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Forbes 30 under 30 in 2012

forbes.com

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Re: Forbes 30 under 30 in 2012

#51

Post by andyakb »

michaelochurch wrote: post #44

This thread has made me think less of Hacker News. All of it. The hate posts were pretty petty, but the fawning is pretty gross as well. We wonder why there's so much ageism. It's because age obsessions stem from this "cool list" narcissistic nonsense. But this is a prejudice all of us will face, because we're all (well, almost all, and with luck) going to be old some day. The sign of maturity is to see something lik…

the fawning? it's the end of the year and forbes came out with a list recognizing people of their accomplishments. it seems like many people in this thread know some of these people and wanted to congratulate them. what's wrong with that?

Re: Forbes 30 under 30 in 2012

#52

Post by k_kelly »

michaelochurch wrote: post #44

This thread has made me think less of Hacker News. All of it. The hate posts were pretty petty, but the fawning is pretty gross as well. We wonder why there's so much ageism. It's because age obsessions stem from this "cool list" narcissistic nonsense. But this is a prejudice all of us will face, because we're all (well, almost all, and with luck) going to be old some day. The sign of maturity is to see something lik…

I don't understand.

The merits of hating / supporting a magazine is one thing. However achieving something of note before thirty is hardly an easy thing and not really something I'd criticize just to criticize. If you don't take support from your peers, or admire their success I don't really see what you yourself are working towards.

Also, by commentating on the general state of HN instead of reading the article, you are not in fact improving the quality of conversation found here.

Re: Forbes 30 under 30 in 2012

#53

Post by klochner »

hack_edu wrote: post #31

At the risk of offending the rah-rah YC back-patting... the entire Tech section is full of people who run or founded companies. Those all could fall into the Media, Social, or Marketing sections. It just seems like they're piling all the big-named startup dudes in wherever they can. Shouldn't people blazing trails of real, new technologies get some recognition here? Those who bootstrapped this year's hundredth social…

The Forbes brand is about money and wealth - they're most famous for the Forbes 500 list of 500 wealthiest individuals - so including academics or open-source people wouldn't make sense.

Re: Forbes 30 under 30 in 2012

#54

Post by Mz »

michaelochurch wrote: post #44

This thread has made me think less of Hacker News. All of it. The hate posts were pretty petty, but the fawning is pretty gross as well. We wonder why there's so much ageism. It's because age obsessions stem from this "cool list" narcissistic nonsense. But this is a prejudice all of us will face, because we're all (well, almost all, and with luck) going to be old some day. The sign of maturity is to see something lik…

Oh, I think they make lists of "young people who did impressive shit" in part because most lists of "people who did impressive shit" are pretty well dominated by older people. It's a little like making lists of "women who are important for some fucking reason or other", which is lefthanded admission that general lists of "people who are important for some fucking reason or other" are extremely male dominated.

-- Observation by a 47yo female

Re: Forbes 30 under 30 in 2012

#55

Post by sprash »

HorizonXP wrote: post #49
sprash wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry but I have a degree in nuclear physics, working a full time job and can't even afford a car. Something tells me those people just had a lot of luck!

I'm going to sound brash, arrogant, and a bit racist when I ask this, but let me guess: you're probably not the child of immigrant parents. While there definitely is a "white" advantage in this world, and many people on these lists may have been born into privilege, your attitude towards it is pretty bullshit. My point about not being the child of immigrant parents was to highlight this attitude. Immigrant children t…

This is the old story of "if you work hard enough you will be just as successful" and it is of course bullshit. There is an easy proof for this: Income distribution.

The income distribution would be a Gaussian distribution like intelligence, body height and all other kinds of human traits, if it were truly determined by accomplishement.

But since the income distribution has a rather exponential shape the underlying events must be independent and poissonian distributed, similar to a series of small lottery games or to put it simply: luck!

The first of those lottery games in your life is the question of: are your parents rich or not.

Re: Forbes 30 under 30 in 2012

#56

Post by sprash »

andyakb wrote: post #50
sprash wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry but I have a degree in nuclear physics, working a full time job and can't even afford a car. Something tells me those people just had a lot of luck!

of course they had luck, but if all they had was luck, they probably wouldnt be on the list. stop complaining about the hand you were dealt and make your own luck.

Sure, you have to buy a ticket to win the lottery. But it changes nothing about still being a lottery.

Re: Forbes 30 under 30 in 2012

#58

Post by Retric »

michaelochurch wrote: post #44

This thread has made me think less of Hacker News. All of it. The hate posts were pretty petty, but the fawning is pretty gross as well. We wonder why there's so much ageism. It's because age obsessions stem from this "cool list" narcissistic nonsense. But this is a prejudice all of us will face, because we're all (well, almost all, and with luck) going to be old some day. The sign of maturity is to see something lik…

There are a lot of successful people under 30. Especially when you include things like Writer, Actor, Athletes, and people who have taken seed funding, but are not yet profitable.

What I thought was interesting was how much overlap there was with the category's. (Art & Style, Education, Energy, Finance, Food & Wine, Games & Apps, Hollywood, Law & Policy, Marketing & Advertising, Media, Music, Science & Healthcare, Social Entrepreneurs, Sports, Tech) It was like they created did some research for interesting people and then created new category's after the fact. But, that may also relate to who was willing to be on there list.

Re: Forbes 30 under 30 in 2012

#60

Post by Domenic_S »

sprash wrote: post #55
HorizonXP wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to sound brash, arrogant, and a bit racist when I ask this, but let me guess: you're probably not the child of immigrant parents. While there definitely is a "white" advantage in this world, and many people on these lists may have been born into privilege, your attitude towards it is pretty bullshit. My point about not being the child of immigrant parents was to highlight this attitude. Immigrant children t…

This is the old story of "if you work hard enough you will be just as successful" and it is of course bullshit. There is an easy proof for this: Income distribution. The income distribution would be a Gaussian distribution like intelligence, body height and all other kinds of human traits, if it were truly determined by accomplishement. But since the income distribution has a rather exponential shape the underlying e…

If you were born in a first world country, then yes, your parents were rich. We are the global 1%.

Your income distribution analysis is flawed in a few ways though. You can't have negative height or negative intelligence, but you can have negative income. Likewise, there is an upper bound on human traits, but no functional upper bound on income. Moreover, money grows logarithmically but human traits inherit very slowly.

Anyway, that's not the point. You sound unhappy. You should fix that. Start by realizing that money won't fix it.

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