Live data from Hacker News

Lifers, Dayjobbers, and the Independently Wealthy: A Letter to a Former Student

klangmag.co

181–190 of 286 posts

Re: Lifers, Dayjobbers, and the Independently Wealthy: A Letter to a Former Student

#181
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but playing music is not an especially valuable thing Sure if your definition of value is "income generated".

Money is pretty much an abstract way to represent value though.

Notably, it's a very imperfect abstraction.

Re: Lifers, Dayjobbers, and the Independently Wealthy: A Letter to a Former Student

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there is moral equivalence in stealing from your neighbor vs stealing from a billionaire They are the same. You said it yourself: STEALING

I read this as a shortcut phrasing, not meant to be literal. Doing something that negatively impacts their stock price could be categorized as "stealing" from a billionaire. Is that really stealing? Purposely infringing on a company's trademarks/copyrights/marketing/etc (I don't mean pirating movies/books/etc) to gain publicity/get started could be called stealing from that company. But I don't consider that immoral…

San Francisco amply shows the results of justifying stealing from "The Man".

> Doing something that negatively impacts their stock price could be categorized as "stealing" from a billionaire. Is that really stealing?

No. There isn't much of a grey area around stealing.

> not meant to be literal

What's amusing when people try to reframe stealing as "liberating", or "getting paid", meaning they know it's dishonorable.

Re: Lifers, Dayjobbers, and the Independently Wealthy: A Letter to a Former Student

#183
post #7
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Music is a commodity. There's already more music available to let my playlist run for years without repeats. Plus it's never been easier for folk to create, and publish, new music. With endless supply comes diminishing unit value. So, not to be brutal, but playing music is not an especially valuable thing, and so people really don't need to pay much for it. Ditto for writing books, making ceramics, pretty much anythi…

No it's not. A commodity would mean that people are indifferent to the music of Metallica vs Taylor Swift vs your brother in law's blues band. They aren't. So it's not a commodity. Because that's what commodity means. You could let your playlist run for years, but you don't and nobody else does either because repetition and familiarity and quality are things people care about musically. Playing music well in a way th…

It's a commodity in the same way as fashion is. Each piece is unique, and people become attached, but something equivalent would take its place in its absence.

I don't know a term for that other than commodity, but sure, it's not the strict definition in economics. Please suggest an alternative word if you know it.

Re: Lifers, Dayjobbers, and the Independently Wealthy: A Letter to a Former Student

#184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.admissions.caltech.edu/why-caltech/student-life/...

The people writing the rules always have an unfair advantage. They can include literally anything they come up with and often, with enough time and rewriting, make it sound fair and equitable. How do you propose addressing that? You can't be on the rules-making groups of every institution you participate in.

Honor is independent of the rules. (Honor isn't about fairness or equity, either. It's its own thing.)

Re: Lifers, Dayjobbers, and the Independently Wealthy: A Letter to a Former Student

#185

Great, practical advice. I do think however that by 2030, UBI will be the norm in many wealthy countries, and thus more people will be able to pursue their passions rather than having to sell their soul as dayjobbers to make money for corporations and rich people.

I think you might be underestimating the fantastic power of the market to adjust. Once this UBI hits, every single landlord will have the same idea..

Re: Lifers, Dayjobbers, and the Independently Wealthy: A Letter to a Former Student

#186

Elizabeth Gilbert has a good take on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0g7ARarFNnw

If you're linking to a YouTube video without providing a timestamp, can you at least give us a quick summary of the said "good take"?

Re: Lifers, Dayjobbers, and the Independently Wealthy: A Letter to a Former Student

#187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people writing the rules always have an unfair advantage. They can include literally anything they come up with and often, with enough time and rewriting, make it sound fair and equitable. How do you propose addressing that? You can't be on the rules-making groups of every institution you participate in.

Honor is independent of the rules. (Honor isn't about fairness or equity, either. It's its own thing.)

I'm sorry, but "you'll know it when you see it" and "if you have to ask, you'll never know aren't" don't mean much to me.

Tell me what standard of conduct do you ascribe to if fairness or equity aren't included? It sounds like you have an unrealistically strict definition of honor if those aren't included.

Re: Lifers, Dayjobbers, and the Independently Wealthy: A Letter to a Former Student

#188

FWIW the open source scene (at least in the US) can often have very similar dynamics. I believe it was Ashley Williams who put it best by saying that in the Rust community (where I am), one's influence is determined by one's free time. I've noticed over time that in certain areas it can very much be those with the least experience on a subject (but the most free time) who wield the most influence.

You say it like it's a bad thing. I guess it's a bias to be aware of so the community can try to compensate, but there's really no other way. Power goes to those who are contributing. If I'm building an open-source compiler I'd love to give power to the world renowned experts on compilers, but unfortunately they are not participating.

Re: Lifers, Dayjobbers, and the Independently Wealthy: A Letter to a Former Student

#189
post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Grimes's dad was a former banker working on "the business side of biotech". That's two very solid incomes. And then she was with Devon Welsh, a singer/songwriter whose father was an actor. And most famously has been the partner of Elon Musk. She's had probably a larger share of carefree living than most. However, success is never just one thing. Because there are plenty of people with the same or greater level of sup…

> And then she was with Devon Welsh, a singer/songwriter whose father was an actor. And most famously has been the partner of Elon Musk. She's had probably a larger share of carefree living than most. No doubt she's had a good life, but Devon Welsh was himself basically a nobody when they dated, and she was already extremely successful as an artist by the time she became Elon's partner. It's just strange of the autho…

But Devon Welsh's dad was a successful Canadian actor with a net worth of several million. Being the girlfriend of a millionaire's son is not a bad position to be in.

Failure wouldn't even be a blip on her radar at any point in her life. I really can't see at any point in her life where something had to work in order for her to survive.

Which is the case for a lot of people. They have to do things that are lower risk because losing that bet means you're simply fucked. You can take the 1 in 1 million chance you become a successful recording artist or you can take the 100 in 1 chance you get a job to sustain yourself. If your survival is the thing that is at stake, the smart play is to take the job. If you'd survive no matter what, you not only take the 1 in a million shot, you take it as often as you can.

Re: Lifers, Dayjobbers, and the Independently Wealthy: A Letter to a Former Student

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read this as a shortcut phrasing, not meant to be literal. Doing something that negatively impacts their stock price could be categorized as "stealing" from a billionaire. Is that really stealing? Purposely infringing on a company's trademarks/copyrights/marketing/etc (I don't mean pirating movies/books/etc) to gain publicity/get started could be called stealing from that company. But I don't consider that immoral…

San Francisco amply shows the results of justifying stealing from "The Man". > Doing something that negatively impacts their stock price could be categorized as "stealing" from a billionaire. Is that really stealing? No. There isn't much of a grey area around stealing. > not meant to be literal What's amusing when people try to reframe stealing as "liberating", or "getting paid", meaning they know it's dishonorable.

No, at least in my case, it's that I literally don't have the terminology to phrase it better.

Such is the case when I'm talking about subjects I have practical experience in but little formal knowledge of.

Post reply on HN