Hi,

Welcome to the Procrastilearning Newsletter, where your time is well spent even though you should probably be doing something else.

3 things worth procrastilearning over

1. Plants seem to cry

Or at least they make imperceptible clicking noises under stressful conditions. So next time you forget to water your hydrangea, remember that you may be making it sad.

2. Some financial businesses help people get multiple passports

Tax laws differ from country to country, as everybody knows. But wouldn't it be great if you could pick and choose which country's laws you had to apply to your taxes? That's the basic premise of a wave of tax-reducing businesses that advertise citizenship for smaller countries.

And this isn't that niche - I saw an ad for St Kitts on a long-haul British Airways flight that wanted viewers to come get citizenship for this very reason. I can't find it online, but here is another similar ad posted by their government. Apparently it costs about £200,000, so you have to be interested in reducing an enormous tax bill for that to be attractive.

Admittedly, we'd all like to lower our tax bills, but then if everybody applied these sorts of tax loopholes, would countries have decent hospitals and roads, you know, the sort of thing that makes them liveable? Of course, it is richer people who can take advantage of services like this, the very people who theoretically should be most funding the tax pot and supporting their country. It does seem ironic that one notable lover of these services is the eternally annoying Nigel Farage, even though he famously doesn't like too many people getting British citizenship.

3. The universe is basically empty

Yes, there are countless suns and planets out there, but when you consider the scale of things, they barely take up any space at all. Here's an explanation how relatively little matter there is in the universe. It's worth remembering that although there is so little matter, that doesn't mean it doesn't matter 🙏

2 quotes to keep in mind

1 simple tip to live longer

Think of ageing as a positive thing.

So maybe it’s easier said than done, but studies have found that people with positive views on ageing live on average 7.5 years longer. I guess you need to remind yourself that getting older comes with wisdom, experience and nobody demanding you go to work every day. Also, slippers are cool. 👴

That's all for today. Many thanks for reading. Here's a photo of a rum machine in a 1950s office.

Adam

Adam Zulawski
Procrastilearning on Beehiiv / More stuff

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