Course of Study 2013

One of the gems that Jeffrey Fox has in his book How to Become CEO:  Rules for Rising to the Top is that every year one should learn about one new area.  The point that he makes is not only is it a habit that all good CEOs should have - after all, one should be able to learn about a new industry or ways to better perform in the industry that one is currently in - but that it also makes for a more well rounded personality and allows a person to begin to see connections between things.

With that in mind, I have selected the course of study for 2013 to be the year of Alternative Energy.

Why Alternative Energy, you might ask?  Fair enough.  It's certainly not something I've ever talked about in great detail here or with anyone else.  And my reasons for doing so are not the typical ones:

1)  Cost:  Simply put, I'm looking for ways to reduce what I spend.  Utilities - electricity, gas and the cost thereof - are two factors that are controllable to some extent, not just by total amount of usage but by the generation  therelf.

2)  Independence: I've read enough economics and thought through the facts to realize that while I may never be able to completely divorce myself from any system (or want to), the ability to control any aspect of my life is a good one.

My first selection for the year for Off the Grid:  Modern Homes+Alternate Energy by Lori Ryker.  It was probably not the first book that I would have chosen to start with - but it was the first book that came through as a hold at the library.

The book was actually one of the type of the books I typically don't own:  a coffee table sort of book with a short primer of details followed by a series of 6 or 7 different examples of homes that had been designed for alternative energy.  It's always nice to look at pictures of what other people have created (even as I subconsciously wonder what the cost was).  It was a pleasant place to begin thinking about the concepts of alternative energy and its use.

However, the one thing that did strike me was exactly how unrealized my own reasons were in the text.  The book talked very little about cost or independence;  instead, it dwelt more on the environmental and aesthetic reasons for considering alternative energy.  That's fine, I suppose and motivates a great number of people.  The thing that surprised me was that an entire market - people like me - were left virtually unaddressed.  An interesting oversight or a trend in industry literature?  We'll see.

My aspirations from this exercise?  To acquaint myself with another area of knowledge, to be sure.  Perhaps to find some small ways to begin to address my own dependence on the system.  But I am also looking forward to the sheer pleasure of discovery, of learning something knew about which I know virtually nothing.