The Cooler Weather of Baguio & Moving Forward Plans

I've been coming to Baguio since the late 90's when I was still in the university. I've always liked the cooler weather up north. In the morning when I started writing this post, the temperature is at 19 degrees Celsius. While 19 degrees is a beach day for our friends in some of the western countries, it is much cooler than the average of 33 degrees we're used to in Manila. @dandalion documented our comparatively more comfortable travel this time around compared to when we were going here without our daughter Sam. We took the first class bus from Victory Liner in Cubao keeping Sam's motion sickness in mind, and I must say the additional $7 was well worth it.

It was my idea to come to Baguio and spend a few days here. I've had a few reasons in mind, but at the top of the list is some complex family issues we are dealing with. Based on my experience, I've been able to think better in cooler weather. Some of my greatest contribution while in the corporate world came about during the cooler weather between the months of November and February. Little did I know that there's actually been extensive researches done on the effects of weather in ability to think especially around more complex decision-making tasks.

In their May 2012 study, Amar Cheema of the University of Virginia, and Vanessa M. Patrick of the University of Houston conducted a study on Influence of Warm versus Cool Temperatures on Consumer Choice: A Resource Depletion Account. The study is of lottery games sales patter in St. Louis for a whole year relative to each day's temperature. Here's a summary of what can be found in their study:

<sub>- Individuals are less likely to make difficult gambles in warmer temperatures.
- Illustrates the moderating role of task complexity to show that warm temperatures are depleting and decrease willingness to make a difficult product choice.
- The effects of depletion and temperature to reveal that warm temperatures hamper performance on complex tasks because of the participants’ increased reliance on heuristic processing.</sub>

To highlight the impact of the weather the researchers showed the consequent drop in sales of scratch ticket (where there are many options to choose from) for every 1 degree Fahrenheit increase in temperature, while the sales for lotto tickets (where there are less decisions to be made) were not affected. Adrian F. Ward created an article on the same research paper highlighting the results of their other study and summarized it well with the below statement:

_{"In a second study, the researchers showed similar effects for more complex cognitive calculations. In this study, another group of participants were asked to choose between two cell phone plans, again in either a warm or a cool room. One plan looked more attractive on the surface, but was actually more expensive; simple patterns of decision-making would therefore lead participants to choose the more expensive plan, whereas more complex analyses would lead participants to correctly choose the more cost-effective plan."}

_{"Participants in the cool room made the correct choice over half the time; those in the warm room, on the other hand, made the correct choice only a quarter of the time. Warmer temperatures seemed to make participants more likely to rely on simplistic patterns of decision-making, which in turn led to inferior choices. These results suggest that complex decision-making, like simple cognitive tasks, is adversely affected by warm temperatures."}

The decisions we will make in the next few days are not only complex, but are also very important; not only to us, but really more for the future of our children. With the first day allocated to the travel and time to take some rest, I see the next three days including today to be busy between enjoying our vacation, and discussing some of the subjects I have in mind to get our lives planned for the next 10 years.

Today we spent time in Burnham Park, showed Sam around, had mangoes and strawberry "taho" (sweetened silken tofu snack), and went biking (which Sam really enjoyed).

_{Day 2 of 4 in Burnham Park w/ @dandalion and @littlesteemitph}

We were in the park for a good couple of hours. We were biking under the noon sun which we wouldn't be able to do in Manila at its typical 34 degrees Celsius at noon. Tired of pedalling our bikes after some half an hour, we left the park and headed to the nearby public market to buy ingredients for our nilagang baboy (pork stew) dish for dinner.

@dandalion enjoyed our cups of coffee in the veranda, and I took it as an opportunity to open the first of the topics I wanted to cover during our stay in Baguio; "How Are We Going to Drive our Economy from Here on?" I'm now nearly at the third month of twelve in my mid-life break after slaving in the corporate world for fourteen years. While I am enjoying every moment, I am keeping realistic that the months will pass by, and I eventually have to go back to work. We've been building passive and residual income streams for the last three to four years now, and are doing it quite well. However, I feel we can do more and accumulate wealth at a faster rate, and enjoy a worry-free (at least financially) retirement.

I have committed to another five years of corporate life, but at the same time told @dandalion of my concerns around how she seems to be taking the back seat, and not living through her full potential. I believe my wife to be better than me in many aspects. She's better in language, she's more creative, more organized, and her self-discipline is certainly much better than mine. She isn't very confident though, and fears failure more than anything else. She shed a tear or two while admitting to it during our talk, but at the same time acknowledged that she is aware of how we need to partner together if we are going to build something better for our family financially. Here's a summary of what we agreed on:

• I will go back to the same industry for another five years after my twelve months break.
• She will continue to build our portfolio up for the next three years.
• She will free herself up of the day to day tasks (house chores), and really take searching for a helper more seriously.
• @dandalion will start a small to a medium size business two years before my five years lapse.
• In general, she will face her fears and I will stay supportive of her efforts.
• We have built some sort of road-map for the next 10 years for things that concerns our economy, from increasing our stake in our current investments, looking out for other opportunities to diversify, educating ourselves, to acquiring new skills that matters in the new world (so we don't become obsolete).

It was a heavy conversation, one that we have been avoiding for some time now, but if we are to move forward we are going to have to deal with some of our fears and really partner together. I really believe that being in a relaxed state in the cooler weather in Baguio made it all easier, and the result (and our resolve) so much better. Now it's time to sleep, and prepare for tomorrow's adventure in the morning, and the next topic in the afternoon.

Image Credits

Ice Cube & Fire Image - Pixabay
Headache Cartoon Image - Pixabay
Holding Hands Image - Pixabay

Sources

Influence of Warm versus Cool Temperatures on Consumer Choice:
A Resource Depletion Account
Winter Wakes Up Your Mind--and Warm Weather Makes it Harder to Think Straight