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Join the Engineering Leisure Class

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Re: Join the Engineering Leisure Class

#131

Post by vinceguidry »

WalterSear wrote: post #126
vinceguidry wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not for me. I got a safety razor a few years ago, never looked back until I found myself traveling, and, unable to bring my blades, just went to the grocery store and got a cheap three-blade razor. Night and day difference.

It depends a lot on the quality of the blades, and if you store them dunked in mineral oil between shaves. Some brands of blades I got were garbage out of the box. None of them were much good if they had been left out for a few days after use - same are disposables in that regard.

Even getting a brand new blade just isn't as good as a mediocre modern 3-blade razor. I had to face the facts that I really just moved to single-blade motivated mostly by the savings and the irrational belief that the way we used to do things is better than iterated, market-driven technological advances in consumer goods.

Re: Join the Engineering Leisure Class

#132

Post by ryandrake »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #120
s73v3r wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Choosing to work in a locale where a median home price is a million dollars is a luxury. Engineers could pick from other metro areas, and get fairly close to $100K/year with much lower costs of living (Austin, Dallas, Durham come to mind, there are many more)." And have their potential job prospects cut in half or worse.

What good is a job when you need $100-150K/year to lead a middle class life in SF?

The point is that they are plentiful in SF and Silicon Valley, and that reduces risk. When you lose your job in the Bay Area, you walk across the street, resume in hand, and lo and behold there's another tech employer. When you lose your job in, say, rural Florida, you have to move or take up bartending to survive.

I'd love to move back east, and would in a heartbeat, but I'd have to settle for a single digit number of local employers, and that's not a risk I'm willing to take. The fact that houses are $1MM+ here in the Bay Area is the price I pay for a bit of employment security.

Re: Join the Engineering Leisure Class

#133

Post by cbr »

rifung wrote: post #77
gwern wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I want to continue studying piano, but pianos cost money, getting a house costs money, and lessons cost money. Given the difficulty people experience in getting rid of pianos, and the constant flood of pianos, a piano might not cost you much money; you might even be able to get paid to take a nice piano off someone's hands: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/30/arts/music/for-more-pianos...

Hey, thanks for taking the time to try and help me out! It does seem like it's a buyer's market right now for pianos, but a decent piano still costs a considerable amount of money. Of course, I think this is partly because I'm very serious about it so I don't want just anything. If you get a poorly maintained piano, it could cost several thousand dollars to restore it. Just replacing the actions of a grand costs some…

If you're willing to try a lot of free pianos and know how to recognize ones that don't need restoring you can get a good one for the cost of having it moved.

Re: Join the Engineering Leisure Class

#134

Post by xacaxulu »

MisterWalter wrote: post #108

It always drives me crazy when people that make 50k+ a year complain about not having money. I live on about $500-$600 a month and I'm fine. Granted, not everyone is ablebodied and living within biking distance of their school/work, but most certainly could be, especially with a little effort. Not needing money is incredibly liberating, I advise everyone to just try it for a year.

None of us 'need' money after a certain point but everyone's perceived 'enough' is different. Some of us love having a good chunk of money and the amazing opportunities that it brings.

Re: Join the Engineering Leisure Class

#135

Post by andyidsinga »

balls187 wrote: post #82
zrail wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have to do something with my time, so I might as well get paid handsomely for it. There's actually an interesting component to that. Likely since you first started working you've never actually been in a situation where you don't need to sell your time in order to pay your expenses. I sure haven't. But I've read a lot of stories from people who are currently in that situation, and the feeling of having to do some…

> Likely since you first started working you've never actually been in a situation where you don't need to sell your time in order to pay your expenses. I sure haven't. Actually that's not true. When I was 28 years old, I quit my job, "retired" and traveled. It got old quick. I missed the challenges of solving engineering problems, the comradarie I have with coworkers, and the shared sense of purpose you get with wor…

>Instead I subscribe to the "don't wait till you retire" to do the things you want to do. I want to travel, so I travel.

This! I'm with you. why should I ever "retire"?

Re: Join the Engineering Leisure Class

#136

Post by PopeOfNope »

jnem wrote: post #101
vinceguidry wrote: post #21

> Luckily, there’s a corner of the Internet dedicated to breaking the link between “comfort” and money. The problem with this is that it moves in the wrong direction. You spent all this time learning how to earn more money for your time. Then what do you do after you earn a bunch of money? Figure out how to trade your time for money again, just in different arenas? Why, so you can avoid having to spend more time doin…

Sorry, but i cant find a reference to what MMM means anywhere. Im guessing you guys aren't talking about the Moon Miners Manifesto.. or talking about enjoying something "mmm.mmm.mmm"

Many Men of Michigan.

Re: Join the Engineering Leisure Class

#137

Post by devonkim »

s73v3r wrote: post #117
toomuchtodo wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not trying to be hard on the author of this piece, but I do think it's important for people to know that engineers in SF even in dual income families struggle with housing and child care payments, not with luxury cars, expensive vacation, lovely luxuries. Choosing to work in a locale where a median home price is a million dollars is a luxury. Engineers could pick from other metro areas, and get fairly close to…

"Choosing to work in a locale where a median home price is a million dollars is a luxury. Engineers could pick from other metro areas, and get fairly close to $100K/year with much lower costs of living (Austin, Dallas, Durham come to mind, there are many more)." And have their potential job prospects cut in half or worse.

I haven't heard of many $100k+ software jobs in Durham. It's almost all RedHat, that one small MS office, and Ansibleworks I would imagine that make up much of the ones north of that I'd imagine. I worked with a team in Cary and I got the impression that they were paid less than us in the Seattle area for sure for comparable experience.

Re: Join the Engineering Leisure Class

#138

Post by charlieflowers »

falcolas wrote: post #105
zrail wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not really what MMM espouses, from what I've been able to tell (I've actually spent the better part of the last month devouring his blog and the forums). MMM's point is that, if you live well within your means and can save 50% of your income (however you choose to define that, but most people do after-tax), you can "retire" after a short number of years. "Retirement" is very much however you want to define it,…

> if you live well within your means Which they define as no morgage. No car loans. No TV. "Fuck cleanliness". "Luxury is a weakness". Fix your own car. Don't use AC in Phoenix (?!). > your previous investments can take care of your lower-than-average expenses How can, to use MMM's numbers, 17 years of living on 50% income somehow support 50-70 years of living on that other 50%? His answer? Drop your spending by anot…

> He's living currently on about 25k a year, which is a over 25% of his starting income, and certainly more than the 4% he advocates above

Something is wrong with your math there (unless I am misunderstanding you). $25k is not more than 4% of his total savings. (In other words, he has more than $625,000 in his investment portfolio).

He exceeds his own advice, because to him it is not deprivation.

Re: Join the Engineering Leisure Class

#139

Post by tomjacobs »

This is exactly what I'm building with Glitch Club. It's a community of talented engineers who could be creating great things if they had the support of others and the community feedback on their work daily. Check it out:

http://glitchclub.com

At the moment I'm exploring other directions with it, such as having it as a story telling platform, but the original idea was a startup/engineering sounding board. With reply videos able to be added to the existing videos there, and smart conversations happening through video replying to video.

Re: Join the Engineering Leisure Class

#140

Post by sukilot »

vinceguidry wrote: post #131
WalterSear wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends a lot on the quality of the blades, and if you store them dunked in mineral oil between shaves. Some brands of blades I got were garbage out of the box. None of them were much good if they had been left out for a few days after use - same are disposables in that regard.

Even getting a brand new blade just isn't as good as a mediocre modern 3-blade razor. I had to face the facts that I really just moved to single-blade motivated mostly by the savings and the irrational belief that the way we used to do things is better than iterated, market-driven technological advances in consumer goods.

I don't get the money saving aspect. If you want to be frugal, just grow stubble or a beard. A $3 razor will last for over a month.
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