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Don't Waste the Good Days

seths.blog

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Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#81

Post by nine_zeros »

amznbyebyebye wrote: post #25

People look at me like I’m insane when I tell them I’m packing up and taking a year off. I’ve f’in had enough. And that’s me, the wife and our two kids- not quite school age. No I haven’t FIREd. No I’m probably passing up a raise and a promo (or maybe not). Super linear growth requires super linear decision making. You either follow the sheeple or decide enough is enough and make some drastic change. Im not getting t…

I am with you. So fkin done with work (aka management and coworkers) wasting my precious time on this planet - on pointless nitpicks and micromanaging standups.

Typed from a hammock on a tropical beach.

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#82

Post by RantyDave »

ryandrake wrote: post #41

I feel like there is wisdom in "Make hay while the sun shines." When you're young and unencumbered by responsibility and family, when your cognitive abilities are at their peak, when your energy is endless, when your body is strong and healthy, when your knees work, and your fingers can type without arthritis: that's the optimal time to work and earn. Min-max that salary and stay healthy. Due to compounding interest,…

Life is short. As soon as you have kids you're teleported forwards twenty five years.

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#83

Post by chii »

tayo42 wrote: post #69
bathtub365 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw this posted elsewhere on HN and it really resonated with me. “I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and a…

every post here in this post is triggering an existential crisis for me. oh what to do...

It pays to understand oneself. Why do people want _every_ fig on the tree? It's because of greed, and desire.

If yo can imagine yourself be satisfied with obtaining just one of those figs, instead of only being satisfied from having it all, you'd have a much better time alive.

It's the same root philosophy as finishing one project to completion, rather than start many but never finishing it to the end.

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#84

Post by chii »

thn-gap wrote: post #61
ryandrake wrote: post #41

I feel like there is wisdom in "Make hay while the sun shines." When you're young and unencumbered by responsibility and family, when your cognitive abilities are at their peak, when your energy is endless, when your body is strong and healthy, when your knees work, and your fingers can type without arthritis: that's the optimal time to work and earn. Min-max that salary and stay healthy. Due to compounding interest,…

My constant dilemma these days is whether to focus more of my young years in new experiences and fun, or if I'll regret it later because I should have invested in a more financial goal. Because the future where I'll see the consequences materialize is so far in the future, and because by then, I'll be too far from choosing another path. After all, you only have one life.

> focus more of my young years in new experiences and fun

i think there's a happy balance to be had, and that balance is determined by the amount of money you're making _right now_ (rather than future money).

If you're rich already, then you can push for more consumption over investment/work. It's true that you cannot buy youth.

The problem is when people want to live the life they cannot afford (meaning, they're eating into future retirement funds to live the dream life now), and then expect that the state to secure their retirement years.

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#86

Post by Danieru »

helloworld wrote: post #63
pl0x wrote: post #28

Seth Godin is one of those "thought leaders" who has no real life experience besides selling "thoughts". He has the world of time selling his books and has been wrong on most of his predictions.

Actually, back in the day, Seth Godin was an early -- and successful -- Internet entrepreneur: https://www.wired.com/1998/10/yahoo-acquiring-yoyodyne/

> GetRichClick.com, a traffic distribution site transforming traffic into targeted, unduplicated visitors to sponsoring sites

"Getrichclick" is not the sort of resume I want to see from someone offering advice.

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#87

Post by chii »

dragonwriter wrote: post #44
ryandrake wrote: post #41

I feel like there is wisdom in "Make hay while the sun shines." When you're young and unencumbered by responsibility and family, when your cognitive abilities are at their peak, when your energy is endless, when your body is strong and healthy, when your knees work, and your fingers can type without arthritis: that's the optimal time to work and earn. Min-max that salary and stay healthy. Due to compounding interest,…

> When you're young and unencumbered by responsibility and family, when your cognitive abilities are at their peak, when your energy is endless, when your body is strong and healthy, when your knees work, and your fingers can type without arthritis: that's the optimal time to ...capture the value of those ephemeral capacities directly yourself, whether in recreation or otherwise, rather than yield them to the capital…

> rather than yield them to the capitalist capturing the surplus value of your labor.

why would someone give you recreational leisure if you don't have the equivalent money to pay? Who will grow the food you eat, produce the electricity and water you consume etc?

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#88

Post by amch »

bathtub365 wrote: post #66
derekp7 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The truth is, no matter what path you take in life, you can find yourself wishing that you took a different path.

I saw this posted elsewhere on HN and it really resonated with me. “I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and a…

I really love this quote - thanks for sharing.

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#89

Post by nine_zeros »

thn-gap wrote: post #61
ryandrake wrote: post #41

I feel like there is wisdom in "Make hay while the sun shines." When you're young and unencumbered by responsibility and family, when your cognitive abilities are at their peak, when your energy is endless, when your body is strong and healthy, when your knees work, and your fingers can type without arthritis: that's the optimal time to work and earn. Min-max that salary and stay healthy. Due to compounding interest,…

My constant dilemma these days is whether to focus more of my young years in new experiences and fun, or if I'll regret it later because I should have invested in a more financial goal. Because the future where I'll see the consequences materialize is so far in the future, and because by then, I'll be too far from choosing another path. After all, you only have one life.

You choose a fair and fine balance.

You work for money, you live for yourself and you don't let some wannabe manager push you/guilt you into wasting your life at work.

Work, invest, take risks but simultaneously do other things. Work is pretty low in the totem pole of priorities.

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#90

Post by Jack000 »

ryandrake wrote: post #41

I feel like there is wisdom in "Make hay while the sun shines." When you're young and unencumbered by responsibility and family, when your cognitive abilities are at their peak, when your energy is endless, when your body is strong and healthy, when your knees work, and your fingers can type without arthritis: that's the optimal time to work and earn. Min-max that salary and stay healthy. Due to compounding interest,…

Life is long for most, but statistically there's about a 5% chance you'll die before 50, it's better to hedge your bets imo. Also, wind surfing in Ibiza doesn't sound that fun at 60.

I worked as a software dev for a large company for 3 years and it was a complete waste in retrospect. I now make much more money and curse every second I spent in that cubicle. The corporate ladder is a low-risk low-reward path that's generally unfulfilling. For a young person it's much better strategy to explore rather than exploit early on.

I've seen more than one person die with an unspent fortune, having worked at a menial job their entire life. Don't let it happen to you.

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