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Hanging up my spurs

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Re: Hanging up my spurs

#181

Post by chickenfries »

jonwachob91 wrote: post #151
chickenfries wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was the flaw? Also, isn't starting a company with your student loans illegal? > He says he managed to graduate without attending class. In order to obtain class notes, he threw an annual keg party where entry required classmates to dump their notes in a bin. I sure wouldn't want that guy as my lawyer.

> Also, isn't starting a company with your student loans illegal? I don't think he meant using the money he was loaned to pay for classes but using the money the loan provides for living expenses. That money is completely up to you to figure out what to spend it on. I could be wrong about that though...

I'm not sure that federal or private loans could be used to start a company, even if you listed that one of your "living expenses" was "starting a company."

There isn't a lot of policing of what students use their student loan living expenses for, but I don't think that means you're free to do whatever you want with it legally.

Also, it's amazing how the child a doctor and a professor would be praised for cheating the government at a grand scale while our society is busy watching what poor people buy with EBT (food stamps) at the grocery store.

I don't find these details of Sacca's story admirable.

Re: Hanging up my spurs

#182

Post by joaomacp »

>So we’ve been quietly backing the next generation of investors, but specifically women and people of color who have been starting venture funds.

This sounds incredibly racist and sexist. Giving people advantages based on the color of their skin or their sex is unfair, and it's basically the definition of racism and sexism

Re: Hanging up my spurs

#183

Post by Chris2048 »

chickenfries wrote: post #181
jonwachob91 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, isn't starting a company with your student loans illegal? I don't think he meant using the money he was loaned to pay for classes but using the money the loan provides for living expenses. That money is completely up to you to figure out what to spend it on. I could be wrong about that though...

I'm not sure that federal or private loans could be used to start a company, even if you listed that one of your "living expenses" was "starting a company." There isn't a lot of policing of what students use their student loan living expenses for, but I don't think that means you're free to do whatever you want with it legally. Also, it's amazing how the child a doctor and a professor would be praised for cheating th…

> would be praised for cheating the government at a grand scale while our society is busy watching what poor people buy with EBT

The former happens so rarely it doesn't get much attention at all.

Re: Hanging up my spurs

#184

Post by Spooky23 »

chickenfries wrote: post #181
jonwachob91 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, isn't starting a company with your student loans illegal? I don't think he meant using the money he was loaned to pay for classes but using the money the loan provides for living expenses. That money is completely up to you to figure out what to spend it on. I could be wrong about that though...

I'm not sure that federal or private loans could be used to start a company, even if you listed that one of your "living expenses" was "starting a company." There isn't a lot of policing of what students use their student loan living expenses for, but I don't think that means you're free to do whatever you want with it legally. Also, it's amazing how the child a doctor and a professor would be praised for cheating th…

If he had flamed out, we'd probably hear a sob story about the oppression of student loans.

Re: Hanging up my spurs

#185

Post by NoGravitas »

Domenic_S wrote: post #106
JabavuAdams wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a personal post, why shouldn't he have an opinion? Also, how do you get to "devil incarnate"? The most negative thing he said was that the current administration are oppressive zealots. Note that he didn't specifically call out Republicans. The current administration has flouted norms, both Democratic and Republican.

"I think the institutions, principles, norms, and traditions that make the United States of America genuinely exceptional are at serious risk. It has been hard to think about anything else." "These oppressive zealots in the White House" "fighting a despotic regime" Of course he can have an opinion, and it seems like everyone's got one. It's less clear why the reader should care. And statements like this: "My career w…

> virtue signaling

You'd rather he signaled vice?

Re: Hanging up my spurs

#186

Post by redm »

Spooky23 wrote: post #184
chickenfries wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure that federal or private loans could be used to start a company, even if you listed that one of your "living expenses" was "starting a company." There isn't a lot of policing of what students use their student loan living expenses for, but I don't think that means you're free to do whatever you want with it legally. Also, it's amazing how the child a doctor and a professor would be praised for cheating th…

If he had flamed out, we'd probably hear a sob story about the oppression of student loans.

He could have taken the easy way out of his problems and declared bankruptcy. I think most would have, but he paid back all his debts, the hard way; that seems admirable to me.

Re: Hanging up my spurs

#187

Post by froindt »

disease wrote: post #78
gist wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As you know there is luck (of various types) involved for anyone who has ever gotten anywhere (even if family connections as a separate benefit there is also luck). You have to give Mark credit for doing a good job of snowing and playing Yahoo that does take skill. Look if Steve Jobs had grown up in, say, Iowa USA, had strong family ties that prevented him from even thinking about moving to Silicon Valley, where woul…

You've got me thinking about the interplay of natural ability, hard work, luck and success. How unsuccessful could someone be if they were extremely talented and hard-working, but had little luck. How far can luck push someone with no ability or desire? I suspect luck plays a greater role in our lives then we are willing to admit, even though it can be mitigated to some effect.

A few days ago there was an interesting comment about luck and survivorship bias: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14165781

> How unsuccessful could someone be if they were extremely talented and hard-working, but had little luck.

Warren Buffet has a concept called the Ovarian Lottery. Why should someone's kid get gobs of money simply for being born into that family? He hates it, and for that reason isn't leaving billions for his kids, just handfuls of millions.

By being born in the US, you've already basically won, as your poverty line would be luxurious in many other countries. If he wasn't born in the US or a handful of other countries, even with the same drive and motivation he had, he wouldn't have been able to be successful like he has been because far more time would be spent seeking out food and basics of living.

Re: Hanging up my spurs

#188

Post by cthalupa »

lacampbell wrote: post #158
forgottenacc57 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes to ride their entrepreneurs.

Something about describing your retirement as "hanging up my spurs" bothers me on an unreasonable level. Unless you actually were a cowboy. I mean when I retire from IT work I hope I'm not going to tell people I'm "stowing away my space helmet and locking my plasma rifles in the cabinet".

It's an English idiom meaning to retire.

I don't really understand why this is so objectionable.

Re: Hanging up my spurs

#189

Post by gist »

froindt wrote: post #187
disease wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've got me thinking about the interplay of natural ability, hard work, luck and success. How unsuccessful could someone be if they were extremely talented and hard-working, but had little luck. How far can luck push someone with no ability or desire? I suspect luck plays a greater role in our lives then we are willing to admit, even though it can be mitigated to some effect.

A few days ago there was an interesting comment about luck and survivorship bias: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14165781 > How unsuccessful could someone be if they were extremely talented and hard-working, but had little luck. Warren Buffet has a concept called the Ovarian Lottery. Why should someone's kid get gobs of money simply for being born into that family? He hates it, and for that reason isn't leaving…

> He hates it, and for that reason isn't leaving billions for his kids, just handfuls of millions.

I wish he would just shut up sometimes and stop being so avuncular and precocious.

He is leaving enough money to his kids to be able to have no financial issues and not having to work and be able to enjoy a nice life. And they are also getting a big halo boost just because they are his kids. Make no mistake about that. (I'd take that over $5 million in cash easily..)

Also he himself doesn't appear to see much value in all of his billions other than the fame that it gets him. He appears to enjoy it nominally and likes being well know and doing business much better. So he is making a value judgement as well based on what 'floats his boat' personally and marrying it to some concept that makes him appear to be so much like a common man.

If money is not that important to him, then why not give it away now and not just to charity?

Re: Hanging up my spurs

#190

Post by rhizome »

theparanoid wrote: post #172
rhizome wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll believe AI is good for something other than YouTube recommending Top 40 music for me to play next, when Google News stops showing pictures of unrelated celebrities next to political stories (e.g.).

ML/AI is used all the time. Every check deposited via mobile phone uses character recognition. Every letter or package mailed also.

If OCR is now considered to be AI, then that's a perfect example of my point that "AI" is defined downwards in practice.
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