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If You’re So Damn Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?

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Re: If You’re So Damn Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?

#101

Post by mahmud »

toxicflavor wrote: post #90
mahmud wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a false dichotomy. The issue is not doing crap work, the issue is doing it reluctantly . If you put a little effort into your work and think of the big picture, even the stupidest job can be considered a success if you pair it with a solid Plan-B and an exit strategy. Work on crap, but also work on your dreams while at it. What do you have to give up beside TV and idling? I bet this English graduate did nothin…

It's not a false dichotomy. It's not true to say that life is too short to spend doing crap work because some people don't have the choice to make a living in any other way, no matter how reluctant their decision is and no matter how much it cuts against their dreams.

It pains me to extrapolate data from an anecdote, really, but I think it's just something worth sharing.

Few years ago there was a lady from East Africa who walked around my work building and sold canned beverages out of a picnic cooler. I have watched her come pester us during our lunch breaks and sell us coke for a $1. The vending machine sold it for $1.25, but the lady had more variety in beverages. If you said you didn't have change, she would put a cold drink on your desk and was happy to collect her money the next day.

She then moved on to homemade sandwiches and coffee, eventually graduating to a folding trolley.

I went to visit the building a few days ago to see the people I knew. She no longer sells quick meals, but has her own office in the building where she runs a convenience store / clothing store / dollar store. She will sell you food, socks, deodorant, cigarettes and printer ink cartridges. Her son, now in his teens, doubles as a delivery boy and runs errands for the whole building.

Everyday success story that you wont see in Mixergy (unless Andrew wants an interview, and I will happily put my home-girl in the spot :-)

Re: If You’re So Damn Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?

#102

Post by Ardit20 »

toxicflavor wrote: post #62
mquander wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're being intentionally ignorant of the way everyone else uses the term "creating value," which describes work that improves the world around you, not just work that happens to keep you alive.

Except my point is that you can still improve the world around you (create value) even if your work does not do so. In that sense, maintaining your own survival is also a means of creating value. On the other hand, you seem to define "creating value" in excessively narrow terms by accepting whatever preconceived notion you insist it is defined by.

That is creating value to himself! The original point was about creating values to others.

How on earth can you be smart and not realise the rules of engagement in the world? Not you personally, but the guy who claimed he was super smart.

Re: If You’re So Damn Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?

#103

Post by mkramlich »

Eliezer wrote: post #94
shadowfox wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That response didnt make much sense to me :(

It's the equivalent of saying "Yes, Madam, and you are ugly, but I will be sober tomorrow." If you're smart but not rich, you can try to get rich. What do you do if you're rich but not smart?

hire 10 smart people

Re: If You’re So Damn Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?

#105

Post by marknutter »

dstorrs wrote: post #88
run4yourlives wrote: post #42

I'm 35. I'll try not to be too critical. Moral of the story: Being educated doesn't say anything about you being smart. Here's the rub. A college degree is a specialization. That's why you "major" in something. It was never designed to be an extension of high school. So, you should get a degree in something that you are both passionate about and also accept the limited career paths that come with that particular pass…

Personally, I have a BA in English with a minor in CS. Except for my first year out of college (performance analyst at a pension consulting firm -- I had applied to their computer department!), I've spent my entire career in computers. I've ticked most of the boxes -- coding, junior DBA work, junior sysadmin work, spec / doc writing, system architect, team lead, Director of Programming, and now Co-Founder. I am incre…

Not to seem like a downer but it sounds like your trying to justify your choice of major. I do it too, though. I majored in physics and am a web developer guy too now, and I try to convince myself that I learned how to comprehend difficult topics and solve intricate problems while I was in college, but there's this sneaking suspicion I have that that time (and money) might have been better spent doing what I'm doing right now.

Re: If You’re So Damn Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?

#107

Post by toxicflavor »

mahmud wrote: post #101
toxicflavor wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a false dichotomy. It's not true to say that life is too short to spend doing crap work because some people don't have the choice to make a living in any other way, no matter how reluctant their decision is and no matter how much it cuts against their dreams.

It pains me to extrapolate data from an anecdote, really, but I think it's just something worth sharing. Few years ago there was a lady from East Africa who walked around my work building and sold canned beverages out of a picnic cooler. I have watched her come pester us during our lunch breaks and sell us coke for a $1. The vending machine sold it for $1.25, but the lady had more variety in beverages. If you said yo…

Nice story. However, I think you are mistaken if you somehow believe this anecdote somehow disproves the idea that some people don't have the choice to make a living in any other way except through crap work, no matter how reluctant their decision is and no matter how much it cuts against their dreams. If we are to believe the statistics on small business failures then for every enterpreneur who succeeds like the woman you have described, there are dozens of others who fail. So I don't hold it against someone when they choose not to gamble with their livelihood for a slim chance of success.

Re: If You’re So Damn Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?

#108

Post by starkfist »

toxicflavor wrote: post #107
mahmud wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It pains me to extrapolate data from an anecdote, really, but I think it's just something worth sharing. Few years ago there was a lady from East Africa who walked around my work building and sold canned beverages out of a picnic cooler. I have watched her come pester us during our lunch breaks and sell us coke for a $1. The vending machine sold it for $1.25, but the lady had more variety in beverages. If you said yo…

Nice story. However, I think you are mistaken if you somehow believe this anecdote somehow disproves the idea that some people don't have the choice to make a living in any other way except through crap work, no matter how reluctant their decision is and no matter how much it cuts against their dreams. If we are to believe the statistics on small business failures then for every enterpreneur who succeeds like the wom…

What are you going on about? If someone's choice is to sell soda to nerds on their lunch break or be unemployed, what are they gambling? Or do you mean the soda lady should have been more realistic and taken a job in the salt mines, because the snack business is too risky?

Re: If You’re So Damn Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?

#109

Post by Kisil »

ergo98 wrote: post #63

While I think this story is largely fictitious, when someone argues that they're downtrodden and victimized because they sound smart -- in verbal or written form -- they're often missing the forest for the trees. Unless you're debating esoterica of a specialized domain, the smartest people manage to communicate in a simple, effective manner(1). The person accused of using too many syllables, in contrast, tends to be…

>> When someone says "you're too smart", or "you sound too smart" or "try to dumb yourself down", most of the time they're not really saying that you're too smart. They're saying "can the act."

Perhaps some people who use big words are putting on a show, but that's far from universal. Big words stay in our language because they convey subtly different meanings than their simpler synonyms. But there's a trade-off between being precise and being easily understood, and to get it right, you really need to know your audience. A lot of people hear "you sound too smart" because they're going over their audience's heads.

I get this a lot - I come from an articulate, educated family, and I was brought up using big words. I think in big words and long sentences. I read lots of books. So I have to consciously simply my sentence structure and my vocabulary around most people. It's not necessarily that they're "not smart." It's just that they're used to simpler words and structure.

It's almost as if we speak subtly different dialects. I have to do the work to translate, so that they don't have to. Most people haven't read many books, and don't think in big words. People usually talk to similar people, so they may not even have a mental concept for this translation. But they know and notice when someone's unusually hard to understand.

Now, if you use bigger words than your audience, and you're also subtly condescending (because you think you're smarter, e.g.), people often assume you're trying to "sound smart," even though you're actually bad at communication and lack self-awareness. The same thing happens when you use lots of jargon and acronyms, only that alienates an even wider group of people.

edit: formatting

Re: If You’re So Damn Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?

#110

Post by jiganti »

mkramlich wrote: post #103
Eliezer wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the equivalent of saying "Yes, Madam, and you are ugly, but I will be sober tomorrow." If you're smart but not rich, you can try to get rich. What do you do if you're rich but not smart?

hire 10 smart people

An action that would imply intelligence, I'd say.
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