Rowan Spazzoli

Note: I didn't realise I'd saved this post as a draft
instead of publishing it. Here is yesterdays post

I love the path I’m on. I get to do so much invigorating work. And I get to experience and learn from a wide set of activities.

And I know that there were some things I did that got me here.

But a lot of it was just chance and luck.

• If I hadn’t met a particular group of people I might have stuck it out on the CA route
• If the management studies department hadn’t hired me I don’t know how I would have managed to work and study a full time masters. And I wouldn’t be a lecturer now
• If Kay hadn’t sent an email advertising Nova Economics at UCT I would never have found this line of work.

And those are just some of the big inflection points. There have been so many lucky things that have brought me along this path.

Being aware of this has two effects. First, that I’m conscious that my position now has had a fair bit of luck, meaning that I need to be humble. The second is an awareness that some people may have had different encounters with chance and luck, meaning that I need to be empathetic.

It’s true that working hard can put you in a good positon. But it’s imporant to remember that luck probably plays a far bigger role

Image was taken from my bedroom in 2014 🙂

Blog: 261/365

Song of the day: Mansions – NF

I have a bad habit of taking too many projects on at the same time. But at the beginning of the year I called a stop to this and decided to focus on the projects I had in the pipeline until they were done.

Of the 6 or so projects I had going at the time, I only really have one left, being my thesis. And this will be done in the next few weeks.

It’s an exciting feeling. I haven’t taken on any major new work in a few months and now I’ll be able to do so again.

So I’m keeping my eyes out for new projects and opportunities. And I’ll share them here as soon as I start them 🙂

Image was taken in Newlands forest in 2014 🙂

Blog: 263/365

Song of the day: Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen

I’ve been reading a WaitButWhy post on careers over the last few days which implores the reader to look at their wants, beliefs, preferences, desires, aspirations and dreams in detail. And, more importantly, it suggests understanding the source of these…. are they my own or were they planted in my head by society/peers/family?

It’s caused me to reflect a lot on my own core… what part of it are things that I truly want and what are things instilled from outside?

And where do they come from?

Some things I can untangle. Some are mangled and difficult to get through

But this process of distillation can be really useful. Once you understand the building blocks of your life choices, you can begin choosing the ones you want to keep and the ones you’d like to get rid of.

It’s good to have a little spring clean of the psyche every now and again, and remove the stuff that doesn’t need to be there

Image is of my friend Caito when we were moving out of res in first year

Blog: 260/365

Song of the day: Rameses B – We are the universe

There are some decisions that I make that go against what ultimately makes me feel good. For example:

• Not going on a run, despite always feeling great afterwards
• Binge eating (anything from snacks to massive pizzas), despite feeling sick afterwards
• Meditating, despite it putting me in a good headspace
• Going to bed late, despite knowing I’ll feel terrible in the morning
• Procrastinating work, despite it causing anxiety later.

It’s not like I have a lack of evidence for these effects. I’ve experienced them countless times. I could even say out loud how they’ll make me feel afterwards.

But yet I often make these decisions even though I know what the outcome will be. And often that outcome is less than an hour away.

What’s worse is being aware that I’m making a poor decision and still acting on it.

I think the frustrating thing about this is the fact that I’ve been brought up fundamentally thinking that I am rational, and so are other human beings. When given a set of choices, we’ll choose the one that makes us happiest over the time horizon of the decision. So failing to make the right decision makes me a bad human.

But our irrational, animal brains often override that decision, even when it has evidence.

It wants to eat now.

It wants to play now.

It doesn’t feel like doing anything.

There are ways of overpowering this instinctual drive. Getting friends involved to have peer pressure influence the decision. Tricking yourself into the activity. And of course, good old will power.

But I think what’s more important than overpowering it is to recognise it. And realise that, although we think we have complete control, we really don’t.

We don’t need to get angry with that part of ourselves. Just be aware of it and understand that sometimes, your instinctual side is just going to win.

Image was taken in the Greenpoint park yesterday 🙂

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Song of the day: Sigala – Lullaby (video shot in Cape Town)

In February this year, I was days away from submitting my thesis when a massive data problem meant that I had to reregister and redo most of the writeup. I was bleak but I was still motivated to continue.

However, I’d scheduled a bunch of work to do post-thesis. This included two major consulting projects, lecturing for Strategic Thinking and running the Oxford global challenge.

There were a bunch of personal bumps along the way too. The robbery set me back significantly and so did the odd mental health battle.

But tomorrow, I’m getting back into the thesis game.

I’ve packed my bag and sharpened my (metaphorical) pencils.

I have set myself two weeks to submit my draft to my supervisor.

Then I have a short break with some school friends.

And then I’ll submit it.

Here I go again 🙂

Image was taken overlooking Clifton on my run this afternoon 🙂 I actually video called my mom while I was there 🙂

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Song of the day: Here I Go Again – Whitesnake

Last year I was part of a team of 5 people from 5 universities that wrote a paper on Universal Basic Income (UBI). The concept of UBI has been proposed as a tool to address poverty, inequality and unemployment. Our analysis incorporated these but took a slightly different approach and argued for UBI as a strategy to counter to the effects of Artificial Intelligence on the global economy.

If you’d like to check out our paper, you can download it at this Dropbox link

The abstract reads as follows:

Artificial intelligence, a term used commonly in computer sciences to describe machines able to make decisions and learn from those decisions, is rapidly entering our daily lives in the form of driverless cars, automated online assistants and virtual reality video games. In so doing, AI has already substituted some jobs that were previously thought to be impervious to technological development. Based on current research and estimates, this trend is predicted to be more pronounced in the future, leading to high unemployment levels in the society.

Our multidisciplinary analysis seeks to attack this problem head on and argues for the introduction of Unconditional Universal Basic Income (an unconditional, periodic transfer of money from the government to every citizen), accompanied by a reform in school curricula and retraining programs. Our proposal goes beyond mere theoretical discussions on basic income, and discusses ways to fund the proposed scheme and its political viability. Finally, we provide a practical roadmap that would see a government take our proposal from the “drawing board” and implement it nationwide in about one decade.

If you have any other resources you’d like to share, feel free to add them in the comments 🙂

Image was taken in St Gallen where I met the other 4 members of the team 🙂

Song of the day: Muse – Something Human

Blog: 255/365