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“It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”

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Re: “It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”

#361

Post by ldoughty »

taytus wrote: post #173
ldoughty wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally agree. I have great ideas of things to work on, but I'm essentially a single income household (my wife is in grad school, and her part time pay barely covers her education and school). I can't quit my job and work on a dream venture, who will pay for my wife's upcoming childbirth and related expenses? Who will ensure we can still make payments on our home and food? Living with parents is definitely a safety n…

You don't have to quit your job. What is the product/service you want to develop? Do you have a defined potential customer (friend/family)? It's something you can create putting 1-2 hours per day? What is the minimum amount of work you need to put in to go and show it to someone (even if it is a mockup) How many customers do you need to break even? You can do ALL of this and more without quitting your job.

Completely agree! It is certainly hard motivating to do the work 1-2 hours at a time, but that's how I've been trying to approach it. Unfortunately some things like Unity are not great tools to learn at this pace.

I'm hoping to save enough money to hire a student or novice to get me started... Most of my issues are with complete unfamiliarity with the system... I have 15 years of mostly procedural scripting, not much for game development... But I can quickly pick up code from examples...... Just not many people willing to share source code, especially not in my direction of gameplay (which will be a game closer to solitaire in action mechanics, rather than traditional 2D games).

I've debated some 2D games, I even bought 2 frameworks for 2D games, but everyone recommends using something like Unity for production quality games.

Re: “It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”

#362

Post by beezlebubba »

“It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net.”

Because suggesting otherwise just makes you sound like a late night infomercial huckster.

I have even more respect for Matthew Prince now. I've loved Cloudflare from day one and now I know why.

Re: “It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”

#363

Post by tracker1 »

ergothus wrote: post #351
tracker1 wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a question.. why the fuck is college even a requirement here? I'm not saying it doesn't have value. But, if you are creating a startup and are that young, does college even matter at that point? The fact is, that for many things, a lot of people are perfectly capable of spending a few hours a day on a project above and beyond actually working a full time job. Yeah, people have advantages and others don't. Ther…

> Nothing is without risk This is the whole point of the discussion here: For many people the risk is dramatically higher or lower than other people. Capitalism suffers if we don't let everyone actually participate in roles other than the menial worker.

That is a given though and you cannot be expected to normalize for it. Someone fresh out of secondary school isn't in the same position as someone in their mid 40's with kids. And isn't the same as someone sleeping on a friend's couch.

Depending on what you are trying to do/build also has varying risk/reward. Want to start a new aircraft manufacturing company? Good luck with that, unless you have multi-billionaire parents. Want to start a new SaaS? you have very little excuse not to start/try.

It doesn't take a lot of risk to try in most cases. All the griping in the world doesn't make someone who won't try succeed. Most excuses are just that. I didn't go to an ivy league school... I grew up poor... meh. The fact is that drive, motivation and effort count for more, more often than anything else given a baseline level of skill, intelligence and aptitude.

Do you also want to normalize professional sports? Let short and fat people play in the NBA?

Re: “It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”

#364

Post by bradenb »

majkinetor wrote: post #320
turk73 wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a little tip: The wife and the kid are far more enriching than anything else you will do in life. So don't jeopardize them.

Be that as it may, having no money for decent life is sure as hell way to lose your wife and your kid and is happening far far more then the opposite.

Maybe I'm inferring the wrong thing, but are you suggesting that creating a startup is more likely to provide the money you need to support a family?

Re: “It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”

#365

Post by ergothus »

tracker1 wrote: post #363
ergothus wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nothing is without risk This is the whole point of the discussion here: For many people the risk is dramatically higher or lower than other people. Capitalism suffers if we don't let everyone actually participate in roles other than the menial worker.

That is a given though and you cannot be expected to normalize for it. Someone fresh out of secondary school isn't in the same position as someone in their mid 40's with kids. And isn't the same as someone sleeping on a friend's couch. Depending on what you are trying to do/build also has varying risk/reward. Want to start a new aircraft manufacturing company? Good luck with that, unless you have multi-billionaire pa…

> The fact is that drive, motivation and effort count for more, more often than anything else given a baseline level of skill, intelligence and aptitude.

I don't know if you've failed to follow the point here or are deliberately trying to avoid it. We're not talking about comparing someone "fresh out of secondary school" with someone "in their mid 40's with kids", and we're not trying to compare someone "with drive" to someone just giving excuses.

Fact is, someone with drive and a baseline of money is far, FAR safer when taking risks in capitalism than someone without. I'm not looking for excuses for myself - I'm looking to reap the benefits of a well-functioning market. A market that enables everyone to participate according to their drive, and doesn't expect that they have to sacrifice, health, education, or future ability to be employable to do so.

Today I see a large number of people of above average wealth and opportunities, plus one or two that had plenty of luck while "bootstrapping" themselves all looking down on anyone unable to participate as if they are simply lazy.

We're not trying to get "short and fat" people into the NBA, we're trying to get the people who have to work 60hr/week jobs to somehow have time on the court. "Drive" doesn't begin to cover the problems.

https://www.boredpanda.com/privilege-explanation-comic-strip...

Re: “It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”

#366

Post by tracker1 »

ergothus wrote: post #365
tracker1 wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a given though and you cannot be expected to normalize for it. Someone fresh out of secondary school isn't in the same position as someone in their mid 40's with kids. And isn't the same as someone sleeping on a friend's couch. Depending on what you are trying to do/build also has varying risk/reward. Want to start a new aircraft manufacturing company? Good luck with that, unless you have multi-billionaire pa…

> The fact is that drive, motivation and effort count for more, more often than anything else given a baseline level of skill, intelligence and aptitude. I don't know if you've failed to follow the point here or are deliberately trying to avoid it. We're not talking about comparing someone "fresh out of secondary school" with someone "in their mid 40's with kids", and we're not trying to compare someone "with drive"…

> Fact is, someone with drive and a baseline of money is far, FAR safer when taking risks in capitalism than someone without. I'm not looking for excuses for myself - I'm looking to reap the benefits of a well-functioning market. A market that enables everyone to participate according to their drive, and doesn't expect that they have to sacrifice, health, education, or future ability to be employable to do so.

What you are talking about will ALWAYS be part of the risk equation, unless you are talking about normalizing everything across all nations in the world and one global government, with a single base income for all? I'm not sure that I would want to live in such a world given all the side effects of such a government/system.

There will ALWAYS be more risks for some than for others. Someone who has two parents that would let them live at home vs. and orphan with no supportive family. You can NOT have that level of equality without tyranny. And even if you did, you'd have already removed any or at least most of the rewards for any innovation.

Edit: looking at your cartoon, I definitely was raised closer to the, "disadvantaged" woman on the right. That isn't to say that some don't have advantages, but that will always be true, and isn't a net wrong. Even then drive and input are far bigger indicators, and removing the rewards of others won't increase innovation.

Re: “It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”

#367

Post by rahimnathwani »

vonmoltke wrote: post #162
rahimnathwani wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Registering a company in the UK, and keeping it running, is both simpler and cheaper than in the US. Registering a company takes a few minutes and costs less than $30. Compulsory annual filing costs less than $20. If your company's revenue is below some threshold, you don't need to register for VAT (similar to sales tax). And there's another (even higher) threshold below which you can file very simple annual accounts…

That's about the process in Texas. Incorporating is a different story, but you don't have to incorporate to register a business (and it's probably a waste of money if you are the sole owner with no employees).

Does the simpler option provide limited liability?

Re: “It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”

#368

Post by mlthoughts2018 »

pnongrata wrote: post #136
mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is probably not actually good for PG, because the majority of such people will fail and end up destitute, casting bad publicity (rightly or wrongly, doesn’t matter) on whatever start-up churner generated that outcome. Additionally, founders who already come from wealth or have political connections, etc., are probably much more likely to succees in the financial senses that PG wants. The only limited sense in whic…

Not many people care about startup failures, except high profile ones.

Journalists looking to (justifiably or unjustifiably) undermine start-up incubators or VC firms easily could care.

You could just as lazily & dismissively say nobody cares about failed taxi drivers, and yet there it is on the front page of the most popular Western newspaper in the world.

If there’s an angle to make it a story, people will care. The angle to make it a story about how start-up programs are basically scams exploiting lottery biases of people not in a life position to sustain that risk is very easy, straightforward & compelling to a wide audience.

And hence it’s probably bad for PG & others if people without safety nets are going bust on failed start-ups.

Re: “It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”

#369

Post by bg24 »

Experiencing first hand. I hope at this age, I should have saved enough. But, single income and mortgage means better be realistic. I do take risk though, working for startup on cutting edge tech, than for a large company. Basically insurance for future job security. The risk I cannot think of is starting my own business.

Related - it is impossible to take risks if you or family have crippling health issues.

And when you have both, why even bother to take major risks.

Re: “It’s hard to take risks if you don’t have a safety net”

#370

Post by mattxxx »

Frost1x wrote: post #208
mattxxx wrote: post #171

The reality is that money lets you "take risks," and money gives you options (in this world). To be honest, I don't think that starting your company with the "risk" that you might move back in with your parents if it fails... is at all a meaningful risk.

All the risks are skewed to portray a traditionally projected hopeful image when the reality is: the risks are skewed against the average person. Most start-ups (businesses in general) fail. Hard Work® and Dedication® will only get you so far in this country even though that's the garbage fed to many for generations. A great idea is certainly a good start, then ingenuity/creativity/follow-through go a long way, but m…

Yes, completely agreed. You distilled it: "you can roll the dice more times if you have more money/wealth"
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