121–130 of 137 posts
I often think to be succesful, you need a combination of a) A good environment to grow up in b) A lot of hard work c) Luck If you're missing one of them, you need to make it up in the other categories.
(a) is actually a subset of (c), no?
Why is this a surprise? It’s easier to be successful when you’re taught by successful people (your parents). Not to mention other aspects, but I think this one is important. It is common knowledge that people that just come into money are likely to blow it. If they are taught well by the parents, and then have money, they’re more likely to be successful.
There's an incredibly large cohort of people that discount or deny their privilege, to the point they laughably claim people can become successful if only they worked hard. They're so out of touch with reality that it helps to post reminders like this from time to time.
There were times when people tried to hide being gay, having Jewish ancestors or being atheist not because they were out of touch with their own reality, but because they knew that telling the truth would make them socially dirtier. Aside from a few celebrities, "privilege" is looked down on in contemporary discourse.
It also depends what you mean by "success".
15th century Florence had a huge concentration of artistic talents. Was it a rich city? Undoubtedly so, poor places have more pressing concerns than paying people to produce art. But there have been many richer cities since then and their art output is mediocre. Even Florence itself forgot, over time, how to attract or produce great artists.
The world isn't static. 200 years ago, almost everyone in the world except a few nobles was poor or at least poor-ish. This is no longer true; so, at the very least, the total wealth can grow beyond what the parents had.
Absolutely, as an orphan with many different ideas and no safety net I was frequently put in places where I should have been a co-founder since I was technical and the idea was mine, but basically until I was 29 I had no leverage because I had to have income (and health insurance, I was born with a couple heart defects.) I eventually co-founded a company with two others and it went well, but after exiting I am still…
Absolutely, as an orphan with many different ideas and no safety net I was frequently put in places where I should have been a co-founder since I was technical and the idea was mine, but basically until I was 29 I had no leverage because I had to have income (and health insurance, I was born with a couple heart defects.) It sucks, and I'm sorry that you had this experience. That's basically how it works. The people w…
I like that HN is a place to discuss ideas with other nerds, be inquisitive, share experiences and perspectives in a mind expanding way, tech and peaceful community have both helped me immensely in tangible ways. I want to widen the road behind me as much as I can.
I hope you can appreciate my personal perspective, I've not found many places online where outrage and strong speech isn't the dominant mode of interaction. Thanks.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yet I know none and have lived in SV for the last 7 years. Every person I’ve met has come from a middle class family at the least. And an educated one - if not high earning as well. Anyone who has significant wealth is from a privileged background or at the least married into one. I’m always from the poorest background, least educated, etc. I’ve yet to meet anyone who gets close to where I was. I don’t even feel like…
Aren't there a lot of immigrants from poorer countries in California?
Poorer countries - maybe. Immigrants who are poor but end up being wealthy? No.
Most people who immigrate to SV are wealthy or at least upper middle class in their home country. (US or otherwise - actually. This is prevalent across all countries - again - I don't meet people who are from poor backgrounds in SV, regardless of country)
Absolutely, as an orphan with many different ideas and no safety net I was frequently put in places where I should have been a co-founder since I was technical and the idea was mine, but basically until I was 29 I had no leverage because I had to have income (and health insurance, I was born with a couple heart defects.) I eventually co-founded a company with two others and it went well, but after exiting I am still…
Success!!!
> but after exiting I am still not plugged into VC.
Isn’t this moving the goal posts ?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
For something that is "incredibly rare", I sure seem to know an enormous number of people that managed to bootstrap their way out of real poverty and into real wealth. At least a dozen. It isn't that exceptional, you are overfitting on having heard of them; the vast, vast majority are never going to be written about nor advertise the fact. In many contexts, it is beneficial to pretend like you had an upper-middle cla…
Yet I know none and have lived in SV for the last 7 years. Every person I’ve met has come from a middle class family at the least. And an educated one - if not high earning as well. Anyone who has significant wealth is from a privileged background or at the least married into one. I’m always from the poorest background, least educated, etc. I’ve yet to meet anyone who gets close to where I was. I don’t even feel like…
A significant percentage of the ones I knew were not even in tech, which in Silicon Valley means you fly completely under the radar. For example, I know a formerly poor immigrant that made their money in old school book publishing, of all things. The common thread is smart people willing to work hard. There are a lot of them.
If you’re looking for an excuse to not start a business, you can’t get better than this. The game is rigged. Thus you would be a fool to try. Problem solved. If, however, you kinda like the idea of running your own business, it’s worth knowing that you do not in fact need rich parents or any of the other prerequisites that non-entrepreneurs think are required. Ask around here and you’ll find plenty of us. (And, of co…
There has to be a name for this fallacy. The fact that applying it to any one individual is the wrong mentality doesn't mean that at the level of broader society it isn't entirely correct. Its the difference between sociological statistics and life advice.
It looks like plain old cherry picking to me. "Ask around here" ... well, no, this is just about the worst possible place to get a significant or even interesting sample. "Some do succeed" is just anecdata, no substitute for statistical reality.
Secondarily, we have a strawman. "If you’re looking for an excuse" ... you who? Anyone here? Nobody that I'm aware of has said it's not even worth trying. It's entirely possible to be aware of poor odds and still be willing to try. Some who do will even beat the odds, but that doesn't affect the overall reality. It doesn't mean privilege doesn't exist. Whether it exists for GP is irrelevant, but the level of preemptive defensiveness exhibited at the very idea has the counterproductive effect of putting the idea in people's minds.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yet I know none and have lived in SV for the last 7 years. Every person I’ve met has come from a middle class family at the least. And an educated one - if not high earning as well. Anyone who has significant wealth is from a privileged background or at the least married into one. I’m always from the poorest background, least educated, etc. I’ve yet to meet anyone who gets close to where I was. I don’t even feel like…
I lived in Silicon Valley a long time, and I knew several of these people from when they (and I) were still very poor. They are hiding in plain sight and "pass" as generic upper-middle class people because many have gone to great lengths to project that image and erase the affectations of their background. Obscuring whence they came has significant social advantages. There is still a lot of visible bigotry in Silicon…
I've really not met anyone under 30 in the last 7 years who fits anything near what you're speaking of. Almost everyone is from an affluent background. About half of my colleagues went to Ivy Leagues or adjacent. It's not very common to see people here who are from poverty and are young. Maybe it's more common among the 50+ crowd where it was more plausible to make your way here with little money (when your average 1000sqft home wasn't $2m+) - but it's basically unseen among the young here.
Again - I'm one of these people you're speaking of. So, it's not really like I don't exist but I've yet to meet someone like myself here. (And, I'll admit - I mostly speak to people in tech who are under 40 and are currently living here)
Absolutely, as an orphan with many different ideas and no safety net I was frequently put in places where I should have been a co-founder since I was technical and the idea was mine, but basically until I was 29 I had no leverage because I had to have income (and health insurance, I was born with a couple heart defects.) I eventually co-founded a company with two others and it went well, but after exiting I am still…
> I eventually co-founded a company with two others and it went well, Success!!! > but after exiting I am still not plugged into VC. Isn’t this moving the goal posts ?
Vitalik Buterin is extremely successful. It appears he has never had to worry about finances, even as an extreme outlier for my cohort I still have to mind my p's and q's and worry about financial decisions.
I am successful for my impoverished cohort. At one point it looked like I would hit financial escape velocity where I could essentially retire, which of course would just have gotten me to Vitalik's childhood starting point.
The ability to sit and work on a moonshot for an indefinite period of time, or follow new trends at my leisure, follow a hunch, passion, what have you, without worrying about a safety net?
No, never had that. What he had in his childhood I still to this day do not have as an adult that represents the top %1 of my cohort. Even with my %1 outlier level of "success attributes", escaping the well of gravity costs a lot. In terms of real cumulative stress, health outcomes, missed opportunities, etc. just calculating using a simple base rate I would have been far better off being born into the upper middle class.
I know many individuals who are far less driven, far less creative, people who have generated far less wealth, who had childhoods and young adulthoods well into their late 20's who are still financially ahead of me.
Children/People love to have mastery and create and be recognized, children are mostly born curious, a hungry belly helps no one achieve greatness, we celebrate and immortalize the improbable stories whose success effectively represent _achievement statistical noise_ and we should be honest about that I think.