Parents' income, not smarts, key to entrepreneurship • Hacker News Board

Re: Parents' income, not smarts, key to entrepreneurship

#141

Post by fred_is_fred » Thu, Jan 28, 2021, 6:17 PM UTC

throwaway2037 wrote: post #117

fred_is_fred wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bill's high school also had a PDP terminal connected to UW. Basically no other high school had that - which gave him an early head start.

I logged in with a throw-away account just to refute the down vote. However, it already looks "neutralised" after my login. Assuming it is true, why would anyone done vote this comment? Makes no sense lah. Less controversial: High level, this comment seems believable. It seems reasonable and possible. Has this be written about? If yes, please kindly provide some links. I would like to read more about it. This high sc…

It was discussed in the book Outliers. Here's another link I found discussing it.

https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Early-Days-as-a-...

Re: Parents' income, not smarts, key to entrepreneurship

#142

Post by theinverseidea » Thu, Jan 28, 2021, 6:18 PM UTC

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #54

theinverseidea wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cant wait for basic income, because I cant wait to quit my job and focus on my ideas.

I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you. As much as it is discussed and promoted in certain circles, it has basically no traction in national politics and its hard to see that it ever will since national level politics is currently pre-occupied with trying to figure out if crimes are actually illegal when their own party does them.

You can tell from the downvotes that proponents of this idea believe people like me do not exist.

We do. I welcome UBI and I will quit my job.

Re: Parents' income, not smarts, key to entrepreneurship

#143

Post by ska » Thu, Jan 28, 2021, 6:19 PM UTC

sjg007 wrote: post #127

ska wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect the main difference between the US and UK this way is the honesty of the process. In the US a ton of money an energy is spent on social signalling and class definition, but also on maintaining a fiction that "class" isn't really a thing. I do think the US class system is easier to fake, as it relies a bit more on superficial signifiers than institutions and history than the UK. The myth of the "self made ma…

Class in the US is a function of Zipcode.

That's one factor. And for the most part, accessible "merely" with money which is one of the things that make it more superficial.

Re: Parents' income, not smarts, key to entrepreneurship

#144

Post by iguy » Thu, Jan 28, 2021, 6:20 PM UTC

PeterisP wrote: post #93

iguy wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But we do have lots of housing, it's just located in places people don't want to live. Rents are high in places they do want to be, and that's partly a positional thing -- if you want to live where the top-10% of earners live, you need to bid against them for housing.

Thing is, requirement for on-site employment requires you to live where lots of people live; only the very wealthy can afford to live in places without jobs nearby - as UBI decouples income from where you live, then it would be a pressure to equalize rents, as underemployed people - the demand for whose labor is decreasing and will decrease further - can afford live in the many places which are currently shedding pop…

Maybe. But the counter is that entrepreneurship has strong network effects, it really pays to be around other talented people and hear about the future they're busy inventing. Maybe we'd see the opposite, people leaving a stable job which ties them to some unexciting place, to try to make it in NYC.

Re: Parents' income, not smarts, key to entrepreneurship

#145

Post by chaganated » Thu, Jan 28, 2021, 6:20 PM UTC

Correlates? Sure. Causes? I strongly doubt it. Drop a million bucks on Joe Blow and see how things turn out.

I see the milieu of having semi-affluent parents--being steeped in the ins-and-outs of business, law, assets, broader social ties, and higher social standing--as a far more powerful edge than a wad of cash.

Re: Parents' income, not smarts, key to entrepreneurship

#146

Post by aksss » Thu, Jan 28, 2021, 6:20 PM UTC

Someone1234 wrote: post #86

war1025 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Healthcare and Basic Income would do a lot to encourage entrepreneurship. I have a dream that Healthcare will someday be decoupled from employment. So much waste is tolerated simply due to the fact that the majority of the expense is borne by your employer before the number they put on your paycheck. I can live on a part time salary without issue, but health insurance, which is already $200/wk for my family with my…

They could even do this without too many major changes. Just three in fact: - Increase HSA Contribution Limit - Allow both Traditional & High Deductible insurance premiums to be paid with the HSA - Ban employers from directly providing/choosing insurance (ex. US Military) Essentially everyone goes out onto the open market and buys their insurance using pre-tax HSA contributions (similar to tax benefits to employers n…

In 2019 the Trump administration made a change allowing HRA plans to pay for insurance premiums. That went into effect on Jan 2020. That effectively allows a small business to take part/most/all of the employee’s insurance burden from the individual market (healthcare.gov) onto their expense sheet rather than the employee paying for it with post-tax dollars. The problem of course is that in a number of states the individual market plans are still pegged to the price of unobtanium, but it’s a good step forward. The particular vehicle is called an ICHRA.

Re: Parents' income, not smarts, key to entrepreneurship

#147

Post by m-i-l » Thu, Jan 28, 2021, 6:21 PM UTC

Certainly within London, you'll have a hard time finding a startup founder who doesn't have a privately-educated upper-middle class accent, i.e. who doesn't have wealthy parents. And while there are startup accelerators focusing on helping groups like female entrepreneurs and black entrepreneurs (which is great don't get me wrong), there aren't any that focus on helping lower or lower-middle class entrepreneurs, i.e. those who don't have wealthy parents.

Re: Parents' income, not smarts, key to entrepreneurship

#148

Post by BluePen8 » Thu, Jan 28, 2021, 6:23 PM UTC

mamon wrote: post #72

elliebike wrote: post #5

I suspect a large part of this is due to the fact that those with wealthy parents are more likely to have a) family money to fall back on if things go wrong and b) family investment in the early days Everyone else has to seriously consider the (high) risks of their startup failing and not being able to afford rent, or whether their idea is worth burning their life savings.

And c) They are more likely to be entrepreneurs themselves, so they have some experience to share.

And support for when it doesn't go to plan. An entrepreneur parent will empathize, as odds are they've experienced setbacks themselves.

Most ideas and first attempts fail, I'd imagine people are more likely to try again if they're not catching flak from their parents that they didn't get it right the first time.

Re: Parents' income, not smarts, key to entrepreneurship

#149

Post by fwip » Thu, Jan 28, 2021, 6:24 PM UTC

chaganated wrote: post #145

Correlates? Sure. Causes? I strongly doubt it. Drop a million bucks on Joe Blow and see how things turn out. I see the milieu of having semi-affluent parents--being steeped in the ins-and-outs of business, law, assets, broader social ties, and higher social standing--as a far more powerful edge than a wad of cash.

Drop a small loan of a million dollars on an idiot, and he ends up being President for 4 years.

Re: Parents' income, not smarts, key to entrepreneurship

#150

Post by birdsbirdsbirds » Thu, Jan 28, 2021, 6:25 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #4

I've known this for decades. When Bill Gates started publishing Smart Basic (or whatever) in magazines, I got a copy and saw what crap it was. I could do better. Why didn't I? That was my very first thought. The reason was, I had to work halftime to pay tuition and buy food. I was mired in working to live. Ol Bill had a family to support him as he bought resources (ads in magazines etc), recruited staff, took meeting…

As a programmer, it's possible to do the same, just one decade later. Jack Ma argues in some talk that people should gain experience before starting a company. This mirrors the numbers that show that older founders have a much higher success rate. After having worked for a decade, there can be enough money to handle some years without income.

Bill Gates was not successful because he started young, but because his mother had the connections to IBM (see some other comment). That cannot be replicated with basic income.