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I graduated into the dot com bust as a programmer and made it – you will too

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Re: I graduated into the dot com bust as a programmer and made it – you will too

#151
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but no less dense area stands alone. One person from a more dense area visits a less dense area and we're right back at it.

I am hopeful we can suppress this disease before herd immunity develops in cities. But, once that happens they stop acting like dense areas in terms of disease spread. It’s really a question of regional R factors under various levels of social distancing, population, and herd imminuty.

I have a pet theory that what we're essentially doing is running a huge experiment where we select for the least dangerous strains of the coronavirus. People who get a mild flu or no symptoms at all are less well quarantined and are significantly more likely to pass it on to other people. People who get the worst symptoms are tightly quarantined in hospital, reducing their chances of passing on the worst forms of the virus.

It's probably not true and it isn't really based in any biological knowledge but it kind of makes sense in relation to what I've read about how the Spanish Flu epidemic ended.

Re: I graduated into the dot com bust as a programmer and made it – you will too

#152
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Survivorship bias. Our system is broken, humanity needs a way to encourage success without punishing failure. Failure shouln't be hunger and homelessness...This will be another generation of hopeless dreamers lost in the looming financial depression. Why is our antidote hope against the adversity of going against all the odds?. Congrats to those who made it but more recognition to those who failed and managed to over…

> without punishing failure Why not punish failure?

What is failure?

Is it failure to deliver some social good, even if your financial costs exceed your income?

The system needs a reset.

Re: I graduated into the dot com bust as a programmer and made it – you will too

#153
post #79

Why do you guys assume that this crisis will hit software development? As far as I can see software development will be one of the fields least hit, possibly even benifiting, by the fallout of the Corona-virus.

Unfortunately, my twitter feed is filled with developers being hit and I have also experienced it without being directly hit. There are many ways that the crisis can hit software development. Investors are bleeding cash left and right and don't want to invest in anything right now. Products lose appeal. Companies don't want to pick up new software etc.. etc...

In your opinion, where the people being laid off working on valuable projects? I know its one sample, but I'm wondering if all the virus is doing is tree shaking all of the Uber for ______ ideas

Re: I graduated into the dot com bust as a programmer and made it – you will too

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone loses in a recession.

Not everyone, some people prosper enormously in a recession - or more specifically, some people make bold investments during the worst part of a recession when everyone else thinks the world is ending. Those investments typically do very well when we exit the recession.

Agreed, recessions are when money is made. If you look at '00 and '08/09, investing in the down years is incredibly profitable

Re: I graduated into the dot com bust as a programmer and made it – you will too

#155

This brings back so many memories. I graduated with a Comp Sci degree from a well-regarded university. I had friends who graduated a year earlier return to school for a different degree because there was just nothing available with a degree in CS. So demoralizing. I graduated a year later and took a job making a little over minimum wage. At that time, the most influential executives at my workplaces said software eng…

I'm pushing 40, graduated high school in 2000. I heard a lot of the same "wisdom." For some reason I just really wanted to be a software developer so I stuck with it even though the dot com bubble was in full catastrophe mode. I'm glad I did, but I can't claim magic wisdom. I don't know how kids are supposed to get good life/career advice. I surely didn't. Perhaps the only thing I can reasonably suggest is that peopl…

> I don't know how kids are supposed to get good life/career advice.

They need a good support structure at home, at school, and they need successful people in their lives. I think most kids are lucky to have 2 of those, let alone all three. Hell, even kids with all three end up majoring in something useless, or dropping out of school, or worse.

Re: I graduated into the dot com bust as a programmer and made it – you will too

#156

I mean I understand where he's coming from, but this is peak survivorship bias. No, not everyone makes it. People can't get jobs, they can't pay rent and people will suffer and some will die as a result. That's a fact of how recessions go, and I think papering it over with 'everything will be OK' just further normalizes the boom/bust cycle and all of the damage it causes to working individuals.

The people screaming survivor ship bias are the least likely to make it. Now is the time to be doubling down your hours, focusing on whats important and proving your worth. Believe in yourself and make it through to the next boom. If you're lucky with your money you may even never have to worry about the cycle again

Re: I graduated into the dot com bust as a programmer and made it – you will too

#157
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The average Bachelor’s graduates has $38K in debt in graduation, the price of a new car. To get to $100K you usually need to go to graduate school.

I'd like to see the distribution curve, I know a number of "normal" (i.e., not terrible irresponsible) people with significantly more.

I imagine people from well off, but not wealthy, families who won't or can't assist in paying for their education come out with more because theres basically no aid available for them.

Re: I graduated into the dot com bust as a programmer and made it – you will too

#158
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Software is still the most well paid, expanding industry of the last 40 years. In a lot of the world it's nowhere near as well paid as most of the professions which have comparable requirements in terms of the amount academic study, vocational apprenticeship and natural aptitude needed.

Even in the U.S. I’m not sure where this myth of SWE being the most well paid industry comes from. Try many finance jobs and big law, also medicine in certain specializations. They all pay much better than 95% of all software engineering jobs. It’s also well known that to be an incredibly high paid SWE, you need to be at a large public tech company. That means you’re making a huge bet on their stock - the folks makin…

Software is one of the best paid and fastest growing fields that doesn't require a post-graduate degree plus years of resident/associate toil before you pay off those student loans and start getting ahead. Finance might be even better, but not everyone has the stomach for it. There are a lot of very unpleasant people and attitudes to deal with. A lot of the worst tech-bro-ism comes from contact with finance.

> the folks making bank there do so because their equity has appreciated massively

That's not entirely true. The salary scale is way higher than other places. For example, just my salary at one of those companies is higher than my total comp at a company outside the circle, and I was well paid by any standard there.

> one reason for the pervasiveness of this myth

It's always possible to look up at people making even more, and feel like you're not paid well enough by comparison. But it's also worth considering the many times more people making less, compared to which we're very well paid indeed. For some of us, the empathy outweighs the envy.

Re: I graduated into the dot com bust as a programmer and made it – you will too

#159

I like this kind of articles. I graduated during the 2008 crash and thrived as a programmer. It is probably because i spent most of my youth on IRC learning about all sorts of topics, mostly web related, while others waited for knowledge to be handed down by professors. If you are passionate you are likely to gain deep knowledge about your topic of interest. Deep knowledge makes you highly desirable for most employer…

> Deep knowledge makes you highly desirable for most employers. Anyone sitting out there anxious about what may be, now is the time to sink deep into your domain and become better at it.

Is this not more risky during a recession, when you're niche may not be very desirable in the economic climate?

Re: I graduated into the dot com bust as a programmer and made it – you will too

#160
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people are too quick to discount the importance of failure and feeling bad. If failing has no consequence, there will be far less motivation. However, in my opinion, this is a balance. Failure has to be sufficiently painful, but no more than that. From the research I’ve done, two major items have made failure too painful: stagnant wages and rapidly inflating rent prices. People can no longer hold onto savings…

How would unions help anything? Modern examples (such as teachers unions) seem to reward mediocrity and encourage paying into failing pensions

If unions were the cause of "mediocrity" then there should be better teaching in states that don't have teacher unions right?

Ranking of states without unions (2011) https://www.businessinsider.com/states-where-teachers-unions...

Wisconsin after unions were removed (2017) https://money.cnn.com/2017/11/17/news/economy/wisconsin-act-...

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