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The most precious resource is agency

simonsarris.substack.com

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Re: The most precious resource is agency

#131

Post by gizmondo »

bedobi wrote: post #111
manmal wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are other types of schooling which are more tailored to the individual. You won’t find them in a public school though, with one teacher schooling 25-30 kids. It’s just not possible to cater to every individual‘s needs in that context. The only way to get more individual schooling is to have well-off parents who send you to a school with smaller classes, and ideally with a more relaxed schedule, like Montessori…

Haha hate to break your bubble but I am born, raised and schooled in Sweden :) I don't live there anymore though, I left as soon as I could, can't stand the place, but that's kind of a side note, lol. Finland and Sweden's schooling systems are very, very different. I wouldn't have enjoyed the Finnish one either, just saying.

It must be weird to read all the fetishization of Scandinavia here? :)

Re: The most precious resource is agency

#132

Post by bumbada »

I had that experience when I was a kid(of making things that mattered).

I became a cracker when I was a kid and we published how to replicate our results on the early Internet. We were the first generation that could play with computers because they were ours.

We were much better than 40 years old people(those that protected against the cracks) because they were trained in their youth with machines that were so expensive they basically could not touch. They programmed on paper.

We started our own web company early on. We were much better than the competence and it was an easy life and sold the thing at great profit. Today in this field people have 100x more skills and is rewarded way worse and it is an oligopoly of big companies.

Then I traveled the world and worked abroad. I worked in China, Japan, Korea, the US. Great opportunities that today are closed.

I used digital cameras before everybody did. Nobody uses them and suddenly, boom, everybody uses them.

My family though I was crazy for not doing what everybody else does, but turns out everybody started doing what we did first with 10 years of delay.

The last thing is working remotely. We have been doing that for a long time. It was just common sense. If you spend 2 hours commuting and are tired before working the company is wasting resources that could be channeled to create real value.

We could get people in our company so easy because they loved working on their terms and very few companies could compete with that. Those companies were like KODAK trying to do things the way they always were and it was great for us.

Now suddenly Covid happens and so many people are realizing they could work on their terms too. The mass of the people is processing and adapting to what early adopters have discovered way earlier.

Re: The most precious resource is agency

#133

Post by gabaix »

overgard wrote: post #18

One of the biggest tragedies isn't just that the childhood is wasted, but that many people never learn to have agency once it is available. I'm not saying you need to start your own business or anything like that, but it seems like most people live their lives never questioning the scripts that are given to them. The basic life script we all seem to have in western society seems pretty awful when you think critically…

If you haven't read it yet, you might want to read De Brevitate Vitae [1] by Seneca. You will find many similarities.

[1] https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/On_the_shortness_of_life

Re: The most precious resource is agency

#134

Post by bryanrasmussen »

PaulRobinson wrote: post #118
onion2k wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just applied for a regular job. Because to be honest, it’s gonna be pretty sweet having a fat bank account, even if it’ll take till I’m 50 to have FU money. You will never have FU money working a regular job.

That's just nonsense advice. The entire point of retirement savings is that at some point you can stop working. FU money is just about timing. You can change that timing. 1. Reduce outgoings. It's easier to have FU money if the amount you need to be able to say "FU" is smaller, because you've perfected the art of living on a little less than most. Most people's outgoings grow to meet their incomes: resist that. You d…

>Your chances of having FU money working a regular job are far, far higher than having it any other way.

in the U.S working a regular but relatively high paying job like developer should give you FU money right about the time that you start to experience health problems that will then eat into that FU money leaving you nothing.

There's a reason the song is Birth, School, Work, Death without any FU inside the comma separated list.

Re: The most precious resource is agency

#135

Post by solveit »

onion2k wrote: post #120
PaulRobinson wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's just nonsense advice. The entire point of retirement savings is that at some point you can stop working. FU money is just about timing. You can change that timing. 1. Reduce outgoings. It's easier to have FU money if the amount you need to be able to say "FU" is smaller, because you've perfected the art of living on a little less than most. Most people's outgoings grow to meet their incomes: resist that. You d…

Is this not FU money yet? You're the problem, not the regular job. I think we have very different ideas of what "FU money" means. FU money is literally enough to be able to do what you want. It's being able to stop asking "Can I afford this?" because you definitely can. It's being able to stop making a choice between two sports cars because you can afford both. It's being able to buy the exact house you want because…

> FU money is literally the ability to say FU and do something anyway when someone says you can't.

I always thought FU money was enough money that you can say FU and not do something when someone says you have to. That is, enough money to retire (get fired) on a whim. Of course, even by that definition, 750k isn't FU money unless you're single in a LCOL area (or fairly close to a predictable death, I guess).

My personal criterion for FU money is 3mm. This is fairly achievable, market willing, if you have make six figures.

Re: The most precious resource is agency

#136

Post by hungryforcodes »

unishark wrote: post #122
hungryforcodes wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The fact you could post your comment puts you in the top 40% of the world (roughly 60% don't have internet access). I have by now traveled pretty much to all the continents and at this point smartphones and internet are ubiquitous. They are litterly now throwing away working second hand ones in developing nations.

Doesn't that still put them within the western bubble of comfort in a sense though? It isn't much of a defense of an alternate way of life if that way of life required westerners to work hard in a different (i.e., consumer-product-based, highly-skilled, high-stress) way of life as a prerequisite.

I'm not sure what you are talking about. My original point is that the OP is wrong about internet access. Most of the world has it by now.

Re: The most precious resource is agency

#137

Post by varjag »

onion2k wrote: post #120
PaulRobinson wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's just nonsense advice. The entire point of retirement savings is that at some point you can stop working. FU money is just about timing. You can change that timing. 1. Reduce outgoings. It's easier to have FU money if the amount you need to be able to say "FU" is smaller, because you've perfected the art of living on a little less than most. Most people's outgoings grow to meet their incomes: resist that. You d…

Is this not FU money yet? You're the problem, not the regular job. I think we have very different ideas of what "FU money" means. FU money is literally enough to be able to do what you want. It's being able to stop asking "Can I afford this?" because you definitely can. It's being able to stop making a choice between two sports cars because you can afford both. It's being able to buy the exact house you want because…

That's not the original definition.

FU money is being able to say fuck you to anyone (including your boss) without consequences derailing your life.

Re: The most precious resource is agency

#138

Post by bedobi »

gizmondo wrote: post #131
bedobi wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha hate to break your bubble but I am born, raised and schooled in Sweden :) I don't live there anymore though, I left as soon as I could, can't stand the place, but that's kind of a side note, lol. Finland and Sweden's schooling systems are very, very different. I wouldn't have enjoyed the Finnish one either, just saying.

It must be weird to read all the fetishization of Scandinavia here? :)

For sure! It gets talked about every now and then, this one generated a bunch

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24886659

Re: The most precious resource is agency

#140

Post by brutusborn »

idolaspecus wrote: post #20

My first child is due any day now and I’ve been thinking a lot about the central problems presented in this article. But I don’t know what to do about them. Should I keep my son home with me, allocate mornings to academics and afternoons to more practical endeavors? Should I teach him to cook? To garden? To build cabinets? To train a dog? To do his taxes? Should I send him to public school but supplement his learning…

My limited experience shows that a good way to influence children is to lead by example, and build on previous knowledge to provide context.

Using gardening as an example, choose a fruit or vegetable your child likes, then go with them to a store and buy seeds / trees / whatever. Then get them to help you plant it and look after it. Children love harvest time, the excitement is palpable.

If you have chickens you can feed them wheat. If your child likes bread then you can show the child how to turn wheat into bread.

The key is not to force things. Monkey see, monkey do. If my nephews see me doing yoga, suddenly they are all trying their best to copy me.

For programming, I am not sure. But i think the best way is to start with a simple language that can alter something visual, so that there is clear cause/effect.

I'd love to hear any other examples people have!

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