Ask HN: Delivery guy is a chemist with 2 teenage kids. Can this happen to me?

Post by lighttower » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 5:01 AM UTC

yesenadam wrote: post #48

dx7tnt wrote: post #23

Maybe his kids are doing well because he has a lot of time to be a great dad and coach them? Life happens. Shit happens. Kids happen. Enjoy the ride and don't terrify yourself about money or what your life should look like. We all get 24 hours a day on the planet and from a long term perspective, almost nothing of what we do really matters. Maybe by moving boxes instead of schlepping in a lab for some deranged sociop…

I really loved your comment, all except for: >from a long term perspective, almost nothing of what we do really matters. So what? Yeah, in the long run we're all dead, so what? I imagine someone walking up to you, punching you in the face, and if you object, saying "Woahh! Calm down. From a long term perspective, almost nothing of what we do really matters. Don't you understand?" The things in peoples' lives matter p…

Post by zapperdapper » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 10:21 AM UTC

lighttower wrote: post #49

lucas_membrane wrote: post #29

There was a survey in Silicon Valley some years ago that showed that this kind of fear goes pretty far up, plenty of millionaires fear falling off the gravy train. I do my family's grocery shopping, and I have several times noticed new clerks at the checkout, men in the 40-65 age range who are a little too well dressed -- very nicely ironed and starched white shirts, fashionable ties and watches. They seldom become f…

I'm the OP. I'm CEO of a small biotech company. I'm terrified, constantly, of falling of the ladder, and never again be trusted to do anything of value again. I worry that I won't be young much longer and if this one doesn't go out of the ballpark then it's game over. I'll be at Trader Joe's bagging your groceries. Edit: Began as EE, hence my connection to HN . There isn't anything close to this community anywhere el…

Post by twoquestions » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 1:42 PM UTC

yesenadam wrote: post #46

thelasthuman wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And so the truth is laid bare. Capital > humanity This is why people is not free to move where they can find the most benefit, but capital is. Priorities.

You could equally interpret that as character > money, like I did. And take heart that $ can't buy everything.

Post by billwear » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 2:33 PM UTC

yesenadam wrote: post #45

billwear wrote: post #16

Start of my junior year in chemistry at Alabama, went in to talk to my adviser (his fifth year teaching there). He was sweating over paperwork, said it was the first time he made enough to file a tax return. I said, "Excuse me, I've got to go change my major." And I did. Never looked back.

Well sure, better to do a subject you care something about, chemistry evidently meant nothing to you. ..So why did you choose it in the first place?

Post by rchaud » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 3:17 PM UTC

anigbrowl wrote: post #26

craftyguy wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, perhaps the added stress (both to them and home life) was more than they wanted and they decided to stop running and go for a nice easy walk in the park.

That'd be nice, but but raising a family on a package delivery driver's income doesn't seem like a walk in the park either. I don't want to go off on a political tangent but I've always been struck by how capitalism is presented as both the great multiplier of wealth and the remorseless driver of competition and unyielding bottom lines.