Extreme Saving: A Man, His Van and Five-Figure Debt • Hacker News Board

Re: Extreme Saving: A Man, His Van and Five-Figure Debt

#61

Post by kees » Fri, May 31, 2013, 1:13 AM UTC

wonderzombie wrote: post #59

dreamdu5t wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I'm not. Face to face relationships don't cost $30k+ a year. You don't have to go to school to meet people. If you're going into debt just to meet people then something is deeply flawed.

You're still missing the point. :) Repeated face-to-face conversations with experts and other students (i.e. a classroom learning environment) is not the same as sitting alone, in the middle of nowhere, in front of a computer.

I think you all miss the point. It is not about how he spend the money (in this case an education perceived to be not worth its money by a majority of you) but what he did to save this money. You could spend it on your next start-up or get inspiration to pay off your own debt by changing your living standards.

Re: Extreme Saving: A Man, His Van and Five-Figure Debt

#62

Post by circlefavshape » Fri, May 31, 2013, 8:07 AM UTC

grannyg00se wrote: post #8

"Plus, I was graduating with a degree in English and history, which, though valuable to me, is more or less monetarily worthless." I can't imagine spending tens of thousands of dollars on something that is monetarily worthless just because it is of personal value to me. That seems incredibly self indulgent.

This is one of the oddest things I've read on HN. What do you think money is FOR?

Re: Extreme Saving: A Man, His Van and Five-Figure Debt

#63

Post by Crake » Fri, May 31, 2013, 9:17 AM UTC

wonderzombie wrote: post #59

dreamdu5t wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I'm not. Face to face relationships don't cost $30k+ a year. You don't have to go to school to meet people. If you're going into debt just to meet people then something is deeply flawed.

You're still missing the point. :) Repeated face-to-face conversations with experts and other students (i.e. a classroom learning environment) is not the same as sitting alone, in the middle of nowhere, in front of a computer.

This isn't the pre internet age, though. There are plenty of people with degrees and advanced degrees you can find on meetup.com to enjoy IRL discussions with on a certain topic.

Re: Extreme Saving: A Man, His Van and Five-Figure Debt

#64

Post by Crake » Fri, May 31, 2013, 9:27 AM UTC

mpyne wrote: post #29

300bps wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In many cultures children take care of the parents in their old age. Is that not practical value? In farming cultures, the more children you have the more workers you have. That seems practical as well. I think his analogy is flawed.

I agree the analogy is flawed, but that doesn't invalidate his argument. People have all kinds of hobbies that add no real practical value to their lives, other than that they enjoy doing it, and we don't typically make fun of people for those.

"I have little patience for critics who don’t see the value in a liberal arts education. We don’t mock people who have children -- and there’s no practical value to having children."

The fact that after spending so much money on his libarts degree, he'd use the skills from his "education" to make such a terribly stupid and obviously factually wrong analogy just proves his critics right, invalidating his argument. (Many people have kids because they want to be taken care of. Duh.)

No matter how many of one's fellow liberal arts peers might preen about their fancy, overpriced sheepskins, the fact is that these would be emperors in reality have no clothes. (God forbid you point that out to them, though.)

"We don’t mock people who play the guitar, or go on walks in the woods. Why should we mock people who want to learn about their world and learn about themselves?"

Yes, perhaps, but if someone spent $200,000 on a beginner's guitar, or paid $30,000 for the a membership to a private property to go walk in your everyday typical (and accessible for free at a metro park) woods, we'd definitely be side eying them for it.

Re: Extreme Saving: A Man, His Van and Five-Figure Debt

#65

Post by dagw » Fri, May 31, 2013, 9:38 AM UTC

grannyg00se wrote: post #8

"Plus, I was graduating with a degree in English and history, which, though valuable to me, is more or less monetarily worthless." I can't imagine spending tens of thousands of dollars on something that is monetarily worthless just because it is of personal value to me. That seems incredibly self indulgent.

I've probably spent tens of thousands of dollars over the years traveling and other experiences that are monetarily worthless. And honestly I probably consider it the best money I've ever spent.