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Don't Waste the Good Days

seths.blog

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Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#231

Post by imtringued »

serjester wrote: post #91
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,…

Here’s an interesting thought experiment for you - if you could trade 20 years of your life for 10 billion dollars, would you? Just step in a room and walk out a billionaire. I have yet to meet someone that would accept the offer. So if you do the math, they value their time at a shockingly high rate. I’d argue, trading the best years of your life for an early retirement is the same proposal. Steve Jobs would have gi…

If I could use the money to reform all economies to have a land value tax and implement a -5% interest rate on cash then surely the importance of the bottom 95% of humanity's billions of years in aggregate would massively outweigh 20 of mine. Not to mention that I myself would benefit from peace and stability which could be worth 20 years if I were to die in a conflict that cuts my life short, not to mention all the technological progress that would be accelerated and thereby improve the healthcare system.

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#232

Post by Taurenking »

luxurytent wrote: post #220
acqbu wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the best time to have kids? 35?

The best time is the time that's right for you.

I wish we'd stop perpetuating this myth of "the time that's right for you".

Biology unfortunately or fortunately requires women to have healthy kids until a certain age, and the more women are aware of it the better for them (that is if they plan on having any)

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#233

Post by anotheryou »

yarky wrote: post #10
paulpauper wrote: post #5

>The calendar belongs to everyone else. Their schedule isn’t your schedule unless it helps you get where you’re going. I guess this works if you are self-employed and or live alone

Why though ? Specially since covid, I don't see why knowledge workers can't just follow their own schedule, subject to constraints such as "meeting at x" of course. This is an attitude more than anything I'd say, the "follow the calendar" mentality doesn't have to apply to you unless you choose so.

I'm just toast after 8 hours of work. And if i shift something to another day it's just way too much.

I can shift to free days which can even feel relaxing. But that means gifting my employer the best hours of my free days too.

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#234

Post by L0in »

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 LOVE Sylvia Plath

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#235

Post by meshaneian »

chii wrote: post #83
tayo42 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Figs are disgusting. Now I'll try and visualize desirable kinds of things as fig trees, making it easier to quickly pass them up and go for something I'd want more. Thanks.

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#236

Post by archon810 »

shove wrote: post #9

Reminds me of one of my favorite poems (which expressed a similar idea far more eloquently imo) Telephone Booth (number 905 1/2) BY PEDRO PIETRI woke up this morning feeling excellent, picked up the telephone dialed the number of my equal opportunity employer to inform him I will not be into work today Are you feeling sick? the boss asked me No Sir I replied: I am feeling too good to report to work today, if I feel s…

I've never heard of Pedro Pietri, but that read like a Mitch Hedberg line.

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#237

Post by huachimingo »

acqbu wrote: post #215
01100011 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's tough... at 47 I'm old enough to have felt the decades past turn into a scant handful of memories. When you're older, the past matters less. The now matters more. Not being able to pay for good health care matters. Not being able to eat what you want or take vacations matters. When you're old, you realize "Oh yeah, life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone" and you have the now to worry about. But I…

What's the best time to have kids? 35?

The twenties [citation needed].

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#238

Post by HeavyStorm »

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,…

That sounds terrible. You're waiting to be old to be happy? To enjoy life?

Maybe it's just how you sounded - maybe you're telling people not to sacrifice their future for their present. But no one should sacrifice their present _completely_ for their future.

Mostly because, well, you don't know if you'll have a future. "Stay healthy" won't stop you from developing cancer, heart disease, etc.

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#239

Post by 2143 »

mgh2 wrote: post #222
2143 wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I'm in a 3rd world country making 3rd world salary. Sure I'd like to get myself into big tech (not necessarily in America). But... I don't even know where to start.

This advice seem to be for the typical tech affluent HN crowd, so don't take it personally.

I just felt like I walked into a Ferrari dealership :)

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#240

Post by notreallyserio »

bluedevil2k wrote: post #104
gchamonlive wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can everybody earn a year off after working hard? No, because this is privilege. To be born in a rich country. To have family structure to study and go to college, to have a stable job and a successful career after graduation. To be lucky enough to choose a career that is in demand. Or to open a business that is successful. People underestimate A LOT how much of a role luck plays in successful careers. Sure hard work…

I think “privilege” is just the excuse used by people who aren’t willing to work hard, aren’t willing to put the extra time into learning a new skill, or aren’t willing to acknowledge that they didn’t get blessed genetically. It’s easier to create some label and blame everything on that. “Oh, I’m not rich at age 30. Must be privilege.” “Oh, I got passed over for that promotion. Must be their privilege”. People need t…

> There’s NO LUCK INVOLVED!! People on HN didn’t pick their major/hobby out of a hat. The picked tech because they love it and it pays well, and they have the intelligence to do it well.

I don't know about you but it was certainly luck for me. I was lucky to be born where, when, and to whom. Tweak any of those variables a bit and I'd be in a completely different career. A few hundred miles east and I'd be living on a farm instead of a suburb of Big Tech City. A decade prior and I wouldn't have had access to computers in school. Different parents and I might not have had the same encouragement to get into tech. It's an incredible amount of luck when you actually think about it and don't just jerk your knee when someone uses the term privilege.

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