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I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

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Re: I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

#191

Post by kansface »

DobryMorozov wrote: post #183
s1artibartfast wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think his claim to be a beneficial 'allocator of capital' is bogus. He tends to invest in established exploitative companies. His investments have been made on an almost exclusive basis of growing wealth, which in the end is a very sterile end to aim for. How do you separate this from a more general critique of capitalism? How should capital allocation work?

The majority of Warren's investments are in the secondary market. These transactions are effectively just transferring ownership and don't actually make cash infusions into the companies at all. He makes some primary market investments and allocates capital between his fully owned subsidiaries. But I think many people naturally wonder the value to society of getting rich by buying and selling things in a secondary ma…

> But I think many people naturally wonder the value to society of getting rich by buying and selling things in a secondary market.

Obviously, buying and selling stuff in a secondary market is enormously beneficial to the people doing the buying and selling (or else they wouldn't be doing it)... For instance, if I start a business, I want to be able to sell it to Warren Buffet. When that doesn't happen, I want to be able to buy a slice of the businesses that he has invested in under the assumption that he does a pretty good job (as I don't have time/ability/money) to do that myself. Beyond personal utility, the value to society comes in the form of more businesses, more products, more services when its easier to buy and sell abstract ownership in businesses.

What counterfactual would get rid of Berkshire but keep YC?

Re: I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

#192

Post by cambalache »

soneca wrote: post #136
cambalache wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A "thing" is just such a vague and general concept that is useless. If either your job or your relationships can be reduced to only mastering 1 thing I really envy you. If you say I am being unfair and of course it involves many sub-tasks , so why dont just choose to be good at life? So you can concentrate in just one thing and still have 2 other "things" to spare. Now, less snarky and more serious, in any activity o…

Didn't Einstein had a day job at a patent office while developing the Theory of Relativity?

The special theory (among other goodies), but I am willing to bet nobody was investing more quality time at that problem at that year(Theoretical physics was a game played in a few European cities). For the General Theory he spent 10 years (1905-1915), he worked at the patent office until 1909, and even yet, he got almost scooped by Hilbert.

Re: I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

#193

Post by pluto9 »

dingaling wrote: post #165
ardit33 wrote: post #8

It is impossible to be really good at everything.... when I optimized for work, my fitness goals went through the window. When I optimized to get a project done, my reading (books) went down as well. When I optimized for fitness (working out and soccer), my work and side projects started progressing slower. It is very hard to work on your project at home, when you are in a intense bulking, or 'cutting' phase, and onc…

Cutting & bulking is not fitness, it's muscle building for appearance and status. A good level of fitness can be achieved and maintained with an hour of separate core and aerobic exercise per day. You might not look like the guys in Men's Health but you'll probably swim a hell of a lot better than them.

There's more than one kind of fitness. Bulking and cutting optimizes for maximum power-to-weight ratio. I won't deny that there's an element of vanity to it, as there is with any effort to be fit, but that doesn't make it "not fitness".

To borrow your phrasing, someone who follows GP's program instead of yours might not swim as well as you, but they're probably a hell of a lot stronger.

Re: I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

#194

Post by xwdv »

metal13 wrote: post #189
xwdv wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I consulted a nutritionist and had most meals prepped and delivered, so I eliminated wasted time.

I mean, good for you to have that ability. > "Zero excuse for this IMO." So, zero excuse, as long you have the money to pay someone to do all the thinking/planning for you. And as long as you have the money (and live in the right locations) to have someone do all the actual work of cooking for you. I also suggest you go read the commenting guidelines, especially the "assume good faith" piece: https://news.ycombinator…

None of those things cost that much compared to alternatives. Food delivery is a huge industry. A consultation with a nutritionist isn’t a big deal, might even be covered under your insurance.

Re: I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

#195

Post by rrrrrrrrrrrryan »

hackissimo123 wrote: post #87
viburnum wrote: post #3

The grit discourse is mostly about attributing poverty to individuals, rather than as an effect of the system as a whole.

Could poverty not be an effect of both?

The hardest-working person on earth will probably die poor.

You're right - there are a ton of factors that contribute to poverty, but grittiness (or lack thereof) is probably overvalued among the already-successful.

Re: I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

#196

Post by charwalker »

unreal37 wrote: post #138
mardifoufs wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see how it could sound weird to the eyes of an American, but the only place where I think his statement would be incorrect is Western Europe. A part from that I'm confident that a majority of people around the world would very much like to either have been born in the US or give their children the opportunity to live there. At least where I'm originally from, emigration to the US is seen as an an incredibly desirab…

I don't think there is as much business opportunity in Western Europe due to taxes and regulations. This is why the US has given birth to the majority of big businesses in the world in the last 20 years. A lot of startups that started elsewhere, moved to the US to continue their growth. Europe might have some quality of life elements such as health care, vacation time, and regulations to protect citizens and workers.…

The social policy advantages in Nordic nations and Western Europe today vastly outweigh those in the US. Growing up in the US, I was lucky my parents had good jobs and pushed me to learn and grow. If I did not have their support (and healthcare) I would not have survived college or medical issues at that time, some of which are ongoing today. I'm extremely lucky to have an advanced education, be healthy, and be less than 10k in debt 5 years after graduating. That's entirely due to my parents funding my education and medical bills best they could through that period as well as the insanely good benefits from my current position.

If I was born into a Nordic nation I think I'd have been better off. I'd have had the same supportive parents but no burden from education and medical debts, or stress of finding a position with good benefits before turning 26. I might even be freelancing or building my own company right now without fear of paying for prescriptions out of pocket for me and my SO which would be significantly more costly than our rent.

The US is a great country for opportunity but it is not a place of equal opportunity.

Re: I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

#198

Post by charwalker »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #175
chepaslaaa wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm canadian, I sure as fuck wouldn't want to emigrate to the USA. Warren Buffet has huge biases and blind spots when it comes to sociological analysis. I strongly doubt the man understands what it's like to be making 7$ an hour working at Dennys somewhere in the bible belt because the public school system left you semi-illiterate, or living in any heavily criminalized urban area, or picking fruits in california beca…

Not sure 'massive proportion' is right? I think its less than 50M in America, employed at labor jobs. That's around 12%?

Pew suggests about 50% of America is the middle class, earning about $78k a year. I'm not sure what fraction is in manual labor jobs but if labor means working then the rate is about 62%.

From BLS data, about 12.7% of the population lives in poverty, workers/children/etc. This group is disproportionately minority (non white) and an example of the social failing of the richest nation in history.

Re: I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

#199

Post by Tade0 »

kansface wrote: post #180
Tade0 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked for a few companies whose mode of operation was exactly that. This works so long as there's a steady supply of young, talented people but falls flat on its face when the company tries to scale up its business.

Spoiler alert : The horse doesn't die, its turned into glue after being sent to a "vet" having collapsing from exhaustion.

I remember, that's why I dodged that bullet by quitting.

Re: I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

#200

Post by saeranv »

GistNoesis wrote: post #76
ardit33 wrote: post #8

It is impossible to be really good at everything.... when I optimized for work, my fitness goals went through the window. When I optimized to get a project done, my reading (books) went down as well. When I optimized for fitness (working out and soccer), my work and side projects started progressing slower. It is very hard to work on your project at home, when you are in a intense bulking, or 'cutting' phase, and onc…

It seems that it's more a problem with your inability to optimize correctly than anything else. But you are on the right way. You are trying to do a multiple-objective optimization one objective at a time, and cycling through them. You have already noticed that you can't totally forget the other objectives when working on one, otherwise you lose more over a cycle. In fact what you seem to be aiming for is a single ob…

I think the biggest challenge to do this is trying to quantify probable outcomes from inputs. I don't necessarily have a model at hand that can predict my fitness level from inputs of time, and effort.

I wonder if it's useful to incorporate Bayesian probability here to account for this. Like, I could start with my prior belief of what my fitness level would be given time/effort input, collect the data, then update my priors based on collected data. In theory, given enough time, the Bayesian method would have to converge on the right coefficients for your model.

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