Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

activevoice.charlesbivona.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 152 posts

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

#131

Post by philwelch »

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…

The English majors I've known have never struck me as especially good writers. Philosophy was a little better--you stretch your communications skills more when you have to discuss more complicated ideas, and philosophy is generally more complicated than literature--but by and large even that was not especially useful. I learned a lot more about communication through internet discussions than through any form of schooling, largely because feedback was stronger and more immediate.

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

#132

Post by LiveTheDream »

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?

Spend the money on entertainment, probably.

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

#133

Post by rwhitman »

Considering I've spent my career in the opposite position, I've never fully understood this mentality.

But America is littered with over-educated, under-employed people for some reason. I recall working service jobs as a student with unhappy coworkers - career waiters, cooks or store clerks - in their mid 30's with Masters degrees and that was back when there was no recession to use as an excuse.

I'd attribute it to entitlement, maybe just a personal disposition of not being very driven, and the fact there are many people who's only real talent is excelling at school...

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

#135

Post by petercooper »

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…

Applying for random positions because you figure your degree actually means something is about as stupid as applying to the space program and for all the same reasons. You do not have a catch all pre-requisite.

I'm not disagreeing with you, but I wanted to note that Mathematics is, IMHO, as close to a "catch all pre-requisite" degree as you get, at least in the sciences and engineering.

I'd like to, one day, have the option of doing a Ph.D. in the informatics/CS field but am first doing a plain old math BSc because it opens so many doors if I choose to go a different route later.

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

#136

Post by mkramlich »

jafran wrote: post #14

i think the author of this post needs to drop his intense feelings of superiority and entitlement as they are obviously not backed up by any real world metrics. sorry, much of academia is completely disconnected from the real world. just because you made marks doesn't mean the rest of the world should bow before your superior intellect. sheesh, the nerve of some people...

The impression I've gotten is that what a Masters of English most prepares you for is a PhD in English. A distant second and third would be editor and writer. Then maybe a journalist.

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

#137

Post by dhume »

starkfist wrote: post #108
toxicflavor wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I'm not GP, but if I were, I think I'd have meant that she did, in fact, spend time doing "crap work," albeit not the crappiest work out there.

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

#138

Post by nandemo »

iron_ball wrote: post #41
zavulon wrote: post #32

The 'dumbing yourself down' skill comes very handy when talking to most girls at bars/clubs.

Because you want to date the girls who can't keep up with you intellectually? Whatever floats your boat, man.

I though that what zavulon is saying was common sense. I assume people who are downvoting him don't hang out in bars and clubs much, or aren't going there to pick up girls.

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

#139

Post by marklubi »

Am I the only one that read the article and thought that part of the problem had to do with the fact that he was sending out "thousands of resumes" in the last two months?

I really expected to come to the comments on this post and see a lot of responses about that. It doesn't sound at all like he was trying to target his market at all. It sounds as though his plan was to simply spam his way to finding a job.

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

#140

Post by ThomPete »

toxicflavor wrote: post #98
ThomPete wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't buy that. Have you ever read Fish? http://www.charthouse.com/productdetail.aspx?nodeid=11010 There is an art to everything it's just a matter of finding it and you can learn a great deal from even the most tedious work.

"There is an art to everything it's just a matter of finding it and you can learn a great deal from even the most tedious work." Go down to your local sweatshop and try telling that to some of the people working there. See what they have to say about it.

I think you are missing the point here.

I am talking about an opportunity to turn crap work into at least challenging work.

I have worked some pretty crappy jobs myself from packaging crab cakes to cleaning at 3 in the morning to sorting packages. There is always things to focus on that will make it worthwhile.

When I was 22 I was head of sales for a small telemarketing business. The people working there where young and the job pretty freaking boring but hard as hell. The average number of individual orders that people would accomplish in a day ranged from 5 to 40. Which meant that I had some frequency to play with. So I invented a bunch of games that had bonuses attached to them.

Sales went up 200% and that is for the people on canvas.

You might not choose your own job, but you do choose how you approach it.

Post reply on HN