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Writing: Good career move, terrible career (2018)

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Re: Writing: Good career move, terrible career (2018)

#101

Post by laratied »

VoodooJuJu wrote: post #21
paulpauper wrote: post #13

Funny how people keep saying writing is a terrible career yet so many want to do it. Most careers are not that good, tbh: low pay, bad work conditions, and or lots of hours. Top Substack authors earning salaries comparable to STEM execs, but have a platform (which is also worth a lot), full autonomy, as well as extra income from books and affiliate links etc. Not bad work if you can get it.

>Everybody want to be a bodybuilder but nobody want to lift no heavy ass weight - Ronnie Coleman Everybody wants a high or cool status job, but few truly want to suffer what it takes to get that job, and in the case of writing, as with many things, there's too much luck involved, too strong a power law.

Ronnie Coleman also can't walk anymore on his own because of those heavy weights.

That could certainly apply in this context if talking 20 years down the line.

Re: Writing: Good career move, terrible career (2018)

#102

Post by ido »

MichaelZuo wrote: post #97
ido wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably a lot fewer upstarts find success than you imagine - it may seem like "a lot" but the rate of success is abysmal. It's hard to get accurate statistics because it's not obvious what to count, but from the attempts I've read it's somewhat over 90% of games that do not breakeven and has been this way since the early 90s at least (probably earlier but it's even harder to find data the further back you go). The v…

Well in that case is it also unfair if someone, highly interested in exotic sports cars, can't afford a Ferrari on their salary?

I don’t know what point you think I was trying to make, but I don’t think it is the same one I was thinking of.

Re: Writing: Good career move, terrible career (2018)

#103

Post by MichaelZuo »

ido wrote: post #102
MichaelZuo wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well in that case is it also unfair if someone, highly interested in exotic sports cars, can't afford a Ferrari on their salary?

I don’t know what point you think I was trying to make, but I don’t think it is the same one I was thinking of.

> It can be "unfair" in an intuitive and specific case while still being the result of market forces (is it fair that I'm paying rent to my former landlord's son? he did nothing to earn it except inherit this building)

It's the same market forces.

Re: Writing: Good career move, terrible career (2018)

#104

Post by ido »

MichaelZuo wrote: post #103
ido wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know what point you think I was trying to make, but I don’t think it is the same one I was thinking of.

> It can be "unfair" in an intuitive and specific case while still being the result of market forces (is it fair that I'm paying rent to my former landlord's son? he did nothing to earn it except inherit this building) It's the same market forces.

That's why I gave it as an example. It feels unfair but that doesn't mean it's evidence of collusion/conspiracy.

Re: Writing: Good career move, terrible career (2018)

#105

Post by MichaelZuo »

ido wrote: post #104
MichaelZuo wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It can be "unfair" in an intuitive and specific case while still being the result of market forces (is it fair that I'm paying rent to my former landlord's son? he did nothing to earn it except inherit this building) It's the same market forces.

That's why I gave it as an example. It feels unfair but that doesn't mean it's evidence of collusion/conspiracy.

So then your question

> (is it fair that I'm paying rent to my former landlord's son? he did nothing to earn it except inherit this building)

has a clear answer.

Re: Writing: Good career move, terrible career (2018)

#106

Post by bloppe »

ido wrote: post #84
bloppe wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless there are significant anticompetitive forces in your industry, unfair compensation is simply not a stable state. Since the gaming industry is very large and many upstarts seem to find success, how can the prevailing wages be considered unfair? Everybody would have a profit motive to quit their employer and become a greedy exec themselves.

Probably a lot fewer upstarts find success than you imagine - it may seem like "a lot" but the rate of success is abysmal. It's hard to get accurate statistics because it's not obvious what to count, but from the attempts I've read it's somewhat over 90% of games that do not breakeven and has been this way since the early 90s at least (probably earlier but it's even harder to find data the further back you go). The v…

Is it fair that you're paying rent to your former landlord's son? It is if the rate is fair. Being a landlord is actually a job and it can involve quite a bit of risk (property damage, housing market crashes, etc). It's not exactly rare for landlords to actually lose money. Maintenance costs, taxes, and that risk should be priced into your rent, plus a reasonable fee. If that fee is unreasonable, now you're in an unstable market state. There would have to be significant anticompetitive forces in the property market (onerous zoning, natural limitations) to keep it that way, otherwise you would want to move to a new landlord with a reasonable fee.

Whether or not private inheritance is fair is a completely separate debate. We could do away with private inheritance, and all these market forces would still work to keep prices fair.

Re: Writing: Good career move, terrible career (2018)

#107

Post by sirsinsalot »

maaanu wrote: post #95
sirsinsalot wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it can crank out something that's probably broken, and the person using the LLM needs to be able to know how to code to see where it's broken. Same with my junior devs

I see this claim so often and I fail to understand it every time... What kind of junior devs do you hire, where this is the case? And what kind of tasks do you give them?

It was a cheap shot at junior devs, not a serious statement

Re: Writing: Good career move, terrible career (2018)

#108

Post by ido »

MichaelZuo wrote: post #105
ido wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why I gave it as an example. It feels unfair but that doesn't mean it's evidence of collusion/conspiracy.

So then your question > (is it fair that I'm paying rent to my former landlord's son? he did nothing to earn it except inherit this building) has a clear answer.

I don’t want to sound snarky but did you miss that this was a rhetorical question meant to illustrate my actual point as part of a much longer post?

Re: Writing: Good career move, terrible career (2018)

#109

Post by ido »

bloppe wrote: post #106
ido wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably a lot fewer upstarts find success than you imagine - it may seem like "a lot" but the rate of success is abysmal. It's hard to get accurate statistics because it's not obvious what to count, but from the attempts I've read it's somewhat over 90% of games that do not breakeven and has been this way since the early 90s at least (probably earlier but it's even harder to find data the further back you go). The v…

Is it fair that you're paying rent to your former landlord's son? It is if the rate is fair. Being a landlord is actually a job and it can involve quite a bit of risk (property damage, housing market crashes, etc). It's not exactly rare for landlords to actually lose money. Maintenance costs, taxes, and that risk should be priced into your rent, plus a reasonable fee. If that fee is unreasonable, now you're in an uns…

Oh, absolutely the failing is actually of the city to get enough housing built as to create an efficient market. But my point wasn’t really about my landlord but that the fact that some executive at Ubisoft or Activision are paying themselves generously while paying employees worse than non-games tech isn’t an indication that the lower wages in the games industry are due to collusion, rather than supply/demand equilibria being different in different sub-industries.

Re: Writing: Good career move, terrible career (2018)

#110

Post by MichaelZuo »

ido wrote: post #108
MichaelZuo wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So then your question > (is it fair that I'm paying rent to my former landlord's son? he did nothing to earn it except inherit this building) has a clear answer.

I don’t want to sound snarky but did you miss that this was a rhetorical question meant to illustrate my actual point as part of a much longer post?

I was addressing the comment:

> I don’t know what point you think I was trying to make, but I don’t think it is the same one I was thinking of.

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