About a year ago, I built my own computer. Thankfully, I have access to the internet, to suppliers of computer parts and the will to do it myself. The process of building that machine did so much for my mental wellbeing in ways that most find incomprehensible.

The computer isn’t the most expensive, nor does it have a legitimately bought operating system on it right now (Ubuntu is a pain in the arse, I’ve recently found out). The process of acquiring the knowledge, and the skills to get the parts, learn how to put them together and navigate the pitfalls of software installation and the creation of boot drives has given me a sense of creativity and productivity that made me feel really useful and as though I had a purpose – even just for that moment.

This isn’t an article about why building a computer will change your life.

However, it ties in to the title appropriately. I better get to the point before I lose you.

What defines a utopia? Maybe it’s a place where people are fed appropriately and until they’re full. A place where freedoms are abundant, citizens are supportive and resilient and where everyone feels like they’re satisfied with their lives. On a drive out to Mudgee last year, Hayley and I listened to a podcast, Conversations with Richard Fidler where he talked to Dutch historian Rutger Bregman specifically about his book, “Utopia for Realists”.

Essentially, Rutger’s book is about how the provision of a universal basic income (regardless of whether you work or not) can transform social landscapes in ways that are counterintuitive to our normalised social logic and go completely against what governments and the loud majority will have you believe, that is, that giving everyone a perpetual handout is a recipe for economic collapse. Rutger’s claim isn’t unsupported. The Canadian town of Dauphin, Manitoba trialled what giving away money for free could do. The results were interesting. And extremely promising. But I’ll leave that for further reading about that here (an article about the original project) and here (a more recent trial – ignore the idiotic comments section).

I find myself in the tail end of the school holidays. A time where casual teachers, like myself do not get paid when we don’t work. This of course is not the case for full time teachers. Why is that? I’m employed by the education system, I just don’t have one class. I have many. Arguments could be made that I get a higher daily rate which makes up for the time I don’t work (it rarely does). During this time, however I haven’t been sitting on my hands watching television with Dorito crumbs adorning my chest.

I’ve been going out of my way to hone my creative talents (and educate myself).

I have been writing every day and although it isn’t published every day on Steemit, let me assure you, the current Word document I am currently typing in now sits at a considerable sixty seven thousand words. To put this in perspective, during my entire university education (six full time years of it) I averaged 2 written assignments for each subject, of (again) on average 2000 words. I studied four subjects per semester (8 per year). Over the six years, I had written forty eight papers with a combined word count of 192 000 words. Divide that by six and that’s my (likely exaggerated) yearly word count of full-time study. That figure? Thirty-two thousand words yearly.

I’ve been on Steemit for less than twelve months and I’ve doubled that. And to be totally transparent, I did not start writing and backing up my work on Microsoft Word until about six months ago, so let’s be realistic here. By year’s end I’ll have likely written over one hundred and twenty thousand words.

I will admit that writers such as JK Rowling all the way down to far less well-known authors have still made a lot more money than I have. Does your value or quality as a writer come from how much money you write? Of course not. There’s likely a threshold of sorts of the quality you must meet before a publisher takes you on, and I’d also wager that there’s a ton of luck involved that determines whether your fictional world turns into a Universal Studios theme park. But is JK Rowling a better writer than Matthew Reilly (Area 7, Hovercar Racer), Catherine Fisher (The Conjuror’s Game) or Rich Tommaso (creator of the comic, ‘Dry County’)? It is entirely subjective. What you could say is that there is mass appeal there.

So why does she deserve so much more than everyone else? She doesn't. The cards just fell that way. Capitalism dictates that there will be a few with most of the wealth and the rest of us eat the crumbs. She didn't decide. In a twisted sort of way, the people with the crumbs decide who is going to have vastly more than they do despite having no need for the vast majority of it (this is where the social project of Dauphin really gains traction). We already know that lasting happiness isn’t fulfilled by money. Once your basic needs are met, you eat good food, can pay for rent and you can see a doctor and dentist regularly as well as have the ability to travel around a bit and explore new places, you don’t feel any more content than if you have a Porsche. Porsche's are overrated. I speak from experience.

Did paying the extra $10 000 on a business or first class ticket change your life the first time?

Once you get over the extra leg room, the flowers and more focused attention of the cabin crew, you begin to find things to pick over – the loose stitch in the arm rest, the black pixel in the screen, there wasn’t enough steam coming off the roast potatoes. Come on. It’s the nature of people. Give them the best and they find something else they need. The perpetual mirage.

What makes me happy (and can make you happy, too)?

Being treated kindly and fairly, building close relationships with people and having a sense of purpose in one’s life can and will make you happy. That's it. Don't believe the hype of riches and Insta-bullshit.

Here's an experiment. It's simple and biological in nature. You're effectively experimenting on yourself. It's reasonably cheap and you'll only have to do it once. This works extra well if you like chocolate.

Step 1.

Buy a kilo or two (3 or 4 pounds) of your favourite chocolate (or substitute your favourite food).

Step 2 (There are only two steps).

Spread it all out on the table and begin eating. Don't stop until you feel like something has changed.

As a scientist, I'm not going to spoil the surprise ending. Suffice to say, your brain releases dopamine when you do things that make you "happy", "content" or whatever you want to call it. It's all chemical. Here's a video if you don't want to spoil chocolate for yourself.

[SPOILER!] We're not biologically rigged to be in a heightened sense of happiness all the time (the kind you expect from winning a million dollars).

That should be enough evidence to realise that thinking a ton of cash will change your life. It won't. Now you can get on with being happy, productive and get real meaning out of your life.

I’m so lucky. I have all of my basic needs fulfilled. I am happy. I also make the conscious choice to choose happiness. By choose, I mean I keep myself from falling into the traps of consumerism that seeks to perpetuate the myth that you're unhappy until you've got their product. And that's an ongoing battle. I am extremely fortunate not to been in a position where my daily needs are not met, however, in the pressure of some workplaces (even when people have a ton of money), the people around them are hostile and make their lives miserable. This is saddening.

Computers, tech and empowerment.

It’s a glorious thing learning how to build your own PC. If you ever have the opportunity and the inclination (and you’re not tied to Apple products), I would recommend you do it. It’s like an electrical LEGO set. All the parts fit together perfectly, but there’s enough room for error that make doing it precisely, properly and with a reasonable amount of knowledge going into it first, all the more rewarding. Let the wonderful world of Youtube help you build that requisite knowledge.

So, I spent about $800 on the parts I needed for my new computer and waited for the delivery. I’m not writing a ‘how-to’ here, but I want you to know what acquiring that knowledge (that required spending my own time on) did for my sense of purpose. It empowered me.

Empowering people drives dramatic change.

Empowerment was such a buzz-word during my studies of sustainability. It still is completely relevant, but I feel like I used it so often, it almost lost it’s cache. Empowerment changes social structures and challenges gender-based hierarchies. In my case, I used it to demonstrate how empowerment helped solve environmental problems such as food scarcity, population health and alleviated poverty.

Building that computer and having access to knowledge empowered me to become a blockchain contributor.

If we’re talking about having a sense of purpose, feeling happy and being productive, what better way to do so than on a decentralised platform that gives power back to people in such a profound way that the current power holders can do nothing about. Steemit is a fantastic platform. But it has it’s flaws. It’s coin emission curve has meant that by design, the creators have centralised control of voting power to a few percent of STEEM holders. Shame.

While on my money-making quest, and let’s face it, most people who’ve come to cryptocurrency have come to make money, I found a coin that was distinctly different. Initially, I liked it because it has real world application. It will be a marketplace for goods and services transacted anonymously without the exorbitant fees and charges of Ebay or the power and centralized control of Amazon. I love their convenience, but that comes at a cost. Enter Safexchange and the Safex coin. You can visit their Youtube channel or go directly to their website to learn more about the coin, it’s current transition off the Bitcoin blockchain, onto it’s own blockchain and the associated transfer of Safex coins to Safex tokens. The best part (it’s hard to pick a best part, really) is their emission curve. The founder, Daniel Dabek, a visionary blockchain engineer and e-commerce disruptor explains how the emission of Safex cash (the currency of the Safex platform) differentiates Safex from other platforms.

I wanted to be a part of this vision.

I did my research, attempted to run Ubuntu alongside Windows 10 (failing), then tried again (successfully) to run Ubuntu on a virtual machine within Windows. This allowed me to compile the Safex blockchain testnet on my own machine and ultimately mine Safex tokens. I’m effectively investing the time, energy and computing resources to help run the most visionary e-commerce platform the world has ever seen. I love using hyperbole. Time and effort will tell us if this has been worth it. Would Amazon give you the keys to their car? I don’t think so.

This computer has been a tool of empowerment.

I’ve spent my fair share of time revisiting missions of Westwood Studios’ Command and Conquer, but this computing tool has allowed me to connect with the world and give me some additional purpose to my time here. Hopefully when people visit my space on Steemit and read my work, they gain a sense of pleasure and enjoyment and may have learned something along the way. Having an audience is utterly important, and while I can never guarantee that I’ll have comments below an article or a restaurant review it’s certainly got more of a chance online than it ever would sitting in a Word document on my desktop or as ideas in a notebook.

Serial killers and Steemit.

I’m assuming you’re new here. I’m going to treat you to something that’s quite special to me. I started a little series called The Coroner. It’s getting a bit weird now, since I’ve started it and part four, which isn’t on Steemit yet, is longer than the other parts because I got a bit involved with some of the scenery. Let’s just say I got overly imaginative and didn’t finish the issue within the normally allocated word count. All the upcoming work will be worth the wait. As for the value is has, well it is safe to assume I have the belief in my own writing enough to put myself up there with the best. Yes, we all want recognition from our peers, but what if that never comes? Are we going to let others dictate the value of our work and our levels of self-esteem?

Define your purpose. The fate of your own happiness depends on it.

All the best,

Nick.

All content is original and belongs to @nickmorphew. [21 July 2018]

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A taste of my fictional writing.

Adventures in Elowyn Glade (Issue 1)

The Coroner (Part 1)

Warhammer 40K (Battlefield moment)