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I was a 20-something dethroned dotcom ceo that went to work at mcdonald's (2000)

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Re: I was a 20-something dethroned dotcom ceo that went to work at mcdonald's (2000)

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can call us just "Americans". The US is unnecessary, thank you.

[flagged]

People from those continents call themselves south americans or north americans. Just as you have european and asians, people don't call themselves eurasian.

Furthermore, both people from north and south america understand that american means a person from the USA. It doesn't refer to a person that may be from either one continent or the other. Also people don't call themselves western hemispherian or eastern hemispherian either.

What does African refer to? a person from Nigeria and Zimbabwe or also a person from Egypt or Algeria, or are they north-africans? Are algerian-americans african-americans?

Who is a 'new yorker', someone from manhattan, or new york city, or new york state?

Sometimes things are blurry.

Re: I was a 20-something dethroned dotcom ceo that went to work at mcdonald's (2000)

#132
I miss the carefree days of working in fast food in my late teens and early 20s. Getting stoned with friends, eating crappy food, staying up all night living care free. Glad I'm not doing it now, but there was a sense of wonder and joy in the simplicity of it all.

Re: I was a 20-something dethroned dotcom ceo that went to work at mcdonald's (2000)

#133
post #105
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno. Sounds like you've never bitten off more than you can chew. I have found myself in a situation before, where my continued participation would be an immediate low-grade harm and my rate of improvement was slow because I had volunteered for something well out of my wheelhouse. So I had a dilemma: give up and disappoint today, forcing my replacement; or carry on in my incompetence and risk the whole endeavor. Q…

Are you implying that working at a McDonalds counter was more than the future founder of meetup.com could chew?

I will state outright that the founder of meetup.com did not have what it takes to work the counter at McDonald's. It takes the ability to shovel shit with a smile, for less pay than it takes to afford a shithole studio apartment, and zero intangible reward. For a CEO to actually take that job, and succeed in it, would be quite the stunner.

Re: I was a 20-something dethroned dotcom ceo that went to work at mcdonald's (2000)

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those are the minimum expectations for any job. If you can't do those things you will forever be dependent on others to take care of you unless you were born into very fortunate circumstances.

I would say stealing is the only of those that would exclude you from any job. Lots of stuff requires intermittent random periods of competence on your own schedule. For instance you could buy a dilapidated house and drunkenly fix it during moments of clarity and make a fat profit. Or fix and flip cars. Really anything involving independently flipping stuff.

That may be a career, but it's not a job.

Very few jobs are happy for you to show up whenever, in whatever state you want, with intermittent or stably low competence.

Re: I was a 20-something dethroned dotcom ceo that went to work at mcdonald's (2000)

#135
post #2

"10/[20]00-10/[20]00: counterperson, mcdonald's" Does that mean he worked there for one month or less? I checked his Linkedin, the job isn't listed. Jan 2002 he started a new photo startup ("50M+ members posted a billion photos"), then co-founder&CEO of meetup. It's a good time capsule of what his thinking was in 2000 but I wonder if it was more than a break. At my office job I, too, often think I should drive an Ube…

We, the internet people, should all work a regular job for 2-4 weeks year. I think far too often that I'd like to experience being a truck driver before I die. Why there are no companies that arrange this? We need a Kidzania for adult nerds.

I worked in bars and restaurants on the weekend when I held a full-time job during the week, so it's possible. The variety also keeps you from burning out.

If you aren't to hard-up for money, there's always volunteer work to scratch your "regular job" itch.

Re: I was a 20-something dethroned dotcom ceo that went to work at mcdonald's (2000)

#136
post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Herman Pontzer, an anthropology professor, talks quite a bit about a study he did on the calorie needs of people who are highly active on this podcast: https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc-podcast/examining-energy-evoluti... Spoiler alert: you burn basically the same number of calories per day sitting on your butt as you do being quite physically active.

> Herman Pontzer, an anthropology professor > you burn basically the same number of calories per day sitting on your butt as you do being quite physically active Can you provide more evidence for this, because it sounds entirely bogus. Perhaps you mean one's base metabolic rate? If you are physically active, you will consume more calories than sitting all day - because, you know, you are exerting yourself. Also, an a…

HN is not the place to discuss diet, exercise, fitness, or health. Every thread is the same: the human body ackchuwally runs on magic. Diet is really, really complicated. In fact, nobody burns calories at all. The body just does it's own thing. Watch this Youtube video about it. They quote an anthropologist.

Re: I was a 20-something dethroned dotcom ceo that went to work at mcdonald's (2000)

#137
post #2

"10/[20]00-10/[20]00: counterperson, mcdonald's" Does that mean he worked there for one month or less? I checked his Linkedin, the job isn't listed. Jan 2002 he started a new photo startup ("50M+ members posted a billion photos"), then co-founder&CEO of meetup. It's a good time capsule of what his thinking was in 2000 but I wonder if it was more than a break. At my office job I, too, often think I should drive an Ube…

We, the internet people, should all work a regular job for 2-4 weeks year. I think far too often that I'd like to experience being a truck driver before I die. Why there are no companies that arrange this? We need a Kidzania for adult nerds.

>Why there are no companies that arrange this?

That's a weird expectation. But I think, for starters, that the reason you don't see it often is that when it comes to jobs working with your hands, you'll find that incredibly costly accidents by employees overwhelmingly occur within the first few months. I've seen it while a technician at Verizon and also for the local transportation agency. A new hire is an investment where you take on massive risk to start with, and you recoup costs incurred after the first few months when the risk dramatically falls.

Re: I was a 20-something dethroned dotcom ceo that went to work at mcdonald's (2000)

#138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nobody thanked me. I don't buy this for a second. I thank everyone for even the most trivial of interactions and I'm certainly not alone (in the US) Buy a Coke at 7-11 - "thank you!" Take package from UPS guy - "thank you!" Waiter takes order - "thank you!" Support rep puts me on hold to look up issue - "thank you!" Pretty much every retail/store interaction - "thank you!"

I always say thankyou. Got three raw burgers at a restaurant this summer and just asked for them to be cooked. They gave us new ones, took an hour longer. Still tipped 20% and thanked them sincerely and said not to worry about it. The waiter got choked up. I'm not going to be an ass in front of my kids. I worked manual labour planting trees for ten seasons, know what it's like to struggle.

Never be an *ss in front of anyones kids. I always also say thank you, and to I'll add to p.o.c. "Have a blessed day." I got that from my friend answering machine. Thanks Solomon, I will.

I dug ditches for just one season, and I can still feel it sometimes. The struggle is hard and it real.

Re: I was a 20-something dethroned dotcom ceo that went to work at mcdonald's (2000)

#139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nobody thanked me. I don't buy this for a second. I thank everyone for even the most trivial of interactions and I'm certainly not alone (in the US) Buy a Coke at 7-11 - "thank you!" Take package from UPS guy - "thank you!" Waiter takes order - "thank you!" Support rep puts me on hold to look up issue - "thank you!" Pretty much every retail/store interaction - "thank you!"

It's anecdotal, but my wife was a Disneyland cast member for ~5 years. She claims that the words 'thank you' were a rare occurrence to hear from guests...

Just wow. Wow.

Re: I was a 20-something dethroned dotcom ceo that went to work at mcdonald's (2000)

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nobody thanked me. I don't buy this for a second. I thank everyone for even the most trivial of interactions and I'm certainly not alone (in the US) Buy a Coke at 7-11 - "thank you!" Take package from UPS guy - "thank you!" Waiter takes order - "thank you!" Support rep puts me on hold to look up issue - "thank you!" Pretty much every retail/store interaction - "thank you!"

You may be in the U.S, but are clearly from Canada

I went to Canada for a birthday week. Great time. Interacted with a lot of people. Not a single scourging word. Not a one. Zero. I will never forget that.
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