Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Create value for others and don’t worry about the returns

geohot.github.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 496 posts

Re: Create value for others and don’t worry about the returns

#321

Post by keiferski »

WJW wrote: post #316
economistbob wrote: post #299

The world very much is a Red Queen Race if your country has a program to import Indian tech workers. The only way to leave the Red Queen race in such countries is to abandon your career field and work in food service or retail instead.

Why not become a skilled craftsman and make a much better wage than in food service or retail? Every western country I've ever been in seems to have everlasting shortages of skilled plumbers, electricians and welders and prices have risen to match.

The un-politically correct answer is that many college educated people perceive those working in the trades to be socially beneath them. And they often have different opinions on social issues than the typical tradesperson, which is apparently really important if you’re a plumber but not if you work at BigCo.

Re: Create value for others and don’t worry about the returns

#322

Post by [deleted] »

WJW wrote: post #316
economistbob wrote: post #299

The world very much is a Red Queen Race if your country has a program to import Indian tech workers. The only way to leave the Red Queen race in such countries is to abandon your career field and work in food service or retail instead.

Why not become a skilled craftsman and make a much better wage than in food service or retail? Every western country I've ever been in seems to have everlasting shortages of skilled plumbers, electricians and welders and prices have risen to match.

[deleted]

Re: Create value for others and don’t worry about the returns

#324

Post by [deleted] »

zozbot234 wrote: post #280
ramraj07 wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone knows who geohot is and even if they do they may not see the url handle. They may (like me) think why is a glorified shower thought tweet on top of HN. They may not know that this dude was an anti-masker (with nuance) for example. This could really make them decide not to even spend too much time thinking about the passage which in theory is profound for 10 seconds but no further. As much as ad hominem a…

> They may not know that this dude was an anti-masker (with nuance) for example. Why are we supposed to care about that? There was a time when "masks do not work" was very much the conventional wisdom.

[deleted]

Re: Create value for others and don’t worry about the returns

#325

Post by neuralkoi »

ramraj07 wrote: post #259
hombre_fatal wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think HN needs the top comment to be a vague attack on someone in response to a blog post that the comment doesn't even interact with.

Not everyone knows who geohot is and even if they do they may not see the url handle. They may (like me) think why is a glorified shower thought tweet on top of HN. They may not know that this dude was an anti-masker (with nuance) for example. This could really make them decide not to even spend too much time thinking about the passage which in theory is profound for 10 seconds but no further. As much as ad hominem a…

Ad hominem attacks are never good approaches. They're irrational in nature. Ad hominem is one of the first fallacies taught in a critical thinking class.

Re: Create value for others and don’t worry about the returns

#326

Post by DangitBobby »

auggierose wrote: post #239
sfn42 wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just do my job to the best of my ability. If I can help a colleague I do. I don't expect to get explicitly credited for everything I do. If my employer can't see or don't care about the value I bring, I simply go to one who values me higher. I refuse to participate in office politics and that kind of BS.

If you are employed, by definition you have outsourced the worries about the return on the value you create to your employer.

And they, in turn, have outsourced the worries of the value they need you to create onto you!

Re: Create value for others and don’t worry about the returns

#327

Post by NickC25 »

paulryanrogers wrote: post #250
ap99 wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to be a fanboy to respect outcomes. He's got a winning track record. You may not agree with his politics or his morals but that's separate from his effectiveness. Specifically he's effective at stepping outside the domain he currently operates into create inside another.

Effectively helping elect a dictator who is in love with fossil fuels undercuts at lot of his "wins". Never mind the Nazi saluting, fraudulent advertising, or bypassing safety regulations.

Or begging Epstein for a chance to visit his island. Cringe.

Re: Create value for others and don’t worry about the returns

#328

Post by sarchertech »

WJW wrote: post #316
economistbob wrote: post #299

The world very much is a Red Queen Race if your country has a program to import Indian tech workers. The only way to leave the Red Queen race in such countries is to abandon your career field and work in food service or retail instead.

Why not become a skilled craftsman and make a much better wage than in food service or retail? Every western country I've ever been in seems to have everlasting shortages of skilled plumbers, electricians and welders and prices have risen to match.

The skilled trades are better than unskilled work. Better than retail or food service, but they certainly aren’t a replacement for white collar jobs.

The median salaries for skilled trades aren’t great. You can make good money if you are willing to work a ton of overtime, or if you can manage to get one of the very limited union spots in the right city. Or if you become a business owner (and accept the corresponding risk) and mostly manage other skilled employees.

It’s also not a viable solution for more than a small percent of the population. Let’s say AI comes along and forces 25% of the white collar workers out of a job, there is only enough room in the skilled trades to handle a tiny fraction of those displaced workers.

That’s ignoring what massive unemployment does to salaries in the trades. And the fact that to make decent money in the trades you need years of working for peanuts first. And if you think age discrimination is a problem in tech, try breaking into the trades as a gray beard. The entry level jobs are built on the assumption that you are 20 years old and can do 12 hours of hard physical labor without needing a week off to recover.

Again it’s not impossible, it’s just not a solution at any kind of scale.

Re: Create value for others and don’t worry about the returns

#330

Post by safety1st »

keiferski wrote: post #318

As is often the case, the title is a bit misleading and implies a universality that I don’t think the author intended. He is specifically talking about AI, and saying (in my understanding) that you shouldn’t worry too much about whether your specific thing will be overwritten by AI, as long as you focus on actually creating true, real value with your work. I agree with that completely and can see it happening in my o…

I mean it's a title. Titles are under no obligation to condense the entire content of the article into one sentence. People who want to comment on the article should read it first, and then write in good faith.

The problem lies in the HN comments which have taken that title and interpreted it through the lens of unrelated political arguments: class warfare, anti-offshoring, etc. etc. I don't think any title would be immune from these people. They're just angry because the Internet has its hooks in their brain, and they're going to post about it.

His points are good and people would be wise to read the article and take them to heart. His key points are:

1) If you're a rent seeker, current trends will probably see you lose out to a bigger and more powerful rent seeker. He's probably right about that.

2) Creating more value than you consume is a great form of self-preservation, when you do this no one wants to get rid of you.

None of it's political. It's just good advice for life. I hereby forbid the masses from responding to these points with political rage bait.

HN has better moderation than a lot of places but from my vantage point the entire Internet is sinking into this garbage - we're more aware of the problem these days, at least, but everything and everywhere is more consumed by political hot takes than ever before.

If there was tech that forced commenters to read the article before they could comment on it - now THAT would be a valuable innovation!

Post reply on HN