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The Gang Has a Mid-Life Crisis

chris-martin.org

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Re: The Gang Has a Mid-Life Crisis

#251

Post by systemstops »

munificent wrote: post #247
systemstops wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People still argue what things made a small city state (Athens) suddenly become the cornerstone of western civilization. That fact is that we have these explosions of human potential where certain groups of people in certain environments make massive leaps, and we don't what the magic sauce is. It's great when it happens, but It's foolish to think that we can somehow socially engineer the same results through brute f…

DEI is not about brute forcing an environment for success, at all. That's not the goal even a little bit. DEI is about recognizing that our culture has placed some people at a disadvantage by virtue of properties they have no control over and attempting to remedy that imbalance.

Based on the theory that gaps between groups are caused by systemic factors. The gaps exist, so an explanation and fix is needed, which is morally commendable. The problem is that the theory is far too overconfident and completely ignores the fact that the gaps also show up in cognitive testing.

Re: The Gang Has a Mid-Life Crisis

#252

Post by hattmall »

bhaney wrote: post #180
K0balt wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just check eBay. If you want it to turn out good, it’s best to go and see. If we’re talking about $1200 parcels, it costs more to vet than to buy. Just look it over and judge the best you can on the information you can gather, and accept the 30 percent risk that it won’t be what you expected in some way or another. Or, go there. Not worth paying a title agency or any of that crap. Be sure of any tax burden (easily re…

Do you have more advice for finding land to buy other than using ebay? I've been looking for a while for a few acres of unimproved/secluded/wooded land within an hour or two drive away from me here in Kansas, mostly just for bushcrafting or tooling around. The only place I really know to check is Zillow, and while there are a few listings in my distance range, they're typically upwards of $10k/acre. I just checked eb…

An absurd amount of land is held by people that don't even know it. They aren't looking to sell generally. Lots of inherited and placed in trusts over generations.

Use q public, or whatever is in your area and search for land recently acquired by an estate. Pretty much that means the owner died, there was no clear line of inheritance do typically a distant relative or random person is selling the estate. Try to buy it.

The other is legal notices and government bid sites. You can buy tax owed land, laws vary by state.

Re: The Gang Has a Mid-Life Crisis

#253

Post by munificent »

systemstops wrote: post #251
munificent wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DEI is not about brute forcing an environment for success, at all. That's not the goal even a little bit. DEI is about recognizing that our culture has placed some people at a disadvantage by virtue of properties they have no control over and attempting to remedy that imbalance.

Based on the theory that gaps between groups are caused by systemic factors. The gaps exist, so an explanation and fix is needed, which is morally commendable. The problem is that the theory is far too overconfident and completely ignores the fact that the gaps also show up in cognitive testing.

The foundational document of our nation's government literally treats Native Americans as non-people and slaves (who were overwhelmingly of African descent) as 3/5 of a person.

The majority of Black people in the US are literally descended from people who were brought here as slaves. Half of the country was so attached to the idea of being able to own Black people and treat them as property that they started a civil war to hold onto it.

This is the country that was founded on enslaved Black people, created the Trail of Tears, and placed Japanese-Americans in concentration camps.

It shouldn't be very hard to figure out an explanation for why certain races in the US have historically been at a disadvantage.

Re: The Gang Has a Mid-Life Crisis

#254

Post by umbra07 »

solarmist wrote: post #168
pmichaud wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think in conversations like these most people on the successful side underestimate how valuable the starting advantages were, and most people not on the successful side overestimate how valuable the starting advantages were. Meanwhile almost everyone misunderstands what the advantages really are. People will talk about the $300k loan Bezos started with and think "boy golly, with 300 THOUSAND dollars, I could do any…

This is such a good point. People tend to focus on money as the main form of privilege, but that internalized sense of “I belong here” might matter even more. It’s not just confidence—it’s a kind of default assumption that you’ll be taken seriously, that you’ll have options, that failure won’t wreck your life. I’ve seen it in startups too. Some founders take bold risks because they know, consciously or not, that if i…

Can't you just as easily make the opposite argument?

Founders that have a safety net have less drive and motivation to give it their all, because they have a safety net. They simply just don't have the same pressure to not fail, because if they do - no biggie.

The founder with no safety net, no real backup, needs to give it his all, because he's doomed if his idea doesn't work out.

Re: The Gang Has a Mid-Life Crisis

#255

Post by umbra07 »

citizenpaul wrote: post #94
tough wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look into bill gates mom ;)

I mean Bill Gates grandparents were buddies with the Rockerfellers. Even if Gates didn't directly get money from them simply being close to that level of influence and power gives you essentially freedom to print money with very little effort through effortless connections to whatever you need. Oh you need advice from a $10,000 a day law firm for a difficult business situation? My dads friend John works at "prestigio…

My grandmother's best friend was a princess. She still grew up somewhat impoverished (middle-lower class).

Re: The Gang Has a Mid-Life Crisis

#256

Post by umbra07 »

thomassmith65 wrote: post #163
K0balt wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a sort of perplexing subject for me. I grew up pretty poor. We had a well, but not running water. We flushed with a bucket, bathed out of a trash can-cum-water barrel. We subsistence hunted. We had vehicles that mostly ran, most of the time. Yet I can see that I was , in fact, born into privilege. Not a privilege of money, but a privilege of priority, skills, and acceptance of risk. My parents prioritized one…

That really deserves its own post. It's too interesting to be left as a comment. I have a lot of questions... who sells plots of land for that little money? Are there tax implications? Does anyone ever get on your case for upkeep? You really should write a blog post. It definitely would hit the front page. Edit who sells plots of land for that little money? Apparently: many people! I just did a web search. Little plo…

I don't know about little, but I regularly see plots of land (sometimes developed) in remote areas on Facebook Marketplace for really good prices. Or at least prices that seem compelling to me.

Re: The Gang Has a Mid-Life Crisis

#257

Post by 000ooo000 »

jimmydddd wrote: post #215
mandevil wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest thing is about "Amazon was started in a garage" is that Jeff Bezos had worked at hedge fund D.E. Shaw (founded in 1989) from 1990-1994 (that's where he met MacKenzie, she was an admin staff, he was a finance guy). So he had hedge fund money already before he founded Amazon.

Unpopular take. While I agree with the sentiment, I still think it took some fortitude to walk away from the golden handcuffs of a successful finance career to do an Internet startup at that time. Bezos said he ran the idea past his boss at the time, and the boss said something like "that's a good idea, but not for someone who already has a great job like you." So I do applaud him for that. Bloomberg made a similar t…

Suppose Bezos burns 80% of his net worth playing with his willy in his garage and decides to wrap it up. He goes straight back to his cushy HF job, 3 years behind in his career if he can't manage to market his experience as some kind of lofty journey landing him a better role than when he left. Let's not pretend it was brave - he had the foundations to take the risks and still come out just fine.

Re: The Gang Has a Mid-Life Crisis

#258

Post by bsder »

fallingknife wrote: post #241
bsder wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also overlooks the fact that what Amazon was doing was outright illegal for years and they never got handed their ass on a platter. For years, Amazon enabled everybody to bypass sales tax which gave Amazon a 4-8% advantage on books over brick and mortar that had to pay both rent and sales tax. Quite a few of the "successful" tech companies followed this pattern: Uber, Lyft, AirBnB, etc. all engaged in blatantly il…

It was not illegal. Businesses are not required to charge sales tax in states where they have no operations.

The people receiving stuff from Amazon were supposed to report and pay the sales tax.

If you or I aided and abetted widespread tax evasion, we would get our asses handed to us in court.

Re: The Gang Has a Mid-Life Crisis

#259

Post by musicale »

bsder wrote: post #216
mandevil wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest thing is about "Amazon was started in a garage" is that Jeff Bezos had worked at hedge fund D.E. Shaw (founded in 1989) from 1990-1994 (that's where he met MacKenzie, she was an admin staff, he was a finance guy). So he had hedge fund money already before he founded Amazon.

It also overlooks the fact that what Amazon was doing was outright illegal for years and they never got handed their ass on a platter. For years, Amazon enabled everybody to bypass sales tax which gave Amazon a 4-8% advantage on books over brick and mortar that had to pay both rent and sales tax. Quite a few of the "successful" tech companies followed this pattern: Uber, Lyft, AirBnB, etc. all engaged in blatantly il…

Regulatory entrepreneurship.

See also: PayPal, OpenAI, ...

Re: The Gang Has a Mid-Life Crisis

#260

Post by jrowen »

Ericson2314 wrote: post #10
jrowen wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Insecurity is often (always?) the driver of achievement. Some sort of deep-seated pathology is basically required to build the empires they have.

I'm not sure that's true, but even if it is, it is a sort of bipolar mix insecurity with hope and excitement. The mid-life crisis insecurity doesn't have the hope and the rush in the same way. It has a lot more dread and angst.

The realization that you achieved as much as one could hope to achieve and you still didn't find contentment.

That's honestly, to me, the saddest thing about the mega-rich. They don't know when, or how, to stop. There's no goal state where they can say "ok I made it, I can turn it off and enjoy life now, or at least stop fighting tooth and nail to hoard even more bigger numbers."

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