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The days are long but the decades are short

blog.samaltman.com

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Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#311

Post by ddingus »

rkroondotnet wrote: post #8

One of the things I always feel when I read something like this is that I am running out of time. I'm 29, so this is a comparison that's easy to make. And because I feel like maybe you guys will have the same reaction I wanted to show you this: http://www.businessinsider.com/people-who-became-successful-... There may be a better version of this article out there, but the essence is that it's not too late to start to…

Heck, I've changed careers, and been great at each of them, three times.

I'm looking to do it again too, but not for a while. I've got some unfinished business with this one.

A mentor of mine is late in life now. We've had a 20 year dialog on this. Never, ever too late.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#312

Post by ddingus »

JohnLen wrote: post #301

Might be due to the competitive nature that we are living in this world. Things moving fast and everyone competes to be better, working longer hours each day . The hectic life that we experiencing daily make us feels like time past faster.

THIS!

I've noticed the difference. It's been slower. I feel like managing this perception is very important.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#315

Post by ub »

astrocat wrote: post #68

> On work: it’s difficult to do a great job on work you don’t care about. And it’s hard to be totally happy/fulfilled in life if you don’t like what you do for your work I get that this is aimed at the startup crowd, but I've always felt that this sentiment is pretty privileged. We, the elite, get to cherry pick our work and do what we like. But I bet 9/10 people will never feel they have this luxury, and 8/10 will b…

Agreed.Read a meme somewhere that if only hardwork and perseverance resulted in success, then African village women would have been millionaires.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#316

Post by ddingus »

marincounty wrote: post #209
samsolomon wrote: post #3

Those of you on HN that are past the 30+ mark. What would you add to this list?

This will sound narcisstic, and calculating, but here goes; Make friends with people younger than you. I never felt comfortable with people from my generation. I seemed to become friends with people older than myself. I didn't do it on a conscious level, but it happened. I would buy things like 8 person rafts, double kayaks, huge tents. Everything I planned for had another close person/girlfriend in mind. They all pa…

And older.

I have a wide array of friends, and what I've found is some of them become mentors, and we become mentors and it can all add up to this nice resonance where we give and receive energy, perspective, help, opportunity.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#317

Post by klibertp »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #39
mikeg8 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an amazing father and grandfathers, all of whom I am close with. I've dreamed of being a father for many years (26M) and think I'll make a great one someday based on the examples I was fortunate enough to have. But I don't like the thought that as soon as you have a child, you instantly have to be defined by that. Is reproduction really the meaning to life? (Biologists say absolutely). And saying you don't hav…

Not reproduction: parenthood. Never mind how the kid got there; they are soon more important than everything you naïvely thought mattered. Not so much defined by that. Instead, motivated by entirely new impulses. Its not that you change your mind about success. Your mind changes, and that isn't a bad thing.

> Your mind changes

I'm very suspicious about that. Every new experience has the chance of changing the way you think, it's natural. But for something to have that much of an impact it has to involve a lot of brain chemistry. And I don't trust in being intoxicated by hormones, I'd rather use other, safer drugs for this.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#318

Post by peteretep »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #310
peteretep wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Start saving and investing as early as you can. If you > haven't, do it on a war footing. Get rid of debt. Yeah, maybe. My net positive worth went red about age 18, and stayed that way (sometimes drastically) until I was about 30, when I finally clawed my way back out of the debt hole. The decisions I made, the things I learned, the rash choices I made, decisions to quit jobs and do something exciting when I couldn…

Think how much more you could have done if you didn't have to pay all that debt interest.

The only way I could have done more would have been a second body and a time machine.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#320

Post by [deleted] »

ddingus wrote: post #305
paulhauggis wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Then you did not have a regular job. You had a job that paid you enough to support yourself while retaining enough free time and mental energy to pursue your startup idea. For most people, this is not the case (esp. the mental energy bit)." I did have a 'regular job'. Most people party, hang out with their friends, and do plenty of other things in their free time. If you have the mental energy to do any of these thi…

Well said. Building a future generally costs us 10 to 20 percent of our "fun" time, or personal time.

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