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

The most precious resource is agency

simonsarris.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 340 posts

Re: The most precious resource is agency

#291

Post by bjornsing »

tluyben2 wrote: post #275
bjornsing wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can do that as well in many EU countries. Without being rich. But, interestingly, few people do. And those who do seem to take on less risk than their counterparts in the US.

I think people take a lot of risks here: a lot of people would be dying of starvation if they did not have the safetynet. But yes, agreed, people do not seem to want to go all out. I think you need some existential panic to excel (depending on your definition of excel of course), but I am not religious so I do not want existential panic or any type of risk really. And I guess most people have the same feeling here. J…

Well good for you. You’ve come to the right place. ;)

To be clear, I don’t grieve the lack of Ferraris. But the lack of ambition and related consequences gets to me.

Re: The most precious resource is agency

#292

Post by sangnoir »

bjornsing wrote: post #256
sangnoir wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It really begs the question, what's the point? To educate the highest number of children possible, as a reasonable cost, to assure a steady supply of capable labor year after year. Sadly, this results in low-salaried teachers, cookie-cutter teaching plans, and teacher-to-student ratios that are not adequate to cater to the outliers that need attention.

> Sadly, this results in low-salaried teachers, cookie-cutter teaching plans, and teacher-to-student ratios that are not adequate to cater to the outliers that need attention. In my view/experience the real outliers need only to not be held back (implicitly by culture, or explicitly).

Gentle reminder that there are outliers on both ends of a normal curve who are being let down - sometimes, it is the the same student at different ages. Catering to the needs of both top-/bottom Xth percentile requires additional resources, effort, time or money, in a field that is already under-resourced.

Re: The most precious resource is agency

#293

Post by lifeisstillgood »

gpm wrote: post #276
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not so sure "safety net" cuts it. I would prefer just taking every 21 year old and saying "here is 15 grand, go do something amazing". I don't know what the results will be, but a fair number will be worth the risk.

15 grand is enough to live off of... for a year... if you're frugal, have no debts, and your amazing thing doesn't require any startup expenses. It's not enough to make risk aversion meaningfully less important. I suspect most 21 year olds would still do the same things as they do otherwise, just with a marginally better lifestyle. On the other hand, I actually like this idea. It would help people escape abusive situ…

Yeah, my numbers are off by about 20 years :-)

But like you I like the idea ...

Re: The most precious resource is agency

#294

Post by ehnto »

bjornsing wrote: post #264
ehnto wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My thought is that if I can't find work as a contractor then I'd have as little chance at finding work at a company, so it may be time to retrain anyway. I am assuming you're a software developer, I'm by no means an expert on contracting, but my two recommendations are: Specialize in a domain, and stay on the technology bandwagon. You can't pin your career on a technology, they go obsolete too fast, but you can speci…

Thanks! Last few years I’ve been a data science manager, and my education is in engineering physics, but I have a lot of experience with software (also as a consultant / running a small consulting company). Focusing on an industry domain (rather than toolset) seems smart. It’s difficult to be productive in new/unfamiliar knowledge domains and I’m sure buyers understand that.

Ah sorry, I just assumed you were a dev trying to get into contracting given the context.

To answer your question a bit better, I don't see much career growth per se, there's certainly no ladder I am climbing, it just becomes easier and easier to find work over time thanks to prior experience compounding. You get to choose nicer contracts and work with people you like.

There's a lot of potential for personal development though, and you can choose to spend more time on developing recurring revenue and "productifying" your expertise instead of just selling your time hourly.

Re: The most precious resource is agency

#295

Post by idolaspecus »

brutusborn wrote: post #140
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…

This is basically how I hope to tackle the problem. I’d like to try and fill my own life with more practical endeavors and then weave in intentional/intellectual/thoughtful moments where we (me and kid) consider whatever slightly more abstract principles are in effect at that particular time. I’m having a hard time believing this is not much much much easier said than done though.

Re: The most precious resource is agency

#296

Post by sumtechguy »

jonfw wrote: post #281
sumtechguy wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have followed this and am on track to having a nice sum when I decide to retire. I look at that pile. Divide it by what I make now per year. That number is the number I could coast and not have to 'worry' about money with 0 change in lifestyle. I then add that to my current age and figure out where I should run out when I am old. That number is currently not far enough along for my liking. I am also doing ridiculou…

A car that you could buy for a few thousand today is much more capable than the cars people bought for a few thousand in the past. New cars are status symbols or toys. I never understood how people could trade a human's full time salary for a car. People take old cars to work every day for a small fraction of the cost. American lifestyles have inflated much more than the price of comparable goods. Average home size i…

I was hesitant to use the car example exactly because of this argument. My point was if you wanted a new car you paid 3-4k. Now a similar new car would be 30-40k. Oh sure it is all around a better car. You can however see the same approximate scale in many goods. Such as food and big ticket items (like refrigerators, lawn mowers, etc). What made cars much better is better manufacturing allowed by the use of computers (both in the manufacture and in the car). Adding a few dozen controller nodes does not add nearly 30k to the value of a car. Most of that is inflation. Before the inflation hit in the 70s my parents bought a home for about 14k. Last time I looked if they wanted to sell it was around 120-140k. I have not looked but I would take a guess that a 'used car' price would scale depending on model and usage with current used car prices and age of the car.

Conspicuous consumption of goods is a interesting argument and probably worth talking about. But my point was scale and inflation.

Re: The most precious resource is agency

#298

Post by tluyben2 »

bjornsing wrote: post #291
tluyben2 wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people take a lot of risks here: a lot of people would be dying of starvation if they did not have the safetynet. But yes, agreed, people do not seem to want to go all out. I think you need some existential panic to excel (depending on your definition of excel of course), but I am not religious so I do not want existential panic or any type of risk really. And I guess most people have the same feeling here. J…

Well good for you. You’ve come to the right place. ;) To be clear, I don’t grieve the lack of Ferraris. But the lack of ambition and related consequences gets to me.

As do it does to me. The ambition here is low but I do not know how to fix it without destroying what makes it nice here. I do not think anyone does. And playing the odds is just much easier here. Almost 0% of making a billion but never under a bridge and a quite high % chance of having a good life.

Re: The most precious resource is agency

#299

Post by overthemoon »

TecoAndJix wrote: post #192
overthemoon wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My current hypothesis is that the team is all that matters. Man. One of the worst jobs I've ever had was working as a paralegal in a law office, but I had two friends there that made it so much fun. We'd send each other emails making fun of the attorneys (obviously a risk but the IT person was a friend), joking around, talking about the future, sending dumb memes and getting hammered after work. After that, I got m…

This whole thread makes me think of this comic (it's more cynical the older you get). "What do you want to be when you give up"? https://joedator.com/cartoons/what-do-you-want-to-be-when-yo...

Ha, yeah. My past self would be horrified by what I wrote. But he also got into a lot of student debt and couldn't talk to girls, so. What the fuck does he know.

Re: The most precious resource is agency

#300

Post by rendall »

rendall wrote: post #181
meesterdude wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It seems like it's saying something, but, really, it's not This was the same takeaway I had of your comment. It reads like glenn beck. Purpose & meaning are strong motivators and I agree with the author that there is not enough focus on that to help promote agency in individuals. There are societal failure(s) to be highlighted here, despite your unwillingness to see them.

> This was the same takeaway I had of your comment. It reads like glenn beck. Odd, this need that some people have to insult those who disagree with them.

> Purpose & meaning are strong motivators and I agree with the author that there is not enough focus on that to help promote agency in individuals. There are societal failure(s) to be highlighted here, despite your unwillingness to see them.

... and you edited your response to add this after I criticized you.

If you had written this in the first place, maybe left out the insults, we could have had a nice conversation.

Post reply on HN