Redefining Insanity

We've got to learn to do things differently to get different results

A friend posted a meme that said “Doing the same thing over and over again is called practice.” Um, no. If you do it exactly the same way, that's not practice. Practice implies you would improve over time, which means you're not doing it exactly the same way.

So many things in this country need to change. Because it benefits billionaires and corporations, we stick to the status quo. We keep doing that same thing that only benefits a few, and most people suffer.

Each of us is also comfortable in our routines that currently benefit billionaires. We let them track us on search engines, social media, and while shopping online. They can track what we search for, what we buy, and even our location. We must resist the convenience of being controlled by big corporations all day, every day. Because some day we might want to resist them in more forceful ways, and when we do, they will try to stop us because they know everything about us, including where we are.

Now is the time to ease away our entanglement with big corporate oversight.

💩 Capitalist Bullshit

More in my ongoing saga to move my life away from the grasp of billionaires. Especially as an activist, I’m determined to get as far as I can with this goal.

MailChimp to SendFox to Kit

Why? I was paying $20/month to MailChimp for what I can probably get from SendFox for free, but I opted to pay a one-time $50 to get a few extra features. That’s $50 for lifetime access. (After switching to SendFox, however, I switched to the free version of Kit.)

I found SendFox… quirky. It says you can update the HTML of your emails, but it's not so slick. Otherwise, there are three fonts, none of which are great. There's no automatic formatting like columns or image galleries. Plus, there are a few simple things, like showing your name and address at the bottom, that completely lack punctuation. Also, while they offer embeddable signup forms, the success message uses bad grammar! And that's something I don't seem to have control to change.

After switching to SendFox, I received a marketing email from the illustrator of my book that had the Kit branding at the bottom, so I checked that out.

Kit has a free level that allows you one automation and up to 10,000 subscribers for free. You can send unlimited emails, have unlimited signup forms, sell digital products, make your newsletter a subscription, and even set up a website of sorts on their site. It’s kind of nutty. Plus, their email design is astronomically better than SendFox’s. You can even design the footer, which is an important part of the email.

I have exactly 53 subscribers (2 of which I think are myself), so I shouldn’t be paying for this service. If my email list balloons, I can pay them $25/mo for even more features, but for now, Kit is perfect (and free).

MailChimp - Founded by two billionaires: Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius. Then, it was sold to Intuit in 2021 for $12 billion in cash and stock. Intuit, current owner, netted $2.4 billion in 2023.

SendFox - Owned by Sumo Group, a British company. Sumo Group was recently acquired for $1.3 billion by Tencent. Tencent was founded by and is still owned by Pony Ma, a Chinese billionaire. However, China does not suffer billionaire fools. Mr. Ma’s wealth was cut by 40% after China cracked down on out-of-control tech companies and corrupt capitalism. Because I was saving a ton of money on SendFox and can actually count on China to control its billionaires, I was letting this one stay.

Kit - Kit began as ConvertKit and was founded by Nathan Barry, a normal dude who is definitely not a billionaire. It’s not a billion-dollar company, and I hope he never sells it to billionaires.

Sumo Group itself is not a billion dollar company nor run by billionaires. That only applies to the parent company.

Calendly to TidyCal

Why? TidyCal is from the same maker (Sumo Group) as SendFox. It’s a one-time fee of $40 for lifetime use. Calendly was $120/year, which isn’t that much, but it’s an ongoing cost I will no longer have.

The one thing TidyCal won’t do that Calendly would do is let my client choose between a Zoom or a phone call. So, I simply added a field asking them to include their phone number if they want a call instead of Zoom.

Because TidyCal won’t integrate with Fastmail’s calendar, I will simply open my notification email when someone books a meeting and click the button to add it to the calendar. Honestly, I don’t get many of these, so it’s totally fine.

Calendly - While I didn’t dump Calendly because of who owned it, it is a billion dollar company. It’s owned by its founder and CEO, Tope Awotona. He is the majority owner of the company, which was valued at $3 billion as of January 2021.

TidyCal - This service is also unfortunately owned by Sumo Group, which was bought out by Tencent. I have looked unsuccessfully for a good alternative.

Google Drive to Sync

Why? They’re the same price, but Sync isn’t owned by billionaires.

It was a challenge at first to get my files off Google Drive. It was literally letting me download 34 gb a day. I have 370 gb of files. People had complicated workarounds, but why on Earth should it be so hard to get my own files off the service I pay for?

Finally, I found that you can download the entire drive because Google lets you retrieve your own data, but only if you want all of it. OK, then.

Even after that, Google puts random files in each of the segments you download, so it's a bit of a pain to get them straightened out, but I think I'm making progress.

Sync - Sync is not owned by billionaires and is headquartered in Canada.

Gmail to Fastmail

Why? I'm trying to get away from Google as much as possible, and I don't want my email used to serve me ads.

One thing that Fastmail’s calendar doesn’t do is link the location of an event to a map app. So, I have to take the extra step, if I am headed to an event or meeting, of copying the address and opening up Google Maps (for which I do not have a good alternative yet). It also doesn't account for tasks, which are basically just events that perpetuate until you mark them as completed. This is great because they stay in your attention.

I've seen Protonmail touted as a good alternative to Gmail. I checked it out, and other than a privacy improvement, it also doesn’t have tasks and is twice as expensive, so I’m staying with Fastmail for now.

Fastmail - The company's staff bought back Fastmail from Opera Software in 2013, making it independent. Their website states, “You’re treated like a person with us, not a data point. We’re not serving the interests of big corporations: we are proudly independent.”

Android Messages to Signal

Why? To avoid Google oversight.

I have a few friends who have switched over to Signal for messaging. I'm hoping more will join. Signal is a free, open-source, encrypted messaging app that allows users to send messages, make voice and video calls, and send images and videos. Some friends use WhatsApp when they travel, but it is owned by Meta.

Signal - The Signal Foundation owns the Signal messaging app. The Signal Foundation is a non-profit organization that was created in 2018 by Moxie Marlinspike and Brian Acton. Signal is funded through donations and does not rely on investments from billionaires.

Billion Dollar Companies I’m Still Using

It’s very hard to get away from billionaires. Here are the products I still use (the ones I can think of) that are owned by billionaires.

Stripe - I have not found a good alternative to this yet.

PayPal - I do still have an account there because, occasionally, I need to use it to pay for something online with a credit card.

Venmo - Even Venmo is owned by billionaires now because PayPal bought it in 2013

Google - I still use Maps and Tasks

Microsoft - I’m not sure my next laptop can have an operating system other than Windows

HP - It would be difficult to find a laptop manufacturer that isn’t owned by billionaires

Meta - I am unsure how to replicate the community I have on Facebook and Instagram. (Although I am feeling dejected about the grid change on Instagram, and I am not sure I’ll keep posting there.)

LinkedIn - Acquired by Microsoft in 2016, and I just paid to upgrade my account to find more work

Wave - Acquired by H&R Block in 2019 for $405 million. H&R Block has a net worth of $7.6 billion.

It seems endless, but I’m going to keep chipping away at it.

Mortgage

I was very excited to have set an appointment with NACA for February 4th. However, the notification email they sent me immediately afterward was blank. And the video on their website that was supposed to give me instructions was inaccessible due to permission errors.

Now, they have sent me a text-only email that says,

“We have received your request to cancel or reschedule your appointment. If this is incorrect, please let us know by replying to this email or calling 1-888-302-6222 and press option 1.”

Except I obviously did not request to cancel it. So, I read the second text-only email they sent me immediately afterward that said,

“NACA Appointment Confirmation: Your upcoming session will need to be rescheduled Due to our Achieve the Dream Events taking place in January. Please reschedule through your member portal as soon as possible OR feel free to reach out to member services.”

So, they’re having an event in January that makes my February appointment impossible? Sigh… This organization may be trying to do good, but they’re making it extremely difficult.

Holy crap, I just called the number listed in their email above, and it was a company selling life alert devices. I asked the woman who answered what organization or company I had called, and she went into an aggressive sales pitch and completely ignored me as I was talking to her. I hung up.

I went into the website to reschedule and saw that the exact same appointment day and time that they canceled was available for me to rebook. So, I called the number listed for the local counselor and was able to talk to someone. Apparently, there is exactly one counselor at my local (Tampa) office. She (along with every counselor in the country) is going to two big events out west where they get people qualified in a day. Then she won’t be back in the office until February 21st, which is when my appointment is now.

This is all extremely frustrating. There are just so many things.

This makes me more motivated to apply for a traditional mortgage.

The real estate agent I used in Troy to buy my empty lot there referred me to a bunch of people, but only one worked for a company with good reviews. I called her, and it seemed like she would be helpful. She was thinking creatively when she told me to just get a job for three months and then quit after I got the mortgage. I love this thinking, but I think it's harder than that to get a good job. That agent ghosted me, though.

So, I looked at the company's agent list and contacted another one. She seemed suspicious at the number of questions I was asking, but she said that all the mortgage company cares about is what's on my taxes. OK, I can work with that.

It's just a matter of finding someone who actually wants to help me. Someone who understands that self-employed people’s taxes are often complete and utter bullshit meant to reduce the amount of tax we pay. But these banks care more about what's on the paper than what is reality, even when reality is clearly apparent.

I continue to persist in this goal.

Interview

Check out this interview I did last year with Canadian therapist Furkhan Dandia.

Find him on YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.

⏰️ Currently

☀️ Feeling a sense of optimism about my goals.

↪️ Wondering if I am going in the right direction.

🚦 Trying to have faith that the right path will reveal itself and become cleared for me.