241–250 of 375 posts
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On a long enough timeline the memory of Marcus Aurelius will extinguish.
That's a strong claim given that we don't yet fully understand the laws of physics.
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Also, it's unlikely there will ever be another Musk or Zuckerberg in tech. Technology is a largely established industry and it's very unlikely that a single person is going to found and maintain control of another trillion dollar company. Zuck-a-bees need to get in on the ground floor of the next, next big thing, which barely exists right now.
This may be correct, but you cannot be certain of this at all. Everyone always thinks they're at the end of history in one way or another. Saying that current big tech companies have reached a critical threshold and will remain static for a certain amount of time is like watching a stock price go up - you may think it's a sign that it will continue growing, or that it's peaking and will go down, but you can only say…
I am not saying it is easy, far from it, but the idea that there is no chance for unknown person/companies cannot grow to establish themselves as giants is ludicrous.
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That's precisely my point regarding the rat race - what is one trying to catch up to? Is there economic or social anxiety at 350k/yr which evaporates at 400k/yr?
Absolutely. Purchasing real estate (or even a Tesla, etc) is out of reach for people like me, and likely will be for 10+ years from now. Say someone makes 150% or more of what I make (ergo are valued 150% superior in a fair labor market) and they can save far more and build a their net worth significantly faster even with a more luxurious lifestyle.
Pro tip: I am a negative example; don't do what I did. If you are success and prestige oriented, do not chase hard problems. Go after easy problems that are well compensated. Hard problems run the risk of failure, from which it is difficult to "catch up", and typically aren't all that well paid.
The thought process goes like this: 'person on tv is getting love and attention; I want love and attention; I'm going to mindlessly try and copy everything about them, down to what underwear brand they wear'.
This is how advertising works.
That's usually the feminine version. The masculine version goes 'I'm going to win at all costs'.
Here is how an intelligent person thinks: 'This society is a disaster, I am going to learn to distance myself and pursue my calling, while doing my best to provide a safe environment for myself and my loved ones'.
Notice how there is a calling, there is coming to terms with harsh realities of mob mentality and there is an attempt at creating a mini eco-system of love for a small number of people.
Idiots' calling is 'other people need to like me!' or 'I need to be better/higher up the dominance hierarchy than others!'. They need mobs because they think they can get a mob to like them and not turn on them afterwards, or they derive their self worth from comparing themselves to the mob by being 'better' than them or even worse - they need the mob to use it to achieve their psychotic visions of a better world (every war general)! They don't create ecosystems because they are fine with living in pig shit, as long as other pigs tell him/her how great he/she is or they get to 'win' (Gary Vee is a prime example of this lately).
Just my thoughts on it at this point in my life of course :)
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You know I hear this argument a lot and I don't buy it because it ignores a baseline at the lower end. I think there are a lot of people that are not concerned with the luxuries you reference but are deeply concerned with their base needs and random setbacks life throws at them. They basically want to save for a rainy day so as avoid stress when they encounter bumps in the road. It's like asking someone who works for…
You're completely correct, diminishing returns of income on happiness is well established, and I would be surprised if people here were not aware. This community skews very hard towards high earners though, so people here probably view that as something that goes without saying, but that isn't within the purview of this particular discussion about the rat race in tech. Among this community, it's probably true that a…
From David Brooks: "I’ve been thinking about the difference between the résumé virtues and the eulogy virtues. The résumé virtues are the ones you list on your résumé, the skills that you bring to the job market and that contribute to external success. The eulogy virtues are deeper. They’re the virtues that get talked about at your funeral, the ones that exist at the core of your being — whether you are kind, brave,…
OT, and possibly unpopular here, but this really gets on my nerves: > In Paul Graham’s essay on, How to Do what You Love* he warns us about the prestige trap: (...) you have to like the actual work of novel-writing if you’re going to be good at it; you have to like making up elaborate lies* PG's contempt for anything literary pervades in many of his essays, which may reveal some kind of unhealthy obsession, esp. for…
> She would say, “Dave, you only got one award this year. Remember when you won seven last year?” > If it wasn’t that, maybe it was also because I am gay. My mother was never really happy about this Ah, the absolute pinnacle of neurosis parenting. That's a solid one-two punch to the child's psyche, which gives them a drive to please while at the same time ensuring it can never be met. Well done; you ensured your chil…
The author is very deliberate about blaming his mother for negative outcomes in his life. Despite the likely case (guessing here) of the mom loving him unconditionally, but wanting to imbibe ambition in him. The phenomenon of disliking one's parents for being too harh is much more prevalent in the West. And yet, parents in China and India are harder on their kids, while those kids are growing up to loving their paren…
Got any evidence for that? Those cultures place a stronger emphasis on duty and obedience to parents. That's not the same as love though. It's possible to dislike one's parents but still take care of them in their old age because it's what society expects of you and you'd be considered a bad person if you did otherwise.
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Going through the realization right now that I need to go “FANG” or get out of the Bay Area right now. Just got engaged and I have been looking at costs. I thought I could make a small family work here on $170k. That’s dead wrong. I would need at least $300k to make a family of 4 comfortable here. My wife and I both want her to stay at home and focus on the kids and she makes non tech money anyway. Even at this amoun…
My wife and I went through the exact same thing back in 2006 and I can tell you while fear of the unknown is real, it might have been the single best decision we ever made. Also, Phoenix is pretty reasonable cost of living wise and they have a growing number of opportunities tech wise. June 15 - Oct 15 suck but you get used to it.