[Heineken]

Or HAS it changed you?

I have my ideas on how the experience has changed me, but I'd like to hear yours.

[HEADER_RACK]

I used to be a cynic, but after finding out about Peak Oil, I realize I was much to optimistic.

[dunewalker]

Nice thread title, Heineken, thanks.
Shooting from the hip here, I'd say po.com has improved my writing skills and critical thinking habits. It has been a source of hope, inspiration and despair. I've experienced the various stages of loss through this forum, from denial, depression, to fear and anxiety, sadness, and finally to acceptance of the inevitable. In combination with the oildrum, po.com has given me a feeling of confidence in understanding what is happening to us. Not confidence that I've learned every detail, but overall confidence in the validity of the dynamic of peak oil and its attendant consequences. The biggest epiphany was the realization that peak oil, or maximum rate of production, is not as important as the overtaking of global oil supply rate by demand. Or as Robert Rapier describes it: "Peak Lite". My lifestyle has remained constant in my almost 4 years of reading at this website. My longterm preparations have improved, beginning with the realization that preparations for shortages will become an essential tool in my ability to flexibly deal with a changing world. Terms such as JIT inventory, MOL(minimum operating level) have taken on meaning. The importance of localization has gained a foothold in my sometimes oblivious consciousness. This forum has reminded me how little important stuff I really know and how much more there is to learn.

[mystiek]

Its been educational (and entertaining at times) being a member! I think my biggest change is in my preparations-definitely putting more thought into what should be purchased each month and doing a whole lot more canning.

[kpeavey]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('HEADER_RACK', 'I') used to be a cynic, but after finding out about Peak Oil, I realize I was much to optimistic.

[Iaato]

Good question. I argue better, and have learned a lot about people. And I am more sanguine about things with my F2F friends, because I've vented here to people who understand. Thanks to everyone.

[ki11ercane]

I've come to learn in the past year:

1. I realized there will always be oil/ng/coal, etc., at least until past my lifetime and past my child's lifetime. Good enough for me. Before I found this site, I was convinced it would ALL be gone in 2-5 years. I've read enough and considered the reality to the situation. I am more of a realist now than a pessimist.

2. I am no longer a Doomer. In the beginning when I discovered Peak Oil I was in full panic mode assuming tomorrow it would be all over back to the stone ages. I now realize I have time (no one knows how long guess all you want) to prepare for "possible" scenarios in the future.

3. I have a plan. Its elaborate, will take years, its ever evolving, and is as intricate as the limbs on a tree. However each time I complete a step, I am closer to being more prepared tomorrow than I was yesterday.

4. I discovered my plans for PO prep were the same as my long term life plans. This was less of a discovery and more of an epiphany; to know both are congruent and were so all along. In the end, I will have prepared for two things rather than one.

5. I realize even if things never get so bad, I will be better skilled, more financial secure, and my daughter will have a place and preps in place if she needs them.

6. When I am working, playing, living, I am preparing constantly emotionally, mentally, and physically. I don't shout it out to everyone. I simply "do it."

7. I have learned to avoid people who hope for everything to collapse around them because they hate their life and don't want to proactively do anything to change it NOW, hope for the slate to be clean (and not die in the process) just to get a second chance, or just want to watch Rome burn. Too negative for me.

8. I realized I can grow a garden and not kill everything.

Cheers.

[Nicholai]

I stopped caring about school or getting a college education.

I've come to understand the irrationality of the masses and their misunderstanding of a civilization bent on infinite growth in a finite environment.

I've accepted that I will not live a normal life with a 9-5 job despite having the persona of someone with a business degree and political ambitions.

It has been the most psychologically taxing relationship (between myself and the knowledge of peak oil) that I have ever experienced.

I've spent the last 6 months working and saving my money in order to visit ecovillages across North America and Europe to find a place to live. I've given up on specific scenarios, I've just accepted that things will get much worse before they get better.

I know that no matter how many solar panels, how many wind mills or how many electric cars are built, our conscience of infinite growth will always lead us to undeniable collapse.

My ambitions for now are simple: get land, build a Cob cottage, grow food.

I feel like Ford Perfect. Drink up, the world is about to end in 10 minutes.

Peak oil (and peak oil forum) have been a blessing and a curse. Best of times, worst of times I suppose.

[Madpaddy]

Good post Nicholai,

I also have decided against further partaking in the academic rat race. The purpose of college postgrad courses are to make thestudent more employable in the current growth driven economy.

I have an honours engineering degree and back that up with several 2 or 3 day courses a year, which I feel are of benefit to me, in the future I expect. I have done several courses in energy management, design of renewable energy systems, sustainable building etc.

The pressure on me, both from family and employer to do a masters degree is quite severe. It's hard to get across the point that I have neither the time nor the inclination to do so.

Peakoil.com has made me far more family orientated and encouraged me to get involved more in my local community.

[Heineken]

Membership has made me more tolerant of others' views and more flexible in my exchanges with others (with occasional exceptions). I've learned to control my emotions better. I'm better equipped to handle personal attacks and less likely to engage in them myself. I've become more cooperative, as this quality applies here.

Membership has given me the opportunity to have a daily "touchstone" with the outside world. PO.com gives me a sort of public voice, which is remarkable considering how isolated and introspective I am in actually touchable life.

Most people comment that they learn more about others, and I'm no exception to that. In fact, I feel I've formed relationships of friendship and even trust here. It saddens me that I will probably never meet these people. I've sometimes had fantasies about our getting together and forming an intentional community. At the same time, I sober up when I reflect on how different people can seem when they're your neighbors and not just words on a screen. The distance between these two concepts saddens me and goes to the essential loneliness of us all.

When I first joined PO.com, I viewed it as a fantasyland where anonymous people could say whatever the hell they wanted because they were anonymous and because none of it was real. It was an artificial world without causes and effects---a world without foundation and without consequence---I thought. Over time I've come to see it as real, or nearly so. You are talking with real people about very real things. You just can't see or touch those people.

To the degree that I have intelligence, I have learned that sarcasm, biting wit, or hatefulness is not a necessary emotional vehicle for conveying that intelligence. As a former boss of mine once commented, "Kindness is more important than cleverness." Too many intelligent people grow up with the idea that the proper use of intelligence is as a tool for attacking, demeaning, and triumphing over other people. This diffuses the power and purpose of intelligence and turns it into a sort of stupidity.

Because of what I have learned here, I am more rather than less of a doomer than I was at the beginning. However, I tend to feel that collapse will take longer than I did formerly.

I have a much better view of what's required to "prepare" for collapse, and I consider those requirements so overwhelming that I've tended to abandon the goal of systematic preparation, and to accept whatever fate brings me. You could say that I've given up the fight to, in George Orwell's words, "add more years to my carcass." I still go through the motions of preparing, but mainly because I enjoy some of that work and because it gives me, a retired person, something to do.

I have no illusions. They have been scattered to the winds of nearly six thousand "posts."

[BigTex]

Great post Heineken.

Being a member here has changed me.

It has been enjoyable to really "unpack my mind" and often learn things about my own thinking that I wasn't previously aware of. There aren't enough of those kinds of conversations in the real world (for me anyway, I don't know about anyone else).

I have learned that a preoccupation with unpleasant scenarios, even if they are true, can be bad for the mental health (even if it is a thrill at the time).

The people who have gathered here are easily the most interesting and challenging group I've ever come across.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', '
')I have no illusions. They have been scattered to the winds of nearly six thousand "posts."

[Ludi]

It's given me the feeling (accurate or not) that I might be able to help a few people.

[vision-master]

I worry about those close to me as it's "business as normal". No preps, no get out of dept plan, no downsizing. Still driving trucks and SUV's................


Nothing has changed.

[Byron100]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', 'M')embership has made me more tolerant of others' views and more flexible in my exchanges with others (with occasional exceptions). I've learned to control my emotions better. I'm better equipped to handle personal attacks and less likely to engage in them myself. I've become more cooperative, as this quality applies here.

Membership has given me the opportunity to have a daily "touchstone" with the outside world. PO.com gives me a sort of public voice, which is remarkable considering how isolated and introspective I am in actually touchable life.

Most people comment that they learn more about others, and I'm no exception to that. In fact, I feel I've formed relationships of friendship and even trust here. It saddens me that I will probably never meet these people. I've sometimes had fantasies about our getting together and forming an intentional community. At the same time, I sober up when I reflect on how different people can seem when they're your neighbors and not just words on a screen. The distance between these two concepts saddens me and goes to the essential loneliness of us all.

When I first joined PO.com, I viewed it as a fantasyland where anonymous people could say whatever the hell they wanted because they were anonymous and because none of it was real. It was an artificial world without causes and effects---a world without foundation and without consequence---I thought. Over time I've come to see it as real, or nearly so. You are talking with real people about very real things. You just can't see or touch those people.

To the degree that I have intelligence, I have learned that sarcasm, biting wit, or hatefulness is not a necessary emotional vehicle for conveying that intelligence. As a former boss of mine once commented, "Kindness is more important than cleverness." Too many intelligent people grow up with the idea that the proper use of intelligence is as a tool for attacking, demeaning, and triumphing over other people. This diffuses the power and purpose of intelligence and turns it into a sort of stupidity.

Because of what I have learned here, I am more rather than less of a doomer than I was at the beginning. However, I tend to feel that collapse will take longer than I did formerly.

I have a much better view of what's required to "prepare" for collapse, and I consider those requirements so overwhelming that I've tended to abandon the goal of systematic preparation, and to accept whatever fate brings me. You could say that I've given up the fight to, in George Orwell's words, "add more years to my carcass." I still go through the motions of preparing, but mainly because I enjoy some of that work and because it gives me, a retired person, something to do.

I have no illusions. They have been scattered to the winds of nearly six thousand "posts."

[Heineken]

Byron, your post is interesting because you say you haven't changed, but then go on to describe at least some ways in which you have. Perhaps the "PO.com experience" affects us more than we realize (as does all experience).

I am not as knowledgeable and prepared as you might think. Sometimes I feel like the Wizard of Oz, hiding behind a curtain and pulling various levers and cords. Owning a lot of land does not necessarily prepare you or insulate you (as I'm sure you know).

Tex, encountering people like you (and Byron and many others) has changed me because it's given me a better opinion of people than I had. You wrote, "The people who have gathered here are easily the most interesting and challenging group I've ever come across"; I've had the exact same thought myself on many occasions.

Not that we don't have our share of dumb asses here, too.

[Hawkcreek]

Haven't changed much. I always expected an economic crash, even before I knew all the reasons why. People on this forum are about the same as most others I have met through the years in a lot of different countries.
Lots of different styles for getting through to the end.
Fun to watch.

[pedalling_faster]

i learned a lot about Japanese beetles.

it helped me become more comfortable with our Peak Oil times, e.g. about our banks being on thin ice.

i'm still mystified by the MattS-bashing when it occurs.

and there's probably some stuff i've learned that i don't remember right now. like how many acres of pasture a pet horse vs. a draft horse needs.

i've tried asking questions about composting on Craigslist. Jesus.

plus how else would i have found out about Rush E-Nun-See-ATE-ing and saying his s's.

[Vogelzang]

When I found this forum, I thought I found some broadminded people. I guess I wasn't too surprised to find another forum that was hijacked by far left people, because that's been happening to a lot of forums. The people here make me want to see billions of people die off to provide more resources for me.

[Ludi]

We love you too, Vogelzang!