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68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

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Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

#221

Post by joyj2nd »

CivBase wrote: post #123
anthony_r wrote: post #100

> Never use a credit card for credit. The only kind of credit, or debt, that is acceptable is debt to acquire something whose exchange value is extremely likely to increase, like in a home. The exchange value of most things diminishes or vanishes the moment you purchase them. Don’t be in debt to losers. While true on credit, I would like to point out that the statement "something whose exchange value is extremely lik…

I did not buy a house because I expected it to appreciate in value. I bought a house because the alternative was to pay rent. Rent is a service. A renter does not get anything of inherent, transferable value out of the exchange. A renter is also subject to the whims of his/her landlord and, from my experience, a renter has to move regularly to avoid rent increases and bad landlords. The majority of my mortgage paymen…

It may make more sense, to bey an apartment, rent it out and live in another place that your rent.

Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

#222

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

projektfu wrote: post #220
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect you live in the US. "Train for skills" is much more common in other countries, although less common than it used to be. Those experienced hires didn't get to be experienced at zero cost to anyone - other employers enabled them to become experienced. Be a good employer and do your part of the process: train for skills (so that someone else can hire those people too)

Sorry about the other response. It was flippant like yours was, but two wrongs don't make a right. The real issue is that in many industries you don't just walk into a top job with no experience. If I'm hiring a technician, it's going to be someone with experience because in this profession they will have started as a kennel keeper, then moved up to assistant, then started doing more technical work, usually as they a…

I certainly wasn't trying to be flippant.

The approach you previously (something like "I need to get people who've already acquired the experience") is very common in the USA today, but less so in e.g. northern European countries.

The approach you explicity describe here (the existence of a training/experience pathway) is something that you currently require to exist, but seem less willing to be the provider of.

I understand that there are going to be employment situations where providing those training pathways is impossible (or almost impossible). But particularly in the USA, we've gone too far in the other direction: offloading the generation of "experienced" to other, unnamed and unidentified people and organizations, and then expecting to be able to reap what others have sown.

Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

#223

Post by pps43 »

ibiza wrote: post #151

> Buying tools: Start by buying the absolute cheapest tools you can find. Upgrade... Strong "no" on this one. Always buy quality tools. These are priced at a premium, but unlike "inexpensive" tools will: • Do the job expected of them w/o creating a new problem • Be enjoyable to use • Last a long time (often, a lifetime)

Premature optimization. If you end up using a tool only once, buying the best quality tool for that is a waste of money. And you can rarely tell in advance which tool you'll be using often.

Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

#224

Post by egypturnash »

CivBase wrote: post #123
anthony_r wrote: post #100

> Never use a credit card for credit. The only kind of credit, or debt, that is acceptable is debt to acquire something whose exchange value is extremely likely to increase, like in a home. The exchange value of most things diminishes or vanishes the moment you purchase them. Don’t be in debt to losers. While true on credit, I would like to point out that the statement "something whose exchange value is extremely lik…

I did not buy a house because I expected it to appreciate in value. I bought a house because the alternative was to pay rent. Rent is a service. A renter does not get anything of inherent, transferable value out of the exchange. A renter is also subject to the whims of his/her landlord and, from my experience, a renter has to move regularly to avoid rent increases and bad landlords. The majority of my mortgage paymen…

A renter does not get anything of inherent, transferable value out of the exchange.

Does "I didn't have to find a contractor to tear out the kitchen wall when a leak on the third floor got all the way down to my first floor apartment, nor did I have to pay for them to do this, and could just keep on going to work as normal" count as value?

Any decent landlord provides the service of "medium-sized repairs happen without any more work on your part than a message".

Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

#225

Post by csomar »

CivBase wrote: post #123
anthony_r wrote: post #100

> Never use a credit card for credit. The only kind of credit, or debt, that is acceptable is debt to acquire something whose exchange value is extremely likely to increase, like in a home. The exchange value of most things diminishes or vanishes the moment you purchase them. Don’t be in debt to losers. While true on credit, I would like to point out that the statement "something whose exchange value is extremely lik…

I did not buy a house because I expected it to appreciate in value. I bought a house because the alternative was to pay rent. Rent is a service. A renter does not get anything of inherent, transferable value out of the exchange. A renter is also subject to the whims of his/her landlord and, from my experience, a renter has to move regularly to avoid rent increases and bad landlords. The majority of my mortgage paymen…

> A renter does not get anything of inherent, transferable value out of the exchange.

Your getting a roof? And maybe a garden?

> A renter is also subject to the whims of his/her landlord and, from my experience, a renter has to move regularly to avoid rent increases and bad landlords.

You have a contract that sets the duration. If you have a flexible contract you also have the option to change (if you have more money or need less space).

Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

#226

Post by gouggoug »

egypturnash wrote: post #224
CivBase wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did not buy a house because I expected it to appreciate in value. I bought a house because the alternative was to pay rent. Rent is a service. A renter does not get anything of inherent, transferable value out of the exchange. A renter is also subject to the whims of his/her landlord and, from my experience, a renter has to move regularly to avoid rent increases and bad landlords. The majority of my mortgage paymen…

A renter does not get anything of inherent, transferable value out of the exchange. Does "I didn't have to find a contractor to tear out the kitchen wall when a leak on the third floor got all the way down to my first floor apartment, nor did I have to pay for them to do this, and could just keep on going to work as normal" count as value? Any decent landlord provides the service of "medium-sized repairs happen witho…

> Does "I didn't have to find a contractor to tear out the kitchen wall when a leak on the third floor got all the way down to my first floor apartment, nor did I have to pay for them to do this, and could just keep on going to work as normal" count as value?

How often does this happen, and how much does it cost? I can guarantee you your time is not worth this much and it is still less expensive and safer for you to buy a house than rent one.

If you rent for 30 years, at the end of these 30 years you will have nothing and if anything happens, you'll be left in the streets.

If you take a loan for 30 years, at the end you will have a roof above your head, for the rest of your life. The small amount of time you spend finding a contractor and cost of those infrequent leaks repairs represent nothing.

Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

#227

Post by gouggoug »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #127
barbegal wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I completely disagree with this sentiment that debt = bad. You should use debt where it acts as an investment (in the true sense of the word investment, rather than speculation). If you need to take on debt to buy that car that saves you an hour walk to work every day then that is good debt. Is it a good idea to use debt to purchase a house? If we believe in free markets then ownership should have roughly the sa…

Debt is risk. What happens when you lose all your income (as millions are right now)? Payments can't get made, and repossessions happen. If losing a job doesn't sound like a disaster to you, you've probably never experienced it, and/or you have the privilege of having a career in an in-demand field.

But debt buys you a house when you're done repaying it.

If you are renting and you loose your income, the exact same thing happens to you, you can't pay and you might end up without a roof above your head.

I would rather be in debt and have a small chance of owning a house, than pay rent for 30 years knowing I will absolutely never own that house.

Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

#228

Post by 11235813213455 »

> When you are young spend at least 6 months to one year living as poor as you can, owning as little as you possibly can, eating beans and rice in a tiny room or tent, to experience what your “worst” lifestyle might be. That way any time you have to risk something in the future you won’t be afraid of the worst case scenario.

Done it around my 24, I lived 2 years without spending any money, except for my room rent (I was paying by cheques, since you don't really need a credit-card anymore in my case). I ate from student restaurants bread leftovers, markets ends (lots of fruits/vegs), and sometimes supermarket bins with other persons

You change dramatically after that, it's like a new life, with new values, minimalism, endurance, you know much more yourself. Why I did so? I don't know, I started for a few days, a week, then I didn't stop, there was some intent to save money, but the benefit was of course different, you actually risk to lose money, by losing your job, luckily it didn't happen, but I wasn't very productive

Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

#229

Post by BenjiWiebe »

ValentineC wrote: post #212
TeMPOraL wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I added one to my first-aid kit just for really emergency emergencies. I also love cyanoacrylate because it stops sticking when you apply water to it. I don't worry about my fingers, because whenever I work with this family of glues, I just keep a glass of water on my workbench, into which I dip the fingers if I notice I spilled some glue on them. The glue immediately polymerizes, and you can pull/scratch it of…

> The glue immediately polymerizes, and you can pull/scratch it off. Doesn't this also pull a chunk of your skin off?

No. Even fully cured cyanoacrylate can be picked off without taking skin off. It's actually kind of fun, like picking a scab. It doesn't come off easily though.

Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

#230

Post by saalweachter »

vidarh wrote: post #83
eitland wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

40 y.o. here as well. My life has improved after I started getting up extremely early (0400) four or so years ago. And that doesn't happen without an alarm clock. My point is not to say that you are wrong but that we might be better off trying different solution for ourselves instead of believing in authorities here or elsewhere. (I'm not saying you shouldn't listen to normal advice like getting good sleep etc, but d…

I think the most important point is not so much that you should never use an alarm (I do regularly), but that if you're unsure of whether you actually get enough sleep, it is worth finding out how much sleep you need, and ensure you get it, whether by adjusting your bedtime or your alarm time, or ensuring you compensate every few days. Too many people don't know how much sleep their body would want if unconstrained b…

The most interesting pattern I observed in my sleep is the integral patterns associated with it -- it's nearly impossible for me to wake up after less than 3.5 hours of sleep[1], and then after about 4 hours of sleep it becomes difficult again to wake up until after about 7.5 hours, when I usually wake up on my own, and then after around 8 hours of sleep if I oversleep you're probably not seeing me until I've finished a solid 11 hours.[0]

It's extraordinarily useful for planning when I am not getting much sleep. If I must be somewhere at X o'clock, and I can't get a full night's sleep for some reason, I make sure I am going to sleep so that my alarm starts going off when I am at around 3.5 hours of sleep or so. I've missed too many meetings and flights trying to get 5 or 6 hours of sleep. And if I've just pulled an all-nighter and need to be somewhere in 2 hours, I don't go to sleep unless I have someone who can literally kick me awake at the appropriate time, 'cuz nothing else is going to get it done.

[0] Yes, I've read enough about sleep to know most of the details behind such sleep rhythms.

[1] Well, having children does change that a bit, but a beep-beep-beep isn't going to get the job done.

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