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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

#51

Post by bsimpson »

MrZongle2 wrote: post #5

37) Don't assume that those older than you are any less intelligent or capable of understanding a problem; they were, after all, your age once and possibly even smarter than you at this point.

37) Don't assume that age correlates to intelligence or expertise.

It goes in both directions. When I took my first full-time job, I was 24. I had no academic background in computer science. Because of those two facts, I held my tongue when managers and executives made decisions I didn't understand. Turns out just because they are in their 40s and have senior titles doesn't mean they make sound decisions.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#52

Post by lukasm »

"Aim to be the best in the world at whatever you do professionally. "

"Become the best at one specific thing. Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things. The first strategy is difficult to the point of near impossibility. Few people will ever play in the NBA or make a platinum album. I don’t recommend anyone even try."

ref http://pmarchive.com/guide_to_career_planning_part2.html

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#53

Post by JoeAltmaier »

ionforce wrote: post #50
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #33

I was 5 minutes late to work every morning, because of taking my son to school in the neighborhood where our new house was being built. I didn't want him to have to move schools in the middle of the year. Boss said "This won't do. You'll have to examine your priorities." I thought about it all day, that night. Next morning I got to work (5 minutes late), went in his office, said "I examined my priorities. Work is #12…

What a douchey boss.

He was young (as was I), and trying hard to be a good boss. Married but no children, short on philosophy and long on business school theory.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#54

Post by magic_beans »

petercooper wrote: post #48
sz4kerto wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having a child relativizes everything else and makes life so much easier because you don't need to figure out the meaning of your life anymore and you don't even need to be successful, neither personally nor professionally. This does not mean you won't be or you can't be, it just does not matter that much anymore. And this is friggin' liberating.

it just does not matter that much anymore. I don't want to slam your well put, positive point, but this was not true for me at least. Getting married and having kids has motivated me to work hard and aim high - I could have (and did) sat around on my ass playing video games for the rest of my life. Different strokes for different folks, but I'm a far more driven person after gaining responsibilities than before.

I think you misinterpreted OP's comment. He meant that having a child completely neutralizes the petty stress of the daily grind because you have something far more important.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#55

Post by vinceguidry »

ProAm wrote: post #26
vinceguidry wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's advice smart 30 year olds give, advice smart 40 year olds give, advice smart 50 year olds give, and so on. Each decade tends to revolve around the same themes. All of it is worthwhile stuff to pay attention to, particularly from someone whose accomplished the sorts of things people aspire to in that decade. Even the people who haven't accomplished much can still have worthwhile things to say about life. My fa…

> There's advice smart 30 year olds give, advice smart 40 year olds give, advice smart 50 year olds give, and so on This is not that kind of advice though, this rings a bit youthful and wet behind the ears. I sort of feel like its a regurgitated take on "Advice, like youth, is wasted on the young"[1] Sam's obviously a smart guy since he's been put in charge of yCombinator but his blog posts often feel hollow to me. […

Maybe try to think of it as "talking about what's important in life" as opposed to advice. I think it would be silly to think one has all the answers in this direction, that's effectively what you're telling them when you apply value judgments to what they have to say.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#57

Post by lordnacho »

kungfooey wrote: post #6

Are we really at the point where a 30 year old can offer sage advice on living life? Wow. As a counterpoint to "be the best you can be in your profession": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIJdFxYlEKE [PyCon keynote by Jacob Kaplan-Moss on 'mediocre developers'].

There's age and there's experience. Sam's had experiences that are even rare among people in their 60s.

I do think it's a worthwhile exercise, especially if he looks back in a few years and decides he was wrong about some of these.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#60

Post by pav7en »

kungfooey wrote: post #6

Are we really at the point where a 30 year old can offer sage advice on living life? Wow. As a counterpoint to "be the best you can be in your profession": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIJdFxYlEKE [PyCon keynote by Jacob Kaplan-Moss on 'mediocre developers'].

@kungfooey

And you wonder about ageism in the industry?

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