Advice • Hacker News Board

Re: Advice

#191

Post by austenallred » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 9:54 PM UTC

aphextron wrote: post #189

austenallred wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You clearly don't understand how LendUp works, so I'll just leave it at that.

Yes, clearly I just don't understand the complex problems they are tackling. I'm certainly not calling them out on being shady and awful like every other payday lender since forever [0]. A few takeaways from their most recent CFPB fine of $6 million : >"Misled consumers about graduating to lower-priced loans" >"Hid the true cost of credit" >"Reversed pricing without consumer knowledge" >"Understated the annual percen…

Yes, I was there for all that. I am incredibly proud to call myself a LendUpper and I have no regrets.

All of that stuff was either done on accident when the company was a small handful of people or is pretty innocuous (we got in trouble for not displaying on our advertising that the rate may differ from the imaginary icon we showed, which displayed one of the possible rates based on how much money you took out. Or getting nailed for trying to give people a discount if they promised early repayment and not giving the discount if they didn't pay in advance).

Literally any company that had that regulatory weight on it would have the same number of things the CFPB could go after if they could, but no one else is trying to play by the rules and just operate out of sovereign nations.

Re: Advice

#192

Post by ritchiea » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 10:06 PM UTC

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #142

java_script wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hahaha that was one of the most ridiculous (and succinct) 180's I've ever seen online.

Actually I think I apologised too soon, looking at @ritchiea's posts and web site I reckon I was right on the mark.

Tell me about my background

It’s absolute bullshit that you assume you know so much about me from browsing my web presence

I didn’t ask for an apology and what I said about my life is true. You seem to have some kind of complex about class where you feel you need to make a point but without actually expressing anything of significance. I am not at all trying to prove any kind of point about what your class background means or doesn’t mean. I made a very clear comment and you replied snarkily with assumptions about what my background might be. And I replied that you are wrong, which is true.

What are you trying to get at? What is your point? It looks like you want to be an asshole unless I can somehow prove I am the poorest kid from the roughest situation still posting on hacker news. But all you’re posting is pithy bullshit.

Re: Advice

#193

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 10:15 PM UTC

fellowniusmonk wrote: post #118

ritchiea wrote: post #74

I wish someone would write a useful version of this for the question “what should I do to make the most of my life when my family is poor or somehow less fortunate?” A lot of this would still apply but there’s a huge percentage of the population that has to deal with major difficulties in life before they can heed the kind of advice Patrick offers.

I come from a considerably poorer background than you based on your other posts, poorer than most, with birth defects that have caused me constant problems and... I could add a bunch of things to this list but it's quite accurate, I'm just past 30 now and by being poor, smart, open, hardworking and going where the energy/money is you end up ticking all of these boxes. You'll end up more closely identifying with first…

[deleted]

Re: Advice

#194

Post by ritchiea » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 10:24 PM UTC

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #142

java_script wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hahaha that was one of the most ridiculous (and succinct) 180's I've ever seen online.

Actually I think I apologised too soon, looking at @ritchiea's posts and web site I reckon I was right on the mark.

What did you expect? That I had a website that says “I am very poor, please donate money to me?” Or maybe “I am a tough SOB from the hood that made it good at google and now i’m a crypto millionaire who boxes in my spare time to drown out the aggressive tendencies I acquired in my youth”?

Who do you want me to be to fit your world view?

Re: Advice

#195

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 11:15 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Advice

#196

Post by tedmiston » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 12:48 AM UTC

mgummelt wrote: post #175

pkaler wrote: post #122

So, funny story. I was in YVR waiting for a flight when I decided to get my shoes shined. The shoe shine had been reading a manga take on the bible. Just a regular guy that in another life could be a computer programmer if the circumstances were different. He asked me what I do: mobile apps. And he went on and on about how his favourite iPhone app downloaded all of Wikipedia but it didn't work on the latest version o…

The timing on this is odd. Patrick says he built the Wikipedia app over a few weeks in Japan in late 2007, which would have been soon after founding Auctomatic: https://venturebeat.com/2007/10/22/auctomatic-launches-bette... It seems like a strange decision take take a month off after founding your startup to build a side project in Japan.

From the article:

> Then in November of 2007, I went to visit my friend in Japan for a month. And in Japan they have all of this incredibly advanced cellular technology and all of the rest. And so because of that, they had very few wireless networks, and my phone didn’t work. As a result, I actually had very little access to the Internet. I sort of realized without Wikipedia how little I really knew. And I had just got an iPhone, so I decided to try basically putting a copy of Wikipedia on the phone, so that I’d have it as I was walking around in Japan.

Re: Advice

#197

Post by tedmiston » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 12:51 AM UTC

renjimen wrote: post #141

I would suggest travel over most of these. Particularly if you live in a fairly inward looking society like the US. Forget SF - live in another country, learn another language while your brain is still plastic enough to become truly fluent, understand your own culture by spending time among others, realise how fortunate you are to be born in a developed country.

+1 even if just briefly

Study abroad was my favorite part of college. Spending just a few weeks each in Taiwan and Costa Rica was pretty enlightening.

Re: Advice

#198

Post by bayonetz » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 12:57 AM UTC

CPLX wrote: post #32

One thing that I didn't do at that age and very much regret is to be really conscious of being healthy and physically fit. That's the right time to learn what you should and shouldn't put in your body, and how to be constantly active. There's a million different ways to accomplish that but it's important to find one. People at that age often don't really understand how closely linked physical fitness and mental healt…

Also, a physical sport. You will never have the time, interest, and enthusiasm that a kid has to get good at a sport again. I grew up surfing and am proficient at it. This makes it fun. Which means I do it regularly. It’s a great fitness activity and much more fun than my gym workouts. I’ve seen countless adults try to pick up surfing and 99% never become proficient. It took several years as a kid before I gained anything near proficiency. I’d be one of those 99% if I tried to pick it up as an adult. I got lucky I guess to have been introduced to it as a kid. That would be my advice.

Re: Advice

#199

Post by tedmiston » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 1:05 AM UTC

kyledrake wrote: post #150

jonbarker wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having lived there and now living in a cheaper real estate market I am grateful for having lived there, where I could not afford a house. I am now no longer interested in owning residential real estate no matter where I go!

The housing market is flooded with buyers right now, all-cash offers and waived inspections. It's obvious to me that most buyers don't realize the risks associated with their investment, don't understand how to monetize them against rents from long-term buyers, and are just generally thinking emotionally and irrationally. Terrible market to buy in if you don't like spending the rest of your life paying off a money pi…

> Good general rule of thumb is your cost of housing shouldn't exceed 30% of your income.

The 40x rule in New York (annual income must be at least 40x monthly rent) conveniently works out to be 30% too.

https://www.nakedapartments.com/guides/nyc/beginning-your-se...

Re: Advice

#200

Post by doomjunky » Fri, Jul 06, 2018, 1:22 AM UTC

mkagenius wrote: post #12

smithmayowa wrote: post #6

What I will like to really know is people thoughts on what they think people 20-30 & 30-40 should do

Jack Ma of Alibaba had few advice to various age groups: https://youtu.be/__Mz-oxsXAs?t=116

> 60 Spend time for yourself.

~Jack Ma's Advice to The Young People