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

68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

kk.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 286 posts

Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

#141

Post by Etheryte »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #107

Here's one I heard elsewhere, and isn't in the list. If you're searching for something important, search until you find one that satisfies all your requirements. Then, don't stop, keep searching until you find a better one. Then stop. This raises you maybe a whole standard deviation in quality, without taking exponential time. Works for all sorts of things. A new pair of shoes; a favorite dish in a restaurant; a spou…

This is one piece of advice that sound true and insightful, but in my opinion doesn't really hold up to scrutiny. An example of what I mean is the saying "perfect is the enemy of good", which directly conflicts with the above.

Since I'm from the north, outdoor gear is a good example of this — there is no hardshell jacket in the world that ticks every box in my checklist. I've been through the lineup of both known and obscure companies item by item, from cheap shells to the ones that command a ridiculous premium. Finding this out has been a fun little hobby over a number of months, but realistically I don't think I'd be worse off if I just got the first one that was "good enough".

Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

#142

Post by ashtonkem »

SloopJon wrote: post #132
CivBase wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did not buy a house because I expected it to appreciate in value. I bought a house because the alternative was to pay rent. Rent is a service. A renter does not get anything of inherent, transferable value out of the exchange. A renter is also subject to the whims of his/her landlord and, from my experience, a renter has to move regularly to avoid rent increases and bad landlords. The majority of my mortgage paymen…

> The majority of my mortgage payment goes towards ownership of a product - my house For many (most?) people that's not true. Even ignoring that mortgage payments often include property taxes and/or private mortgage insurance, you can expect to pay more interest than principal for the first fifteen years or more of a thirty-year mortgage.

I think we can put property taxes aside, you’ll have to pay your landlords property taxes if you rent after all.

If you can afford the cost of a down payment (more on that later), then buying a home does have some utility in wealth generation. You’re right that most of the initial mortgage payments go towards interest, but even collecting 25% of your monthly payment towards your own net worth is a big deal compared to collecting 0%. Especially since there is a good chance that your landlord has a mortgage too, either original or secondary to afford more property, so you must pay their interest plus a portion of their living expenses. This is why generally speaking home ownership is considered superior to renting if you’re not going to move anytime soon.

I think the main argument against home ownership from a wealth standpoint is that it ties up a large amount of money as collateral that you could otherwise be using. Here in SoCal purchasing a home with a traditional 20% down would involve locking up $200,000 that could be put into the market productively, potentially making me even more money. This is why the counterintuitive rule is that if you have enough money to buy a house with cash, you should get a mortgage and invest the rest, as you’ll be better off that way in the long run[0].

[0] Caveat here being your age. If you’re 30, you have another 30 years for the difference to grow in the stock market, while if you’re 70 you’d probably appreciate the lower cost of living and stability that this provides.

Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

#143

Post by barbegal »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #127
barbegal wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I completely disagree with this sentiment that debt = bad. You should use debt where it acts as an investment (in the true sense of the word investment, rather than speculation). If you need to take on debt to buy that car that saves you an hour walk to work every day then that is good debt. Is it a good idea to use debt to purchase a house? If we believe in free markets then ownership should have roughly the sa…

Debt is risk. What happens when you lose all your income (as millions are right now)? Payments can't get made, and repossessions happen. If losing a job doesn't sound like a disaster to you, you've probably never experienced it, and/or you have the privilege of having a career in an in-demand field.

And that's why there are products to insure you against this risk called payment protection insurance (PPI). It's a shame that in the UK, PPI is now synonymous with mis-selling. The true cost of debt should be the interest rate and the costs to insure the debt (buildings insurance, landlords insurance, car insurance, PPI...)

Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

#146

Post by barbegal »

ivanche wrote: post #124
anthony_r wrote: post #100

> Never use a credit card for credit. The only kind of credit, or debt, that is acceptable is debt to acquire something whose exchange value is extremely likely to increase, like in a home. The exchange value of most things diminishes or vanishes the moment you purchase them. Don’t be in debt to losers. While true on credit, I would like to point out that the statement "something whose exchange value is extremely lik…

Spot on! I once read that Warren Buffet doesn't recommend leverage greater than 1.4x and I can only say I agree fully. The fact that most of the people find 5x leverage "normal" is scary.

Yet Warren Buffet has made most of his wealth through either normal leveraging or leveraging using his insurance companies' float. https://www.nber.org/papers/w19681

Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

#147

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

projektfu wrote: post #72

"Hire for aptitude, train for skills" is a very software development oriented view. Training on its own is difficult and most available employees outside of engineering don't have a habit of self teaching. I've done a lot better with experienced people in my hires in my profession.

I suspect you live in the US.

"Train for skills" is much more common in other countries, although less common than it used to be. Those experienced hires didn't get to be experienced at zero cost to anyone - other employers enabled them to become experienced.

Be a good employer and do your part of the process: train for skills (so that someone else can hire those people too)

Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

#148

Post by kazinator »

Scarblac wrote: post #126
ashtonkem wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nonsense. You can migrate a back end developer to the front end in far less time than it takes to train a new front end developer from scratch. The domain knowledge of front end specific tasks must be learned, sure, but the core fundamentals of how to program remain. You don’t suddenly forget how to actually program once you pick up JS, all jokes notwithstanding.

True for the programming part of front end development, not so much for the making things look good part.

To make things look good on the Web, you just find something that you think looks good and steal what it's doing.

Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

#149

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

Etheryte wrote: post #141
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #107

Here's one I heard elsewhere, and isn't in the list. If you're searching for something important, search until you find one that satisfies all your requirements. Then, don't stop, keep searching until you find a better one. Then stop. This raises you maybe a whole standard deviation in quality, without taking exponential time. Works for all sorts of things. A new pair of shoes; a favorite dish in a restaurant; a spou…

This is one piece of advice that sound true and insightful, but in my opinion doesn't really hold up to scrutiny. An example of what I mean is the saying "perfect is the enemy of good", which directly conflicts with the above. Since I'm from the north, outdoor gear is a good example of this — there is no hardshell jacket in the world that ticks every box in my checklist. I've been through the lineup of both known and…

a number of months? I'm 56 and have spent some fraction of my entire life devoted to the hardshell question.

For me, my current Berghaus (bought while visiting the UK) ticks every box. Just perfect. But that took 40+ years to get to, not a few months.

Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

#150

Post by nradov »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #127
barbegal wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I completely disagree with this sentiment that debt = bad. You should use debt where it acts as an investment (in the true sense of the word investment, rather than speculation). If you need to take on debt to buy that car that saves you an hour walk to work every day then that is good debt. Is it a good idea to use debt to purchase a house? If we believe in free markets then ownership should have roughly the sa…

Debt is risk. What happens when you lose all your income (as millions are right now)? Payments can't get made, and repossessions happen. If losing a job doesn't sound like a disaster to you, you've probably never experienced it, and/or you have the privilege of having a career in an in-demand field.

Repossession is a slow process. As a practical matter a homeowner who loses their job is in a better short-term position than a renter (all else being equal) because eviction for non-payment of rent is much faster than foreclosure.
Post reply on HN