341–350 of 374 posts
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Yeah, but borrowing it would fall under the "going from $0 to $1MM" part.
In terms of net assets, no it's not. It's going from $0 to, say, -$50,000 as now you owe interest.
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Feelings dictate how one acts. Even if you can fail, if you feel you can't, that is going to affect quite a bit how you approach things, or if you approach them at all.
Right, so how is that different for someone who grew up poor than for someone who grew up not poor?
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> Going from $0 to $1M is almost impossible--going from $1M to $2M is almost inevitable. I know plenty of people who inherited money and blew it all. Very, very few people, even children from ''rich'' families, have an ''infinite money cushion''. People who come from poverty or communities rampant with discrimination often times have to work harder for opportunities. But hard work is hard work, and there is fierce co…
(0% of families dissipate their wealth within three generations. This suggests that there is a constant up welling of people who accumulate wealth. The proposition that there is some fixed group of rich people sitting at the top is absurd. http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100014241278873246624045783346...
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That's exactly what OP is trying to point out. It's easy to be "self-made" when you can get a million dollar loan from your dad to get your real-estate business off the ground. It's easy to be self-made when your dad works at Seattle's most prestigious law firm and can arrange an introduction with IBM's PC hardware division. It's significantly more difficult to be self-made when you have no connections and no capital…
Gates was already a multimillionaire from Microsoft before the DOS deal. IBM also went to Gary Kildall first.
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>They're pointing out that the success for kids born into wealth is typically attributable to family money. That's pretty obvious to me, it wasn't obvious to you? I don't think any of the newly rich, such as say - Zuck were hiding these facts. Zuck went to Harvard, an elite school, and got 100k from the bank of mom and dad to work on his own thing. The issue is that this data doesn't filter to the masses. Since it do…
>> That's pretty obvious to me, it wasn't obvious to you? There are literally dozens of "how to get rich" books, that are actually "why it's your fault that you aren't rich" books in disguise, which try to explicitly disprove that statement. So yes, apparently, to a lot of people, it's not actually obviously true. See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_hypothesis - one of the biggest sources of suffering…
Do they succeed?
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And this is why Basic Income is the future; it doesn't help those with a bed of pillows to rely on, but it provides a bed of sod to those currently wary of spikes.
Even a bed of manure would be better than the spikes, which is good, because that's the only sort of safety net I imagine Democrats and Republicans could ever agree on providing.
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Well, now you can forgive yourself and be proud of what you've accomplished and will continue to.
I find the opposite - I'm deeply ashamed about growing up in poverty and rarely admit it. When it comes up, I find it creates distance between myself and my co workers. They get uncomfortable and I always feel like they think I am judging them somehow. I don't seem poor anymore: thousands of dollars on dental care, I dress OK, I have a fairly polished accent now. I don't talk to most of my family. My old friends live…
I understand you're quite pressured socially to 'fit in' with all the other people that make the same money you do... In fact social pressures to look as if you are well off is a big issue in our time.
What I find interesting is that your upbringing is really that unmentionable. In my opinion, your experiences give you a drive few could ever hone. Your rags to riches story may indeed garner you more true friends than you know. Sharing your personal story is inspiring to many and can help others deal with their own problems.
Don't be ashamed of where you come from. Be proud that you have risen above. You should see yourself as an example that it CAN be done, and that despite all of your hardships, here you are, working for one of the big guys, able to share your experiences for others to learn.
Best of luck to you in the future.
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Q: "What's the most important human drive?" A: "Familiarity." Sometimes you've just got to fake it til you make it. Since the real world is working okay for you now I feel this advice is appropriate. I've been there. Heck, I'm there now. I'm looking for a new apartment and I have to convince myself it's okay to rent a nice one! LOL ----- edit: I read your other post talking about PTSD and, yeah, do look into therapy.…
I've done lots of therapy. Really! It's very sweet how worried everyone in this thread is about me, but maybe I've painted a dire picture. Time heals all wounds. I'm only 25, it's only been 6.5 years since I was last homeless. Even though it hasn't been too much time, I already feel quite a bit better: * I used to have anxiety attacks and heart palpitations nearly nightly; now, it happens maybe 2x a year. * "Money is…
I am your age, you make more than me, and I came from much less dire straights...
In a way, many people could even envy your experiences for the drive it gives you. I have toxic family members and I can tell you from experience that a drug addict in the family is an extra anchor to a sinking boat.
> please tell everyone trying to use you to go kick rocks
Some people think they have 'friends' but really they need to learn this lesson.
I almost have a guilt that I grew up with any amount of money at all and would be very willing to do anything for others, thinking I owed it to them.
You've learned some really important lessons through your life, and you're an inspiring person to have read about.
Thanks again for sharing.
I wish I could remember where I read this, but I once heard it explained to me as this: It's easy to deride the journey of the rich college student: 80-hour internships at Goldman Sachs, unpaid positions in government, etc. But, the things that are done by successful people are hard, as hard as walking a tightrope. The difference is that rich students walk this tightrope over a bed of pillows. Poor students walk it o…
Family money also buys practice. As someone who grew up middle class surrounded by people above me on the social strata, the amount of activities wealthy kids get to train for life's challenges are mind boggling. When anyone on HN sat down to their first big interview, ask yourself what practice you had with applicable social skills? (Business culture, dress, and social norms, etc.) Now substitute someone who's never…
As early as college, the amount of opportunities I've been exposed to just by impressing someone during conversation has been ridiculous. Part of this of course has been knowing my stuff, but undoubtedly it depends in part on my carriage and manner of speaking. And all of this is leaving out the direct networking opportunities inherent in the environment I grew up in.
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It's best for a person to take care of themselves, but it's foolish to expect that when they never got the resources, whether that's financial, mental, educational... > Homelessness should be declared illegal so that civil liberties aren't an issue when we force these people to work or become wards of the state if they are not capable. I think that's called slavery. That seems like the direct opposite of giving peopl…
> I think that's called slavery. That seems like the direct opposite of giving people agency and, if anything, the attitude that created all these problems in the first place. People aren't given agency by other people, they're born with it. Agency can be denied a person though, especially when they break serious-enough laws. That's all I'm talking about. Now I just need to convince enough people to agree with me tha…