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The days are long but the decades are short (2015)

blog.samaltman.com

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Re: The days are long but the decades are short (2015)

#51

Post by m463 »

aziaziazi wrote: post #21
angarg12 wrote: post #11

On 5): The most transformative step in my journey up the class ladder was when money stopped being a source of problems and instead became a way to solve problems.

Also on 5) > Whether or not money can buy happiness, it can buy freedom This is true outside of your work but not so much during it: - when you makes lots of money you feel less free to resign than for a shitty interchangeable job. It’s even more true as the shitty job has less chance to be intellectually interesting - building your own business usually means you’re even less free mentally as you got more responsibil…

It gave me the freedom to buy whatever monitor I wanted and cart it into work. Forget the 19" dell everyone else is stuck with! :)

Re: The days are long but the decades are short (2015)

#52

Post by m463 »

koolba wrote: post #26

> Summers are the best. If you take nothing else from this repost, let this really sink in. And for those of us in the northern hemisphere, you should have a plan by this point in the year for your work life to truly enjoy it when it arrives.

One time at work years ago, at our group meeting our manager said "and these are the things we'll be working on this summer".

It sort of stopped me in my tracks. I looked out the window at the green outside and thought of being stuck indoors working on a bunch of milestones and goals and... sigh.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short (2015)

#53

Post by JadedEngineer »

SoftTalker wrote: post #17
angarg12 wrote: post #11

On 5): The most transformative step in my journey up the class ladder was when money stopped being a source of problems and instead became a way to solve problems.

I have plenty of money (relatively speaking, I don't make FAANG money but I don't worry about paying the rent or saving for a rainy day). I have real trouble spending it though. It almost causes me physical pain to spend money on something I don't regard as essential. I don't like to travel, or eat expensive meals, or go to movies, concerts, shows, etc because I hate to spend the money on it. Don't know what the root…

There's a saying in my language that goes like "he'll be the richest person in the graveyard". Spend that surplus money, have fun, enjoy it. What else are you going to do with it anyway?

Re: The days are long but the decades are short (2015)

#54

Post by musicale »

weekendvampire wrote: post #18

I'm always surprised by how often advice from extremely successful people tends to repeat itself, which tells me that there really is no "secret" to making it and living a great life that I don't already know.

The secret to becoming extremely successful is to already be extremely successful.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short (2015)

#55

Post by Mezzie »

ZephyrBlu wrote: post #40
atleastoptimal wrote: post #34

Should a prerequisite to every successful tech person advice list include "Be 99th percentile IQ or higher"? All these people go to schools and work environments where they exclusively interact with incredibly intelligent people. Do they really know just how mediocre the average person is? Or is the average person implicitly written off with respect to any sort of prodigious success.

Eh, 95th percentile is probably more reasonable. You don't have to be super smart to be successful. In tech you probably have to be pretty smart, but I think being from a well-off family is more important in most cases.

Yeah, reading this advice as somebody in that percentile according to all The Tests and who started at around the same time Altman did (bit younger) but who was way, way further down the socio-economic ladder is interesting.

I did put some of this advice into practice. One thing it got me was an ODD diagnosis.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short (2015)

#56

Post by musicale »

solveit wrote: post #43
gnulinux wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This makes about as much sense as saying the same thing for advise on winning the lottery. The "implementing" part you're referring is nothing other than "being lucky" so there really isn't anything to implement nor anything to advise.

> How to succeed: pick the right thing to do (this is critical and usually ignored), focus, believe in yourself (especially when others tell you it’s not going to work), develop personal connections with people that will help you, learn to identify talented people, and work hard. It’s hard to identify what to work on because original thought is hard. You have to be somewhat lucky to be able to do this, but also you h…

Hard work is absolutely an essential requirement. "He worked for years before achieving overnight success."

For many the secret of success seems to be something like:

0. Pick the right thing(s) to work on (ideally the thing that will result in #3)

1. Work really hard (ideally starting with as many advantages as possible - wealth, family, connections, safety nets, etc.) so you can

2. Buy as many lottery tickets as possible (ideally rigging the game in your favor if possible) to improve the likelihood that you will eventually

3. Win the lottery

This may seem flippant, but if you don't achieve #2, you're much less likely to achieve #3.

Since #3 is so luck dependent, you need to increase your luck - which means increase your chances of possibly winning - usually by increasing the number of trials, or by rigging the game somehow. However in most of these games (lottery tickets, startups, etc.) there are many more losers than winners.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short (2015)

#57

Post by closeparen »

plandis wrote: post #31
animal_spirits wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does that make his journey any less valid?

For himself? No. But, a lot of this advice like “take risks” is much easier to do when your failures don’t result in losing everything. If a poor person starts a business and fails they might not be able to afford to eat. If Sam Altman failed would he have been pushed to a similar place on the socioeconomic ladder? My guess is no. It’s much easier to fail when your failure state is that you can rely on your well off…

I don't think anyone is suggesting to start tech startups directly from poverty. Once you are in tech it doesn't really matter what your parents make; you can save enough from the generous paycheck at your corporate job to buy a laptop and pay the rent for a while. When your startup fails, you go get one of those again.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short (2015)

#58

Post by dragonwriter »

atleastoptimal wrote: post #34

Should a prerequisite to every successful tech person advice list include "Be 99th percentile IQ or higher"? All these people go to schools and work environments where they exclusively interact with incredibly intelligent people. Do they really know just how mediocre the average person is? Or is the average person implicitly written off with respect to any sort of prodigious success.

95th percentile wealth and 90th percentile IQ is probable better than the reverse or 99th percentile IQ alone, if you want to succeed in any business, including tech.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short (2015)

#59

Post by ZephyrBlu »

teaearlgraycold wrote: post #44
ZephyrBlu wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, 95th percentile is probably more reasonable. You don't have to be super smart to be successful. In tech you probably have to be pretty smart, but I think being from a well-off family is more important in most cases.

Or willing to bust your ass every day

You can bust your ass all you want, but it's not going to make up for having an IQ of 100.

There is a lower bound, and I think it's around the 90-95th percentile if you want to excel in tech. This is based on 115 = 85th percentile, and I think <110-115 you're going to have a tough time in a top tech company as an engineer.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short (2015)

#60

Post by dragonwriter »

musicale wrote: post #56
solveit wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How to succeed: pick the right thing to do (this is critical and usually ignored), focus, believe in yourself (especially when others tell you it’s not going to work), develop personal connections with people that will help you, learn to identify talented people, and work hard. It’s hard to identify what to work on because original thought is hard. You have to be somewhat lucky to be able to do this, but also you h…

Hard work is absolutely an essential requirement. "He worked for years before achieving overnight success." For many the secret of success seems to be something like: 0. Pick the right thing(s) to work on (ideally the thing that will result in #3) 1. Work really hard (ideally starting with as many advantages as possible - wealth, family, connections, safety nets, etc.) so you can 2. Buy as many lottery tickets as pos…

The best way to get more shots at winning is to be born into wealthy family and network so you can take lots of tries with support for both the endeavours and a soft-landing if/when they fail.
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