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Advice

patrickcollison.com

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Re: Advice

#111

Post by java_script »

TAForObvReasons wrote: post #102
java_script wrote: post #98

Advice for SF people: Stop talking about changing the god damned world when what you're actually working on is a middleman payment processor. You sound like your head is planted so far up into your ass you can see daylight again. E: Just to point out what I actually believe so I’m not just doing a drive-by insult - let capitalism and self interest be just that, like how a pizza delivery guy or payday loan provider pr…

That's the magic of the whole setup. When you present the situation as "making the world a better place", it's easier to swallow ethical transgressions and other illegal or immoral behaviors (Uber is a great example of this)

The most basic form of this is undermining or exploiting a group of people as your core business model, and then donating a small portion to charities that help that same group. Or even better, the ceo’s unrelated pet cause, an astroturf group, or a foundation where they hire family members as a way to skirt gift taxes. Compassionate capitalism is lovely ;)

Re: Advice

#112

Post by indogooner »

java_script wrote: post #98

Advice for SF people: Stop talking about changing the god damned world when what you're actually working on is a middleman payment processor. You sound like your head is planted so far up into your ass you can see daylight again. E: Just to point out what I actually believe so I’m not just doing a drive-by insult - let capitalism and self interest be just that, like how a pizza delivery guy or payday loan provider pr…

Yeah they should say "change the world in a small way" unless they are building something like Wikipedia or even Project Gutenberg.

Re: Advice

#113

Post by mhb »

nickthemagicman wrote: post #65
voidmain wrote: post #5

I'm a bit amused by the advice to move to SF because that's what all the other nonconformists are doing.

Literally stepped over human feces getting off the bus yesterday. There are alot of non conformists here.

The ones with poop on their shoes?

Re: Advice

#114

Post by imgabe »

gfodor wrote: post #107
imgabe wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can disagree with someone about whether a piece of technology is important or not without regarding them a moral failure.

Where did the OP limit his claim to be about a specific thing like technology? And why did you interpret my comment as having universal applicability? There are categories of things which if you firmly believe that you are right and the other person is wrong in ascribing importance to them (following the OP's heuristic) you'd necessarily assume that person is a moral failure. For example, if I highly regard the ideas…

Context. Patrick Collison is famous around here for building a SaaS business and writing a lot about helping others to do so. This is Hacker News which focuses heavily on business and tech.

> My point was that a heuristic that urges one to have confidence that they have "correct" value judgements simply due to their age is a bad rule to have in your mental model of how to navigate differences with others, even if it's not a hard one.

The entire world nudges young people in the opposite direction from the very moment they're born. That nudging is frequently incorrect when it comes to technology, so some nudging in the direction of young people believing in themselves is appropriate.

In 2006, there were a bunch of college students who thought Facebook was a pretty big deal. Most 50 year olds in 2006 probably would have disagreed and didn't see why it would be important to post pictures of your friends drinking online. The older people were wrong. It's not a value judgement. They weren't bad people because they were wrong about a technology trend. But they were still wrong.

When any new thing comes along there's always a few older, well respected people who dismiss it and say it isn't important. They end up being wrong. It you want to be the one bringing those new things about, you need to learn to ignore those people, even though they're older than you.

Re: Advice

#115

Post by sus_007 »

newfocogi wrote: post #53
sus_007 wrote: post #48

> In particular, try to go deep on multiple things...deep on languages, programming... I fall under the target audience for this piece and by now I've dabbled with at least half a dozen of programming languages and their celebrated frameworks/libraries- from Front to the Back. I tried my best to go deep on all of them just for the sake of learning. But, now I feel lost and can't figure out which path am I supposed to…

I can only speak from personal experience, but I have noticed that I easily get excited to learn a shiny new tool or skill, but once I have basic familiarity with it, my eagerness dries up because all that was driving my desire to learn was the intrigue of an unknown experience. Times where I felt like I actually went deep (and it didn't require superhuman discipline to spend time on something I had lost interest in)…

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. True, it is in fact the desire to learn was the intrigue of an unknown experience sensation that makes me jump from one ship to the other, frequently. I guess I need to work on my discipline and focus on a single tech stack for a considerable period.

Re: Advice

#116

Post by swyx »

dmitrybrant wrote: post #23

> If you're 10–20: These are prime years! I lol'd.

haha im sure he knew that was going to be a bit unrelatable.

in general i like that he scoped his advice to his own years though. very humble thing to do despite having done more than most of us will in our lifetimes.

Re: Advice

#117

Post by loco5niner »

yla92 wrote: post #106

For some of us who are in 20~30, I recommend Sam Altman's "The days are long but the decades are short"[0]. [0]: http://blog.samaltman.com/the-days-are-long-but-the-decades-...

> The days are long but the decades are shot

Typo - "Shot" should be "short"

Although I have to admit, that word might fit in some cases...

Re: Advice

#118

Post by fellowniusmonk »

ritchiea wrote: post #74

I wish someone would write a useful version of this for the question “what should I do to make the most of my life when my family is poor or somehow less fortunate?” A lot of this would still apply but there’s a huge percentage of the population that has to deal with major difficulties in life before they can heed the kind of advice Patrick offers.

I come from a considerably poorer background than you based on your other posts, poorer than most, with birth defects that have caused me constant problems and... I could add a bunch of things to this list but it's quite accurate, I'm just past 30 now and by being poor, smart, open, hardworking and going where the energy/money is you end up ticking all of these boxes.

You'll end up more closely identifying with first gen immigrants which puts you in a pretty good place out in SF.

You'll get used a lot in your 20s, people will make a major buck off your skillsets, but if you keep growing them you'll skyrocket a few years after most everyone else plateaus, the joy of working and fear of poverty never leave, but they are rocket fuel later.

You get used to deprivation, develop a non-fragile sense of self, and learn to let most things go too, you'll get used to sweating in secret and it'll give you a great pokerface, it's great training for doing the hard things once life gets easier financially in your 30s and temptation to coast lays most other people low.

Re: Advice

#119

Post by yla92 »

loco5niner wrote: post #117
yla92 wrote: post #106

For some of us who are in 20~30, I recommend Sam Altman's "The days are long but the decades are short"[0]. [0]: http://blog.samaltman.com/the-days-are-long-but-the-decades-...

> The days are long but the decades are shot Typo - "Shot" should be "short" Although I have to admit, that word might fit in some cases...

Fixed. Thank you! It indeed might be fitting in some cases :D
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