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Founding a startup with zero revenue is better than working for Goldman Sachs

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Re: Founding a startup with zero revenue is better than working for Goldman Sachs

#41

Post by yummyfajitas »

bambax wrote: post #16
arethuza wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In The Big Short he mentions that although he never intended Liar's Poker to inspire people to work on Wall Street. However, that's precisely how a lot of people have treated it - he mentions he gets a lot of requests from people who read Liar's Poker and want tips on how to get started on Wall Street.

Yes. From the introduction to The Big Short (page XV): "I hoped that some bright kid at Ohio State University who really wanted to be an oceanographer would read my book [Liar's Poker], spurn the offer from Golman Sachs, and set out to sea. Some how that message was mainly lost. Six months after Liar's Poker was published, I was kee-deep in letters from students at Ohio State University who wanted to know if I had an…

When I visited Egypt, my flamboyantly gay chain smoking guide had a similar experience. He tried to dissuade me from climbing up "Moses Mountain", as it was locally known.

Him: I tried it once, about a year ago. I was showing some healthy mexican girls around, and they decided to climb. But it was so steep, and they just kept walking! After a few hours of pain I just stopped, and shivered on the side of the mountain. It was the worst day of my life.

Me: Sounds awesome. Only 50 egyptian pounds?

Him: It wasn't awesome. I don't recommend it. I'll sleep in the van.

Michael Lewis didn't enjoy Solomon Brothers, just as my guide didn't enjoy a 3 hour stroll up a 1500m hill. Both assumed that an accurate description of the experience would dissuade others. Both simply failed to appreciate the diversity of human preferences.

Re: Founding a startup with zero revenue is better than working for Goldman Sachs

#42

Post by VolatileVoid »

TheSOB88 wrote: post #31
VolatileVoid wrote: post #27

So. This is funny. I actually work at Goldman, work in the system he talks about, and have been doing so for 5 years. You can get numbed by the experience of working here, but you don't have to be. I've become friendly with some of the best hackers I know, and for us, finance always takes a backseat to writing amazing code. Sometimes we succeed. Sometimes we fail, but we try to never say, "Meh. Good enough." Wall Str…

Anything that takes up half of your waking hours shouldn't be "just" anything.

Really? Quality, not quantity. An hour with my wife is more meaningful to me than half my day at work. No job will make up for that, unless I'm changing the world. So yes. It's just a job. Your (not you specifically, but anyone) startup is just a job.

Re: Founding a startup with zero revenue is better than working for Goldman Sachs

#43

Post by nightlifelover »

"There were other characters in this drama. The sales guys were complete tools, with a total IQ, summing over all of them, still safely in the double digits. The traders were crafty and quick-witted, but technically unsophisticated and with the attention span of an ADHD kid hopped up on meth and Jolly Ranchers."

Ok it seems perfectly possible to make a lot of money while being a complete idiot. I'm getting an MS in engineering and since I was studying the last few years I don't have any money (except about the minimum which is required for a living) What worries me most is that many engineering jobs are not well payed, even though they require skilled people. So I wonder how I could turn the hard work I did (and still do) to get my degree into money.

Re: Founding a startup with zero revenue is better than working for Goldman Sachs

#44

Post by ableal »

jakarta wrote: post #34

I wonder if the massive amounts of income he made at Goldman helped provide a safety net for launching his zero revenue startup.

Well, I got from the adgrok.com "about the team" page to his sailboat page ( http://svmoksha.com/, good reading). I presume he's quite familiar with the traditional definition of a boat as a hole in the water one throws money at ...

Re: Founding a startup with zero revenue is better than working for Goldman Sachs

#45

Post by jamesseda »

unshift wrote: post #33
jamesseda wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is GS is company that wants to "beat the market" meaning someone else in the market is loosing. And Google's goal is to make the worlds information available to everyone and show them ads. Google seems more like a everyone wins company.

for every dollar of ads google sells, that's a dollar their competitors don't get. they are as cut throat as anybody else, they just do a better job of making computer people feel good about it. ask their sales department if they're an "everyone wins" company.

If G-mail didn't exist I would use yahoo. G-mail is much better for me though. I win and Google wins. Yahoo looses. If GS gets in front of Citi on a trade by 2 seconds GS wins and Citi looses, no one else is involved. Unless those two seconds of "efficiency" help someone?

Re: Founding a startup with zero revenue is better than working for Goldman Sachs

#46

Post by samtp »

TheSOB88 wrote: post #35
samtp wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was just a passing comparison. He didn't mean to offend or disparage anyone, chill out. Its the same thing as saying, "the 800 pound guerrilla." Sure, most guerrillas are nowhere near 800 pounds and may take offence to us calling them heavy. But thats not the point at all.

Most guerrillas are not apes, either. (guerrilla war vs. gorilla ape)

Doesn't the expression refer to the 800 lb guerrilla revolutionary? ;)

Re: Founding a startup with zero revenue is better than working for Goldman Sachs

#47

Post by saturdayplace »

jakevoytko wrote: post #5

Quick tip: hover over the numbered footnotes for some great asides.

The Django Advent also had a nice footnoting system, which I've stolen for a project of mine. (example: http://djangoadvent.com/1.2/everything-i-hate-about-mingus/ )

Re: Founding a startup with zero revenue is better than working for Goldman Sachs

#49

Post by ams6110 »

nightlifelover wrote: post #43

"There were other characters in this drama. The sales guys were complete tools, with a total IQ, summing over all of them, still safely in the double digits. The traders were crafty and quick-witted, but technically unsophisticated and with the attention span of an ADHD kid hopped up on meth and Jolly Ranchers." Ok it seems perfectly possible to make a lot of money while being a complete idiot. I'm getting an MS in e…

Don't take that description too literally. I really doubt you get to be a trader at GS without having a good brain in your head. Sales is more about working and building relationships than sheer intelligence, but to do it well still requires a lot of work and talent in that direction.
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