81–90 of 214 posts
> A mentor has advised me not to become "boring" and wants me to try to stay entrepreneurial. Your mentor wishes they weren’t boring. Nearly everybody’s boring (myself included). Don’t sweat it.
Good observation. He is insecure about being "average". He's far from average, but has clearly risen to a place where he doesn't feel more successful/intelligent than his peers.
> Most software is boring one-off applications in corporations, under-girding every imaginable facet of the global economy...
> It does not matter to the company that the reporting form is the world’s simplest CRUD app, it only matters that it either saves the company costs or generates additional revenue.
source: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-pr...
I'd pick the option with the more compelling "why?" That's probably the most important question.
Your mentor might think you're boring, but what do your friends and family (and yourself) think? They're the ones that really matter.
My mentor is also a friend. Not sure about my other friends and family. They all seem to love me and just want me to be happy.
> yourself
I'd like to create some things. Maybe businesses, maybe not. It's pretty great that I made it to where I am, though, especially given my background.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thank you for sharing this. Calvin and Hobbes is one of the more influential works of art I've ever held dear to my heart. I love hearing this from him.
Bill Watterson was influential for me to not go into NFT art. It's not something to be proud of, but I wrestled with joining or not. And at the time I was wrestling with making art in and for that space, I recalled a story about him where Spielberg and others approached him for movie rights for Calvin & Hobbes, and he refused, because it would ruin the soul of what he was trying to explore & do with those characters.…
Are you me? I'm 28, and genuinely feel angry about the anti-corporate "the system is for losers, follow your passion" shit that was shoved down our throat as teenagers and young adults. It's not a recipe for anything except burnout and depression. Staking your ego on being the "guy who knows a lot about technology/concept x" is even worse. Stick with your job, and make sure to keep time for your wife (or husband) and…
I feel you on this, although I'm less angry and more feel silly for falling for it. That said, there was some healing that I experienced in my adventures as a young rebel.
Well, if you had 100 million dollars, what would you do? For me, I would build something. A certain thing. And I realized that it's easier to get a job and get paid doing that instead of building/buying a team. I can be a billionaire later, but I won't necessarily be able to do what I really want to do. Another angle is that I won't have the energy to be a developer when I'm old, but I can always do (senior) manageme…
> After that, you can go and chase material stuff. Many new careers start at 50. A lot involve family. An option is semi-retiring at 25 and then really get into hustling and stuff at 50, once you have the resources, skills, and connections. As someone who is 17, from my (perhaps naive) perspective, do you know if you will even be alive at 50? Or will you have the energy/health to make an impact? A family now is good…
This is because, in some ways, nothing ever changes. Ideas will inevitably be remixes. Impact will just be percentages, non-unique contributions to systems. Change is reversible (see e.g. US Supreme Court).
But having an important part in someone's life is non-fungible.
Your mentor isn’t living your life. Your mentor will always advocate for difficult things that have a high chance of failure because they ultimately don’t have to suffer the consequences. Take it from the guy who went on the risky route a few times - not worth it. I’m down a lot of money and divorced because of all that risk taking. (Risk taking is very taxing on marriages) Boring is a lot more rewarding than people…
When your friends win the entrepreneurial lottery, while you are still grinding to pay the mortgage in a dead end job, perhaps you would feel differently.
From Bill Watterson's commencement speech at Kenyon College in 1990. I was lucky to read this when I was graduating and it changed my whole career path. I am now very happy and very boring: "Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an ecce…
I have a great counterpoint quote from Edward Abbey: "One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast....a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt an…
I like to keep in mind this romantic i MaDe tRaVeLinG a LifEstYle BS is enabled by the folks who are typically working their asses off in shit jobs like grocery, warehousing, manufacturing, supply chains, transportation, hospitality, etc.
If everyone suddenly stopped their work to pursue this nonsense we'd all quickly find ourselves in a non-enjoyable situation. Life enjoyment is a societal gift offered by the margins of collective suffering. Sure, take your breaks where you need but keep in mind life enjoyment, retirement, etc. are all tremendous blessings and not entitlements.
Well, if you had 100 million dollars, what would you do? For me, I would build something. A certain thing. And I realized that it's easier to get a job and get paid doing that instead of building/buying a team. I can be a billionaire later, but I won't necessarily be able to do what I really want to do. Another angle is that I won't have the energy to be a developer when I'm old, but I can always do (senior) manageme…
I would write, interview people for my YouTube channel, and finally learn to make great music. I would buy a house and throw parties where I'd dress up in wizard robes and read ancient Sumerian texts to my friends with incense burning over delicious offerings. I'd get people together to play summer camp games on the weekends. I'd help my siblings and cousins do whatever they want to accomplish and see the world. I'd volunteer. I'd get in great shape.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What life choices did you make to be able to have access to private equity markets but also go to month-long festivals? Also what festivals are a month long? I have a feeling we may be in different tax brackets haha.
> What life choices did you make to be able to have access to private equity markets but also go to month-long festivals? Some entrepreneurial things worked out, some speculative things worked out, they're not mutually exclusive to me. (When I do an entrepreneurial thing, I think of the shares I create as being part of my portfolio just like shares I bought from someone else. Its the same buy low, sell high mentality…