Welcoming 2021

 2020 is the weirdest year, well, we have a pandemic, of course, it's weird.

There are few thoughts and event that comes into my mind.

first, I don't think I want to be the top dog in any company, I don't want the responsibility, but knowing how my life works, someday, someone will think I'm good enough for that weird position even though I spent my time not actually working. I know someone of my age who is already a General Manager at big agencies, I think she just resigned and move to an even bigger company a few months ago, learning of what she did to achieve that position is sickening, for someone who just entered this industry 4 years ago, I'm already ahead of the curve.

top tip: learn the system, find the loophole, game the system. most people accept the system even when it's broken, don't be most people. Oh and by the system, I don't mean just the hierarchy or who reports to who kinda thing, also how your coworkers react, different people react differently to stimulus, learn the trigger, I'm not saying you should fake it, it's just how you respond to certain people, but don't fake the respond. If you don't like the boss, find out whether there are other people who don't like him/her, if most people dislike him/her, your boss is the problem.

also KPop, this is the year where my KPop enjoyment change from watching the MVs, to just listening to the song, well, because almost all of them have sad lyrics with the most fun dance, the disconnect, my brain can't accept it. Sure Minatozaki Sana in Cry For Me dance practice looks hot as hell, but I still prefer just listening to the song. Also don't watch those Studio Choom 4k 60FPS dance video, unlike most 4K live stage from Korean TV, which was much more compressed because it's for live TV, the Studio Choom encoded is much better, thus the difference between face and neck, also over make up, shows a lot. Please only use 60FPS for games.

Tis the year where Adidas announced Adidas Predator Absolute Remake, my first Predator. My first encounter with Predator was Mania for 2002, but first ownership was Absolute, too nostalgic to miss, I just spent a stupid amount of money for a football boot that I will wear probably in March 2021

But it looks so goooooooooooood

also, two of my closest cousin got married and engaged, good for them, now they have more household income, more money to buy a car, less tax to pay. What a heartless man I am, ada yang nikah malah ngitung pajak

millennials kills (insert industry here)

In the past few years, as I enter my late 20s, there is one issue that keeps bothering me, housing.

See, like in a lot of other societies, owning a house is considered one of, if not the most important rite of passage to adulthood. Why? I don't know, and any adult I talked to have given me a good argument, but there are few arguments they have 

I'll list a few

It's a sign of settling down

My question, in what way? As you go older, a lot of things will start to settle, first is your career path, as you go further into your career, it'll get harder to change direction, with all the investment in time and energy you spent into your job, it's better to be very good at few particular things. Then people around you, sure you probably still not married, but it's less likely to get new close friends after a certain age.

Also with yourself, hopefully as you got older, you know yourself better, and for me, that is settling down, you're not as chaotic and directionless as you were in your late teens and early twenties.

But choosing one place to stay for the rest of your life is not settling down, it's stupid. See, my generation won't stay in one company longer than needed, so job-hopping every year or so is normal.

Say, you bought a house in Serpong because that's what your income allowed, but most people work in Jakarta, you'll spend at least 4 hours of your day commuting on top of 8 hours working, isn't it better to stay as close as possible to your workplace for your sanity?

Also, it'll keep you flexible. See? Flexibility is not the opposite of settling down, also reducing the idea of settling down to a place is shallow. 

Also, in case your income fluctuates, you can adapt

You're going to waste your money renting.

As if owning a house is the only way to increase your asset. You only lose money if you spend the remaining income on partying 24/7. There are arguments that if your investment rate is better than inflation, or even better than the appreciation of the housing price itself, you'll win because you have the same amount of asset, but yours is liquid

Buying a house on a mortgage is just a form of forced savings because you wouldn't save your money otherwise.

But my issue with housing changes, from "is buying a house with 20 years mortgage worth it", to "why the fuck housing prices appreciates"

I found that there some countries where house prices depreciate as it goes older, by the time you finish paying it, it's worthless. I haven't read too deep into it, but it's an interesting concept.

Another shit that grinds my gear about housing is the fact there is a shitload of empty big houses in Jakarta, yet most of us millennials wouldn't be able to afford to buy a house in Jakarta.

I need to research more into Jakarta zoning laws if any, but upon further research, in Japan, most of the old houses will be demolished, because they know nobody can't afford it and basically worth nothing, but not the land tho.

In Tokyo, it could be 30-40mill/square meters, so it's like the center of Jakarta, the difference is the average house size is small, most of them are 80 square meters.

If only those greedy rich bastards with 1000 square meters as their extra house decided to demolish it and sell 10 100 square meters houses, they'll get rich faster.

Girls - The 1975

Ada quotes Oscar Wilde yg pernah gue bahas di blog ini

"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth." 

Gue bahas ini 11 tahun lalu kali ya, dulu gue mikirnya soal oppressive government dan orang2 baru akan berani speak the truth when they're anonymous. 

Gue gatau kenapa Tiba2 kepikiran lagi kutipan ini and something clicked, macem pointless eureka moment gitu lah

Truth disini not necessarily means factual truth, tapi subject's truth, as in whatever unpopular opinion they have.

It was 2009, there was no anonymity with huge audience online, ada kaskus, you're mostly anonymous, kecuali lo jualan Di FJB, being anonymous in online forum tuh ya gitu doang, lo ga bisa gaining popularity.

Jadi inget video interview David Bowie soal Internet, kayaknya itu interview 90an akhir atau 2000an awal, ga ada yg bisa prediksi Internet bakal kayak gini, ya ada sih, kayak bang Bowie, tp at that time nobody really thought anything about Internet.

Taun 2009, 99% manusia percaya satu kenyataan faktual, belum ada tuntutan untuk always on, media took their time with each article, they made sure all facts are there, or mostly there, most people read 2 - 3 brand of newspapers, watch multiple TV Channel. 

Mostly for second perspective, but it wasn't the age of punditry, it wasn't "kita rehat sejedag" days. 

Internet comes, people expect free access, thus publishers relying on ads for their livelihood, bigger user based, more money, so they focusing on driving people to read the news as opposed to making sure the news that they share are true. 

I guess that is why I am tired most of the time, the expectations of being always on, always uptodate, doesn't stop with media, but with the user as well.

I'm guilty of this too, you have the entire human knowledge on your phone, why are you not up to date? Now that I think about it, I am a bit hypocritical, I don't follow any news site on social media, I turned off all notifications bar my WhatsApp, I mute work and friends WhatsApp group, it has to be on my terms, these Internet stuff.

Sure sometimes I missed fun conversation on WhatsApp group, but I think keeping my sanity is higher priority than being up to date.