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Advice for ambitious 19 year olds

blog.samaltman.com

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Re: Advice for ambitious 19 year olds

#21

Post by sama »

kayoone wrote: post #14

"Incidentally, don’t let salary be a factor. I just watched someone turn down one of these breakout companies because Microsoft offered him $30k per year more in salary—that was a terrible decision. He will not build interesting things and may not work with smart people." That quote drips so much of elitism its disgusting. MS still has many brilliant engineers and is building alot of really complex stuff, probably mo…

I agree with that--for example, I think Microsoft Research has some of the smartest hackers I've met. However, other divisions of MSFT (and where this person was going) have some of the worst people I've met.

Re: Advice for ambitious 19 year olds

#23

Post by ritchiea »

jamesaguilar wrote: post #18
susi22 wrote: post #16

This is awful advice. I'm sorry but when you're 19 you should go out into the _world_ (not the US) and discover it. Go book a cheap flight to South America and go backpacking for a few months. Live on $300 a month, meet interesting people. Techies, nerds and entrepreneurs aren't _that_ interesting. But sure, if all that you care about is success and you happen to define success like most other Americans (i.e. by maki…

> If you waste a year or two, nothing will run away and your opportunities will still be there when you're 25. Something tells me this is an aspirational claim rather than a statement with empirical support. On the other hand, there is a lot of data to support the view that being out of work for years is very bad for finding a job when you finally do want one.

I disagree. There are lots of different types of venturing out into the world that aren't necessarily just bumming around on the beach. I went traveling when I was 20 and ended up spending months at a hostel in exchange for building them a new website. And not only was I working, but I was also spending time with people older than my peers in the US and hearing about their life experiences. If you travel with the right mindset, it can be just as much of a growth experience as working at an interesting company.

Re: Advice for ambitious 19 year olds

#24

Post by minikites »

kayoone wrote: post #14

"Incidentally, don’t let salary be a factor. I just watched someone turn down one of these breakout companies because Microsoft offered him $30k per year more in salary—that was a terrible decision. He will not build interesting things and may not work with smart people." That quote drips so much of elitism its disgusting. MS still has many brilliant engineers and is building alot of really complex stuff, probably mo…

And if you're 19 or 20 and you put that extra $30k into an index fund, the magic of compound interest will give you much more money than if you start shoveling three times the amount in when you're in your mid-30s.

Re: Advice for ambitious 19 year olds

#25

Post by sama »

notaddicted wrote: post #19
kayoone wrote: post #14

"Incidentally, don’t let salary be a factor. I just watched someone turn down one of these breakout companies because Microsoft offered him $30k per year more in salary—that was a terrible decision. He will not build interesting things and may not work with smart people." That quote drips so much of elitism its disgusting. MS still has many brilliant engineers and is building alot of really complex stuff, probably mo…

Only people with money say "Don't worry about money".

I still said that when I had a negative checking account balance while starting my company. I think you should worry about money, but that you should take a long-term view of it.

Re: Advice for ambitious 19 year olds

#26

Post by dotBen »

If you are not a US Citizen and think your career might take you here/want to come here to the US, then you should do college.

Not having even a crappy and unnecessary degree from a crappy university made my ability to work in the US very very difficult, and all future immigration reform for high-skilled workers still orientates around STEM qualifications.

Re: Advice for ambitious 19 year olds

#27

Post by sama »

minikites wrote: post #24
kayoone wrote: post #14

"Incidentally, don’t let salary be a factor. I just watched someone turn down one of these breakout companies because Microsoft offered him $30k per year more in salary—that was a terrible decision. He will not build interesting things and may not work with smart people." That quote drips so much of elitism its disgusting. MS still has many brilliant engineers and is building alot of really complex stuff, probably mo…

And if you're 19 or 20 and you put that extra $30k into an index fund, the magic of compound interest will give you much more money than if you start shoveling three times the amount in when you're in your mid-30s.

Depends what you believe will happen with the markets and inflation over the next 15 years. I believe a better approach in today's world is to put yourself in a position where you're less dependent on historical market performance.

Re: Advice for ambitious 19 year olds

#28

Post by enraged_camel »

kayoone wrote: post #14

"Incidentally, don’t let salary be a factor. I just watched someone turn down one of these breakout companies because Microsoft offered him $30k per year more in salary—that was a terrible decision. He will not build interesting things and may not work with smart people." That quote drips so much of elitism its disgusting. MS still has many brilliant engineers and is building alot of really complex stuff, probably mo…

I agree. $30,000 more per year is nothing to balk at. It is a serious amount of money. In addition, working for Microsoft is fantastic for a resume. The person in question probably improved his future career prospects by an order of magnitude by taking the job.

And let's not even forget the fantastic benefits that Microsoft offers its employees that most startups cannot afford to.

Re: Advice for ambitious 19 year olds

#29

Post by enraged_camel »

sama wrote: post #25
notaddicted wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only people with money say "Don't worry about money".

I still said that when I had a negative checking account balance while starting my company. I think you should worry about money, but that you should take a long-term view of it.

Only people with a nice fallback cushion can afford to say "take a long-term view of money" when their checking account is in the negatives.

Let's face it: if you are having trouble feeding yourself, your view on money will be extremely short-term. As it should be.

Re: Advice for ambitious 19 year olds

#30

Post by samsnelling »

jmgrosen wrote: post #22

Anyone have any particular advice for an ambitious 14 year old with three years left of high school?

Yep. Keep learning. Read as much as you can. Start lots of projects. Try and finish them.

I am 21 and just sold my first startup while finishing my last year in college. I started programming at 13ish, and have never stopped reading and learning.

Don't get caught up in what your parents or friends say (it's hard explaining SaaS to people who don't quite "get it"), but make sure you keep whatever you build simple enough for them to intuitively use your project. There's no reason why you can't launch something and start building something now. Go and do it, and a lot of people will lend a helping hand as you go.

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