How to Be Successful • Hacker News Board

Re: How to Be Successful

#101

Post by alphagrep12345 » Thu, Jan 24, 2019, 10:05 PM UTC

sama wrote: post #34

aphextron wrote: post #11

1. Be born to a wealthy middle class family and go to an elite school.

The biggest reason I'm excited about basic income is the amount of human potential it will unleash by freeing more people to take risks. Until then, if you aren't born lucky, you have to claw your way up for awhile before you can take big swings. If you are born in extreme poverty, then this is super difficult :( It is obviously an incredible shame and waste that opportunity is so unevenly distributed. But I've witne…

Won't basic universal income give rise to more inflation and negate the benefits in the first place?

Re: How to Be Successful

#102

Post by dtrailin » Thu, Jan 24, 2019, 10:06 PM UTC

davebryand wrote: post #25

A more accurate title for this is "How to Be Financially Successful". I'd love for Sam to write a post called "How to Be a Successful Human" or "How to Live a Successful Life". This more important topic has little-to-nothing to do with financial success.

It's likely he knows more about the former than the latter.

Re: How to Be Successful

#103

Post by lordCarbonFiber » Thu, Jan 24, 2019, 10:06 PM UTC

beatpanda wrote: post #65

> It’s not entirely clear to me why working hard has become a Bad Thing in certain parts of the US Most people don't have any real access to capital, and most people's labor is totally alienated from its actual value. For most people, advice to "Work Hard" amounts to "Sacrifice More So Your Boss Can Get Richer". Also, as far as "working hard", Americans are an extreme outlier: https://20somethingfinance.com/american-…

Because he'd love for more fools to work hard and make him richer.

Re: How to Be Successful

#104

Post by perfmode » Thu, Jan 24, 2019, 10:07 PM UTC

“Things to consider if you’re trying to avoid being financially unsuccessful”

Re: How to Be Successful

#105

Post by thomk » Thu, Jan 24, 2019, 10:08 PM UTC

Latteland wrote: post #12

ckluis wrote: post #7

12. You get rich by owning things.

so i should just own a lot of things and then I'll be rich. Works for rich people.

Well, what do you currently own? Or do rent/credit card/pay-as-you-go from a rich person?

Re: How to Be Successful

#106

Post by rabidrat » Thu, Jan 24, 2019, 10:09 PM UTC

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #93

core-questions wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a huge concern. I have known several people who, when they lose their seasonal jobs, coast on unemployment insurance until the very last minute, sometimes even going as far as welfare and couch surfing before a new job finds them (they won't go looking for it themselves). All they want is beer, weed, porn, and video games. They don't seem to want relationships, work, friendships beyond smoking buddies... it's…

Like you say, these stunted people already exist. They already do everything in their power to minimize their work time, including trying for disability or welfare. UBI won't create more of them, and it won't end the ones we have, but it may add stability to the working poor.

How do you know that UBI won't create more of them? It's a common refrain, like with legalization ("anyone who wants to smoke weed is already doing it"), and I know several people who didn't smoke before it became legal, and are now smoking regularly. It seems reasonable to think that UBI would enable some class of people who would otherwise exert themselves, to no longer bother.

Re: How to Be Successful

#107

Post by fgkramer » Thu, Jan 24, 2019, 10:09 PM UTC

davebryand wrote: post #25

A more accurate title for this is "How to Be Financially Successful". I'd love for Sam to write a post called "How to Be a Successful Human" or "How to Live a Successful Life". This more important topic has little-to-nothing to do with financial success.

Isn't success defined by your own metrics at the end of the day? You need to choose what are the things you are willing to tolerate/live with and what is your end goal in life.

It's hard nowadays to define such thing with so much information around, moulding what a "successful" life should look like, how should it feel and where should it be lived.

It's up to us to define what we care about and how to measure our happiness.

As always, good reading material: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28257707-the-subtle-art-...

Re: How to Be Successful

#108

Post by LouisSayers » Thu, Jan 24, 2019, 10:09 PM UTC

TrackerFF wrote: post #84

aphextron wrote: post #11

1. Be born to a wealthy middle class family and go to an elite school.

I have to admit, I was going to post this - but it's probably a very polarized opinion. The thing is, people do love the idealistic idea of every man creating his own luck - or that if you just work hard and smart enough, the sky is the limit. When I went a top business school for my MBA, I'd say that 70% of my peers had the same upper middle-class upbringing. Back then, the vast majority went into consulting or bank…

For sure - you have connections to money which can help fund your startup.

The funny thing tho is that creating a successful startup actually involves for the most part actually being good at doing it, and following the right process.

I once interviewed at a startup which was created by a rich kid and he couldn’t even explain what the company did... I’ve also worked at a startup run by an ex big company CEO where she clearly had no clue what she was doing and was used to shit talking.

I could tell pretty quickly that both these companies were going to fail. They are going to spend a lot of their money and a lot of their connections money and waste a lot of people’s time...

So in a sense you can actually see it as a redistribution of wealth from those that have the money to those middle class IT workers who a lot of the time simply take these as opportunities to learn and upskill on the job.

Just because you do a startup doesn’t mean it’s going to be successful - and that’s going to be more true than not. There’s a lot of people with money out there but it doesn’t mean they know how to spend it correctly.

So enjoy taking Ubers with their promo codes and knowing that you cost them money for every ride that you take!

Re: How to Be Successful

#109

Post by ChuckMcM » Thu, Jan 24, 2019, 10:10 PM UTC

telesilla wrote: post #10

It's also very successful, if you have built a stable business and a way of supporting yourself and a few others around you. Being successful doesn't always mean having a 1BN valuation. But sure, it's nice to think that one day, it could happen. I'm just grateful every day that what I've got now - stability and plenty of resources - was a result of pretty much what Sam said. Believing in ourselves and not giving up,…

As a force multiplier have a stable business that supports you but doesn't take all of your time can be huge. It allows you to take risks that others won't.

That said, there is something to having risks be actual risks. A friend of mine who has been much more successful than I have decided to take out a huge second mortgage on his house to start his own business (at the time it was an ISP and he spent nearly all of the money he pulled out on building out his data center and network). I advised him against it, after all if it failed he would lose his house. But his response was sobering, it was "Chuck, I need to know that if I fail I'll lose my house to keep my feet to the fire of not failing." Gutsy? Stupid? He made it work and is "retired" to his own boutique winery. Would I be as impressed if he had failed? I suppose it would depend on what he did after he got through that.

Re: How to Be Successful

#110

Post by enraged_camel » Thu, Jan 24, 2019, 10:11 PM UTC

core-questions wrote: post #77

eanzenberg wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What basic income will most likely do is send vast swaths of average people to entertainment and drugs. It's already happening, as social nets get bigger and wider.

This is a huge concern. I have known several people who, when they lose their seasonal jobs, coast on unemployment insurance until the very last minute, sometimes even going as far as welfare and couch surfing before a new job finds them (they won't go looking for it themselves). All they want is beer, weed, porn, and video games. They don't seem to want relationships, work, friendships beyond smoking buddies... it's…

>>All they want is beer, weed, porn, and video games. They don't seem to want relationships, work, friendships beyond smoking buddies... it's saddening, honestly.

Honestly, this says more about your need to judge those people, than those people themselves.

What is wrong with wanting nothing other than beer, weed, and video games? Seems like a nice, simple life. If it makes them happy, why does it make you sad?

Is it because your happiness is shackled by some utopian (or rather, dystopian) dream where everyone "realizes their full potential" or some such nonsense?