121–130 of 296 posts
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I'm not single, but you're right about the kids. In my world view having a kid is similar to an 18 year prison sentence.
I wanted kids. I believe your statement is still correct. In my case I subjected myself to prison because of biology ruling over my logical processing unit. Humanity goes on as a result of that, I am quite sure of it. :)
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I can definitely relate. I'm not rich, but I do alright. I have a high IQ (according to "official" tests available), but I don't feel I'm smarter than anyone. I however do feel that I'm lazy, and have "cheated" my way through life by cunning rather than legitimately solving problems the way they're "supposed" to. I guess that's a skill in its own right, but it's made it harder for me to actually learn new stuff becau…
Hate to hijack the thread, but a lot of that speaks to me. > I have a high IQ, but I don't > feel I'm smarter than anyone. Quite. My recently acquired particular piece of paper puts it beyond any shred of doubt, objectively, but it's only recently I've really acknowledged it. I suspect this has been immensely annoying for people around me. > it's made it harder for me to > actually learn new stuff > because my brain…
Used an algebra to rotate and combine equations back in school to solve them. Never knew what they were really about until the uni times.
Playing puzzles with the rest of the class was quite boring.
Discipline however plays the important role for success, I agree, so does the environment and DNA.
I always retell this story when this subject comes up: When I was 17 in 1989 I was desperate for a job in 'computers' as it was all I knew, I was damn good at programming etc, but had the usual experience trap - no experience equalled no job. Being naive I paid attention to one of those adverts in the back of the weekend newspapers. I don't know if they were a UK only thing but they had a puzzle and stated that if yo…
The gender ratio was around 60/40 men/women. I don't think anyone even mentioned the term "IQ". It was mostly like a student group outing with people drinking, talking, playing board games, going to sauna (this was in Finland), swimming, flying around in a inflatable boat someone had converted to an ultralight floatplane and such.
I know a bunch of founders of smallish IT companies. If I talk to them, they don't seem too smart. But they did a company, and kept it running for many years. So they learned stuff about running a company.
Knowing how to run a company is a rather important skill if you want to get rich. And you can get this skill, even if you aren't smart. You probably won't make millions but more than a senior dev or something.
At one point you can even do it with a low skill level. Because you can employ many smart people who keep the company running even if you don't know what's going on anymore.
What angers me is that you often need money to get started and almost all people with rich parents I knew did it with their parents money. Yes they failed a few times, but who cared, they were young and their parents would help them out. By the time they were 30, they had 10 years of founding experience.
I'm probably decently smart, but I'm not rich at all. In fact I'm quite poor by most people's standards. I'm also really happy and work fewer hours per week than anyone I know. If there's one thing I worry about it's that I should be trying to be rich because I probably have the means to make that happen. I might be making 200k/yr if I worked full time. I might be able to start a successful company if I put my mind t…
I own my own business and the company is worth some millions of dollars, so I am "rich" though by American standards, not really. My salary is rather low for being the founder. My partner has an equally low salary. Some employees make more than me. I was formerly a data scientist with a salary 2x of what my current one is. I was miserable. Today, I love work. I create things. I have two kids and a wife and she stays…
I'm intrigued... would you mind sharing a bit more about your business?
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Kids are great. I have 3 kids and to me it is nothing like a prison sentence. I love watching them grow up, it is taking me back to the happiness and carelessness of my own childhood every day. It also gives me a sense of purpose that I would have never found without kids and what I gave up in freedom is made up in love, affection and just plain fun. Based on my experience I am 100% convinced that people that can't f…
Dude. Just because someone is adamantly against having children themselves doesn't mean that they "can't find joy in the happiness of others." My wife and I decided to not have kids. I don't know that I would equate it to "an 18 year prison sentence" but...I wouldn't not call it that. I love all my little nieces and nephews; they're one of the best parts of my life. I also thank the noodly appendages of the Flying Sp…
I'm probably decently smart, but I'm not rich at all. In fact I'm quite poor by most people's standards. I'm also really happy and work fewer hours per week than anyone I know. If there's one thing I worry about it's that I should be trying to be rich because I probably have the means to make that happen. I might be making 200k/yr if I worked full time. I might be able to start a successful company if I put my mind t…
Getting rich, at least under our current system, has a lot more to do with luck (mainly being in the right place at the right time) than it does with being smart or even working hard. The reason perseverance (which is related to working hard, but is not quite the same thing) helps is that the more willing you are to keep playing the game without winning the more likely you are to eventually win. (You can see this dyn…
Getting rich is doing instead of thinking. Smart people tend to overthink to much.