On being practically useless

I have gradually come to the realization over the past year or so that I am practically useless. Actually, I guess It all started soon after I graduated from college. I have bachelor's degrees in philosophy and mathematics, and a master's degree in mathematics. After finally finishing the master's degree I became disappointed in the realization that I couldn't repair or build or design anything in spite of all my years in school. You might think that my education still counted for something, but I'm also embarrassed to say that at that time I couldn't have given a good answer to why math or philosophy might be considered important. I even made very good grades, and I graduated with highest honors. But I did not cheat in college; I learned how to give the right answers on assignments without really learning why it was important.

Moving on. So recently I have started to become interested in a topic of real economics. Now, "real economics" is my own term, but I can quickly define it as my thoughts on the real values of things and on how to best make a living in this world. The basis of real economics for me are the assumptions that there is no free lunch in this world and wealth comes only from hard work. I have changed my thinking from a retirement plan that relies on living off saved money and investments to one that also involves discovering ways to work productively and happily for longer. Money is also a frequent topic for me. Isn't it true that money only has value in it that it is a great facilitator of trade between people. I think that most people could be forced to admit that physical money is worthless. I suppose that money could be exchanged for a somewhat perennial something to be used as a store of wealth, such as metal or land or fuel. Typically, my labor will directly command only money. If I grow food in my garden, as I often do, my labor has actual wealth as its direct product. The same thing is true when I repair my car. Now, it might seem that I'm wanting to revert back to a more primitive life in which I live off the land and barter for what I don't have. But that's not the case. The case I'm making is that I don't want to be ignorant of what real wealth and labor are.

I hope you can see why the proceeding paragraph is relevant to my original topic of being practically useless. Lately, I have been more seriously considering improving myself in this way. I guess you could call it a back-up plan. Another reason for my motivation is that it has caused me to lack fulfillment to spend so much of my time involved in impractical activity.

So, there are degrees of skill that I could pursue, some being more primitive than the rest. Learning to live off the land would be at one extreme. Skills such as accounting or computer programming are at the other. In the middle I see subjects such as electronics and car repair. The next question is whether to go to school or not, but I'll have to think about that another time.