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The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

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Re: The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

#111

Post by arbuge »

Carrok wrote: post #5

Bit of an aside but I found it somewhat amusing that one example the author uses of Jim’s financial recklessness was getting into home brewing. Home brewing is one of the cheaper hobbies available (though like all hobbies you can spend as much as you want). The only real requirements are a bucket and a pot.

> He lost focus and became reckless. He bought some fancy tree slice table for 10k bucks, got into brewing beer, got a dog, a cat, and overall, went completely over himself financially.

Well, he also mentions getting a dog and a cat in that context. Recklessness is relative I guess.

The cat would certainly agree though I suppose, when it sees that dog walking in the door...

Re: The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

#112

Post by treis »

mordechai9000 wrote: post #67
RivieraKid wrote: post #39

It's really hard for me to understand that people who have the chance to achieve basic financial independence (say $1M net worth) don't take that chance and make sure to stay financially independent forever. If you do that, you're almost guaranteed to stay in the top 2% globally for the rest of your life. You've made it in life, at least financially. The approach of not taking advantage of the lucky and privileged si…

I think $1M net worth in the US these days is a nice little nest egg, but not anywhere near financial independence. Unless your needs are simple, you can relocate somewhere to live very cheaply, and you don't have any dependents.

Interest would put you around median household income.

Re: The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

#113

Post by akurilin »

lmeyerov wrote: post #89

Fwiw, without naming names, I helped someone at a hackathon make their first app on something he was passionate about, later found out he had been recently homeless living on an abandoned boat, and now years later, afaict he turned that into a $10m/yr business with ~millions of users Persistence > Intelligence , and being able to code isn't some sort of superiority thing, it's just one skill of many Edit: being able…

pg wrote about this a while back: https://www.paulgraham.com/determination.html

Re: The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

#114

Post by est31 »

albumen wrote: post #106
eastbound wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> don't take that chance and make sure to stay financially independent forever. What means do you see? Buy some S&P500 ETF and live off the interest rate? That seams easy but without investing in AI, you’re at risk of AI making the existing economy irrelevant, it’s the same as having all investments in local craftsmanship in 1700 and the steam machine happens, except much faster. And move to [insert home country]? (W…

But the S&P500 is ~half AI anyway! At least by market cap. What’s your idea of investing in AI?

Is it the AI companies though that will capture the value that AI creates, or will it be the still-private startups, or new to-be-founded startups altogether?

Startups are taking longer and longer to reach public markets, so more and more value creation requires you to be a family office, angel, or hedge fund.

Re: The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

#115

Post by ip26 »

sfRattan wrote: post #104
mordechai9000 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think $1M net worth in the US these days is a nice little nest egg, but not anywhere near financial independence. Unless your needs are simple, you can relocate somewhere to live very cheaply, and you don't have any dependents.

> Unless your needs are simple, you can relocate somewhere to live very cheaply, and you don't have any dependents. As a human, your needs are simple[1]. With a $1M net worth, you can relocate somewhere to live very cheaply. And your dependents can live in that same place, also cheaply. All you need to do is show the Joneses the door out of your mind and never let them back in, nor look toward their lives in envy. [1…

If you have dependents that are children, I feel there is a moral consideration. If you have earned $1M and then take the family to live who-knows-where slowly drawing on that $1M.. will your children be able to replicate your success? Will they be able to earn their own $1M? Or will leading this new life significantly impair their prospects?

To me this is the most critical problem with the "move somewhere crazy cheap" plan. I feel a parent owes their children at least somewhat similar opportunities as they themselves had. If you got to work as "high flying white collar tech worker", but the only option your children have is "subsistence fisherman", you have wronged them.

Re: The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

#116

Post by JumpCrisscross »

smuhakg wrote: post #26
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> drug-fuelled OpenAI gay sex orgies What?! Source?

Source: https://futurism.com/researcher-openai-sex-drug-parties More prison gay than anything else. I'd go down on a man for a million dollar OpenAI offer even though I'm into women. I don't think commenters here realize how desperate people can become for money.

Is LSD a sex drug? (I haven't tried it yet. But I thought it was more of a go-to-a-concert or take-a-hike vibe.)

Re: The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

#117

Post by sscaryterry »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #72
Carrok wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A standard home brewing batch is 5 gallons. Or 40 pints. While it is a crazy world and I don’t want to say no one has ever done what you described, it would be an outlier to say the least. Home brewed beer is generally bottled or put into a keg and tapped. (Almost) no one is just drinking warm uncarbonated beer from the fermenter.

Even if someone did it wouldn't be the worst thing. That's a pint a day for a bit more than a month. The median Drinker / non teetotaler consumes about 0.5 drinks per day. People with severe alcohol use disorder often consume 10 to 20 drink equivalents a day, most commonly cheap hard liquor. Basically no alcoholic is going to be brewing a keg every couple days for self consumption.

Hard work man.

Re: The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

#118

Post by [deleted] »

Johanx64 wrote: post #69
daishi55 wrote: post #22

I don’t trust anyone who has the general, abstract goal of being a “founder”. If there’s no great idea to go with it, it just seems like vanity. And sure it does work out really well anyway sometimes, but it’s just something I can’t get behind aesthetically.

> I don’t trust anyone who has the general, abstract goal of being a “founder”. The goal isn't abstract - read it as - goal of "not being a wage-slave" and have a shot at being more. It's an ambition type of thing.

[deleted]

Re: The Silicon Valley Founder Meat Grinder

#119

Post by alexashka »

There's wage slave layer, nepo baby layer and the in-between.

Author has discovered that his 'working hard' to be at the bottom of the in-between layer pales in comparison to the invites others receive for simply showing up.

That's how it goes.

The real bitch is when you get to spend some time with the hot folks or the nepo babies and realize there's no substance - all they have is a mastery of surface level pleasantries and an incredibly thin skin.

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