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How to Be Successful

blog.samaltman.com

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Re: How to Be Successful

#151

Post by pesmhey »

porpoisely wrote: post #92

I find these types of articles/blogs to be relatively pointless because the market/economy/country/etc has room for a select few successes. Imagine if Obama wrote "How to Be a Successful Presidential Candidate" and every 2016 candidate read it and adopted it to a tee. We'd still have dozens of failures and only 1 success. If success were really a formula, then we'd all be successful. We can't all get into harvard, we…

Hard work will get you contacts, 100%. No one can control luck, but hard work and showing up will guarantee at least a comfortable level of success. Yeah, the rest is luck.

Re: How to Be Successful

#152

Post by SiVal »

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,…

Decades ago, I heard a [possibly apocryphal] story that was already decades old about an encounter between a man famous for his vast wealth (I can't remember who, Carnegie, Morgan, Rockefeller..?) and a fan. A man recognized the rich guy on the street and approached him. "Are you ?" Yes. "Tell me, what does it really feel like to have so much money?"

"Young man, I could probably ask you the same question." The young man looked puzzled. The rich man continued, "Do you feel as though you have enough money?" "Well, sure, I suppose, but it would be great to have more."

"How does it feel--feeling that you have enough money and more would be a luxury? I've never once felt that way, so I can't stop until I feel that way, too."

Devoting your life to getting above some very high percentile in money is not the best use of your only life for most people, in my opinion, but as long as they're not stealing it, it's okay with me if others want that for themselves (and I don't feel entitled to a share of it.) I think we all should take seriously the responsibility to support ourselves and to help others who can't, but beyond that, there are countless forms of success that are as worthy as "owning lots of valuable things".

Re: How to Be Successful

#153

Post by enraged_camel »

ams6110 wrote: post #119
enraged_camel wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>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…

I have no problem if all someone wants out of life is to get high and jack off. I do have somewhat of a problem being forced to pay for it.

Again though, why do you have a problem with other people doing things that make them happy?

Re: How to Be Successful

#154

Post by pesmhey »

ams6110 wrote: post #128
mcilai wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My view is different: the number of people who are willing to truly do evening this post recommends is just small. But those who are willing to pay the cost of success have a real chance of getting it. It's just that most people likely conclude that success is not truly worth it.

If you do nothing else, in my observation you can go a long way by just following this advice: you need to own equity in something, instead of just selling your time Even if it's just owning some index funds, equity in things that grow and compound over time is the easiest way to wealth I can think of.

It’s interesting that the GP says ‘success’ and you’ve said ‘wealth’. One of those Freudian slips that belies true intention. More often than not, wealth follows success, not the other way around. But to be 100% clear, success and wealth are not one and the same.

Re: How to Be Successful

#155

Post by ceejayoz »

throwaway8451 wrote: post #99
rguzman wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not disputing that privilege is a thing, but don't you think that if this were true, all people who are born into a middle-class wealthy family and go to a nice school would achieve outlier success? it could be that the privilege is a pre-req to outlier success, but there are counter-examples. and then, if you observe that both groups (the counter-examples and the people who satisfy the pre-req and achieve outlier su…

Am I the only one who finds the concept of privilege resentful? It is shifting the reference point downwards, defining being disadvantaged as the standard and everything above as privileged. In my opinion that's a terrible idea as striving to become better has to be good and not something that you eventually should feel bad about.

The idea is not to "feel bad about" being male, or white, or having four functional limbs. The idea is to recognize that these characteristics - which others can't "strive" towards - may give us advantages that aren't earned.

If I suddenly became black, and nothing else about me changed, studies have shown I'd likely be treated differently by police, potential employers, medical facilities, etc.

Recognizing that fact may make it easier to combat. Perhaps the next time I interview a woman I might be more conscious of the fact that what I'd perhaps have seen as "assertiveness" or "confidence" in a male candidate is being noted as "pushy" or "bitchy" in the female one, and back off from that assessment somewhat.

Re: How to Be Successful

#156

Post by goatherders »

whack wrote: post #143
porpoisely wrote: post #92

I find these types of articles/blogs to be relatively pointless because the market/economy/country/etc has room for a select few successes. Imagine if Obama wrote "How to Be a Successful Presidential Candidate" and every 2016 candidate read it and adopted it to a tee. We'd still have dozens of failures and only 1 success. If success were really a formula, then we'd all be successful. We can't all get into harvard, we…

> I find these types of articles/blogs to be relatively pointless As opposed to comments like yours which are completely pointless. Yes, not everyone can be in the 99th percentile. But the people who do, didn't just get randomly picked out of a hat. They got there by leveraging as much advice/wisdom as they could get your hands on, and then executing on it. And that's exactly the audience this article is targeting. C…

The vast majority of the 99th percentile didnt leverage anything outside of being born to the right family.

Re: How to Be Successful

#157

Post by shadowbannedtoo »

ams6110 wrote: post #119
enraged_camel wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>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…

I have no problem if all someone wants out of life is to get high and jack off. I do have somewhat of a problem being forced to pay for it.

The wealthy control us with the, 'I don't want to pay for it trick.'

Any new idea, like UBI, that might equal out the playing field, a bit, is so easily shot down by scare tactics.

I foresee a future of just rich people, and the exploited. I truly find it depressing. The wealthy have us all blaming the wrong people. The middle class blame the poor. The whiter ones blaming the darker ones. Just blame someone except the rich boys, and the buying power of that family money.

All the while, the crafty boys are controlling our thoughts, and actions.

All this cheap tech surveillance, and cheap psyops, just make the wealthy chaps goal of keeping us enslaved easier.

Re: How to Be Successful

#158

Post by sangd »

These are very uninteresting to read. The first 3 points don't really explain how to successfully achieve them. They all come to 1 single point, you must be very skillful at multiple things to achieve them. And I think you're defining money/finance success, and not other kinds of successes.

Re: How to Be Successful

#159

Post by amelius »

porpoisely wrote: post #92

I find these types of articles/blogs to be relatively pointless because the market/economy/country/etc has room for a select few successes. Imagine if Obama wrote "How to Be a Successful Presidential Candidate" and every 2016 candidate read it and adopted it to a tee. We'd still have dozens of failures and only 1 success. If success were really a formula, then we'd all be successful. We can't all get into harvard, we…

One solution is to simply refuse to participate in winner-takes-all situations.

Re: How to Be Successful

#160

Post by adetrest »

I agree with you.

All these books and essays ultimately boil down to "what worked for me, plus a million other things I'm not mentioning because they're not as glamorous, and a ton of luck: it could happen to you too!"

Yes there is hard work in becoming successful but a ton of it is luck: being in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing, with the right people... This talk, peddling luck, expresses what I mean: https://vimeo.com/53494258

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