people a baby elephant for a pet. I would also buy wild hungry crocodiles for each person who said that Ramit was going to win 5-0.

So who won? The ex professional gambler or the bestselling financial advice author? Well, I’m not going to tell you — you’ll have to watch the video and find out!

(If you don’t understand the game, here are the Liar’s Poker Rules)

More info on the bootcamp:

The bootcamp is a six week interactive program that you do from home. It costs $200, which you’ll easily make back if you just follow ONE of Ramit’s tips (and if you don’t, you can get a refund). Unless you’re totally satisfied with your finances and financial habits, I think it’s a pretty clear no brainer to give it a shot. On a personal note, I know Ramit and can vouch for his commitment to providing EXTREMELY HIGH VALUE. I’ve also seen some of the materials he’ll be sharing during the bootcamp, and they look very good.

To sign up, or to get more information, click here to check out the bootcamp.

Related posts:

1. VIDEO and CONTEST – Ramit Sethi’s Financial Bootcamp
2. Gizmodo Lenovo Contest Entry
3. Becoming a Pro Poker Player

One of the more interesting people I’ve met since moving to San Francisco is Ramit Sethi, bestselling author and blogger at I Will Teach You to Be Rich.

He takes an out of the box approach towards personal finance that resonates well with me. In particular I like how he focuses on conscious spending and automation. His stuff is extremely practical, to the point of sharing fill-in-the-blank scripts to be used when calling credit card companies and banks.

His advice is practical and immediately applicable, and he focuses on getting people take action and really improve their lives, rather than sit and read about it all day.

Needless to say, his stuff gets my seal of approval. He gave me an early look at some of the materials for his upcoming 6 week financial bootcamp and asked if I’d be interested in promoting it on my site. I liked what I saw, and felt like it could benefit my readers.

The bootcamp has a different focus each week, and is a mix of take home exercises (which you submit to Ramit and his crew for feedback), live webcasts with Ramit and some cool guest speakers, and a bunch of other stuff. In other words, it’s interactive and engaging. He also backs it up with a 30 day money back guarantee (which I will also personally guarantee, since you might know me better than Ramit at this point).

To make things interesting, we decided to also do a contest!

Here’s how the contest works:

Ramit and I played five rounds of Liar’s Poker, a bar game played with dollar bills. On Thursday I’m going to post a video of our game. Your job is to guess the final score AND the last digit on each of our dollar bills from the final round of play.

So a sample guess would be: “I believe Tynan will win, 5 to 0, and the final two numbers will be 0 and 9”.

Put the guess in the comments and make sure you’ve used a valid e-mail address.

Here’s what you win:

The winner will join Ramit and I in either New York or San Francisco for a tea or latte. You’re welcome to ask us anything and get some advice and coaching, or just hang out and chat.

If you can’t meet us in NY or SF, we’ll do a 30 minute or so conference call with both of us.

Here’s a video of us talking about his bootcamp and the contest:

For more information on the bootcamp, click here.

Related posts:

1. I Will Teach You to be Rich Contest Results
2. Gizmodo Lenovo Contest Entry
3. Read the First two Chapters of Life Nomadic for Free NOW! + A Contest

One of the more interesting people I’ve met since moving to San Francisco is Ramit Sethi, bestselling author and blogger at I Will Teach You to Be Rich.

He takes an out of the box approach towards personal finance that resonates well with me. In particular I like how he focuses on conscious spending and automation. His stuff is extremely practical, to the point of sharing fill-in-the-blank scripts to be used when calling credit card companies and banks.

His advice is practical and immediately applicable, and he focuses on getting people take action and really improve their lives, rather than sit and read about it all day.

Needless to say, his stuff gets my seal of approval. He gave me an early look at some of the materials for his upcoming 6 week financial bootcamp and asked if I’d be interested in promoting it on my site. I liked what I saw, and felt like it could benefit my readers.

The bootcamp has a different focus each week, and is a mix of take home exercises (which you submit to Ramit and his crew for feedback), live webcasts with Ramit and some cool guest speakers, and a bunch of other stuff. In other words, it’s interactive and engaging. He also backs it up with a 30 day money back guarantee (which I will also personally guarantee, since you might know me better than Ramit at this point).

To make things interesting, we decided to also do a contest!

Here’s how the contest works:

Ramit and I played five rounds of Liar’s Poker, a bar game played with dollar bills. On Thursday I’m going to post a video of our game. Your job is to guess the final score AND the last digit on each of our dollar bills from the final round of play.

So a sample guess would be: “I believe Tynan will win, 5 to 0, and the final two numbers will be 0 and 9”.

Put the guess in the comments and make sure you’ve used a valid e-mail address.

Here’s what you win:

The winner will join Ramit and I in either New York or San Francisco for a tea or latte. You’re welcome to ask us anything and get some advice and coaching, or just hang out and chat.

If you can’t meet us in NY or SF, we’ll do a 30 minute or so conference call with both of us.

Here’s a video of us talking about his bootcamp and the contest:

For more information on the bootcamp, click here.

Related posts:

1. I Will Teach You to be Rich Contest Results
2. Gizmodo Lenovo Contest Entry
3. Read the First two Chapters of Life Nomadic for Free NOW! + A Contest