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Is my advice too mercenary?

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Re: Is my advice too mercenary?

#71

Post by dragonwriter »

brimble wrote: post #66
rosndo wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real problem is how expensive healthcare is in the US. Compare Cignas global plan with and without US coverage. Somehow they can easily cover essentially all of the rest of the world for far less than the US. https://www.cignaglobal.com/

Last I checked, pretty much the entire rest of the OECD was between 40% and 70% of US per-capita spending on healthcare. Some spend less total , per capita, than we do just from public spending that we already do (medicare, medicaid, CHIP, public employee healthcare plans, military care like VA and Tricare, et c.) without even having universal care like ~everyone else does

> Last I checked, pretty much the entire rest of the OECD was between 40% and 70% of US per-capita spending on healthcare.

Per capita numbers can be misleading on healthcare as health is labor intensive, so countries with higher wages will have higher per capita costs with otherwise similar systems.

OTOH, the US spends the second highest share of GDP on healthcare, globally, behind Tuvalu, and about a time and half the GDP share of the second highest large, developed state (Germany). [0]

[0] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.CHEX.GD.ZS?most_...

Re: Is my advice too mercenary?

#72

Post by nostrademons »

tschellenbach wrote: post #17

At the end of his book AMP it up, Frank Slootman provides some career tips. The things he focuses on. 1. Join a company that's growing and moving up. He talks about getting in the elevator by joining the right company. And how everyone during certain years at Microsoft did well (just one example). 2. Next he recommends ignoring compensation in the early days of your career. I see this at my company sometimes. Mid lev…

"Of course it's higher, what you're sacrificing is career growth. Early on in your career thats usually not the right move."

I heard that a lot early in my career, having started out in startups. To some extent it's true for the first ~4 years: you gain a lot more background knowledge, problem solving ability, and confidence by wearing lots of hats and owning lots of problems end-to-end.

But I think you have to be realistic about how experience transfers. FAANG-level companies typically discount basically all experience in startups and small businesses they haven't heard of. You might be a senior developer in a small startup, but you'll get downleveled to an L3 new grad level at a FAANG. And you'll make more money, so they figure you'll take it. Or you might be a C-suite founder and (assuming you still have your technical chops) end up as a L6 eng manager (again, probably with better comp, assuming your founder stock isn't going up).

I've never once seen a Director hired from the outside without a.) coming from a Director position at a peer company, eg. Facebook -> Google or b.) having enough money that they don't need to work ever again. By far most Directors at FAANGs are promoted from within after delivering a big win for the company; the next largest category is founders whose startup is acquired; following that are Directors jumping from a peer company; and finally there are former founders and executives that are retired or hanging out as an EIR at a VC firm waiting for their next gig.

Re: Is my advice too mercenary?

#73

Post by _skel »

uoaei wrote: post #48
vmception wrote: post #14

Thank you for this! I have been raised in and appreciate a Machiavellian approach to society, especially upwards mobility. I have no sympathy for workplace advice that attempts to coddle someone who cannot psychologically operate in a world told more truthfully. “Mercenary” advice works in this environment, being more like a mercenary, a “sell sword”, is a pragmatic approach than being gaslit by the company’s “were a…

I see only a complete rejection of the collaborative organization that is society, which provided literally everything that gave you the opportunities and outcomes you now enjoy. And now you brag about enriching yourself beyond your share, occupying space where others could make use of those opportunities, reducing the opportunities for everyone in the future. Society improves when more people have more chances to co…

Society benefits when the mercenary and competitive urges of high achievers are channeled rather than opposed. That's the secret behind the success of modern market economies, and the alternatives are clearly worse for everyone in a society, including the poor.

Even the Nordic so-called "socialist" countries are actually market economies, with private ownership of the means of production, and they channel the results of capitalism rather than opposing it. They channel it into a somewhat larger safety net than the USA has, but fundamentally they are doing the same thing, because they know that's the only approach that really brings prosperity to a society.

This not a zero-sum game either. Underutilized talent now has more opportunities to be recognized and contribute than ever before. One person's success does not prevent another person's success. We are not just dividing up a pie -- we are growing the pie too. Who is closing off other's opportunities by pursuing their own success?

Re: Is my advice too mercenary?

#74

Post by leetcrew »

bin_bash wrote: post #52
tschellenbach wrote: post #17

At the end of his book AMP it up, Frank Slootman provides some career tips. The things he focuses on. 1. Join a company that's growing and moving up. He talks about getting in the elevator by joining the right company. And how everyone during certain years at Microsoft did well (just one example). 2. Next he recommends ignoring compensation in the early days of your career. I see this at my company sometimes. Mid lev…

If it's early in your career ( After that I think you have a point. I work at a FAANG as a SWE (15 YOE) and want to move into management, but it requires a SWE promotion first to staff engineer I don't think I'm capable of getting at this company. (I've been a staff engineer at a previous firm though). I could switch to a lower tier company and definitely find a way to move into management and develop my career on th…

10 years is also (very roughly) the historical average doubling time for an investment in the s&p 500. one way to look at that is for every $1 you didn't save at age 25 while building experience at a "scrappy" startup, you need to save $2 at age 35 just to break even on retirement. that's probably not infeasible; you don't have to double your salary to double your savings. but it's a significant amount of drag you need to overcome for the "trade comp for career growth" advice to work out.

Re: Is my advice too mercenary?

#75

Post by Kranar »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #42
fellowniusmonk wrote: post #5

It truly is shocking that health insurance is tied to employment status. I really think this is a large part of the trend towards overt ruthlessness in the USA, no one has their back so they have no ones back, as people age and experience medical bankruptcy (or narrowly avoid it at great cost) they are realizing this ruthlessness in our system.

As an American who has worked closely with the Federal government, I'm significantly more afraid of the idea that the government would be responsible for my medical care.

Most of the world does not have government run health care, what they have is government run health insurance. Hospitals, doctors, health care providers in general are privately operated and anyone with the right credentials can go ahead and start their own practice/clinic, but the government provides single payer and universal health insurance.

Re: Is my advice too mercenary?

#77

Post by sgjohnson »

uoaei wrote: post #48
vmception wrote: post #14

Thank you for this! I have been raised in and appreciate a Machiavellian approach to society, especially upwards mobility. I have no sympathy for workplace advice that attempts to coddle someone who cannot psychologically operate in a world told more truthfully. “Mercenary” advice works in this environment, being more like a mercenary, a “sell sword”, is a pragmatic approach than being gaslit by the company’s “were a…

I see only a complete rejection of the collaborative organization that is society, which provided literally everything that gave you the opportunities and outcomes you now enjoy. And now you brag about enriching yourself beyond your share, occupying space where others could make use of those opportunities, reducing the opportunities for everyone in the future. Society improves when more people have more chances to co…

> Would you act differently knowing that giving someone else a chance may lead to the development of a medicine that will save your life a few years down the road?

A counterargument to this is that I’d personally pick today over tomorrow almost every time. So yes, not gambling on the future, but doing what’s right for yourself today is +ev.

Re: Is my advice too mercenary?

#78

Post by [deleted] »

bin_bash wrote: post #52
tschellenbach wrote: post #17

At the end of his book AMP it up, Frank Slootman provides some career tips. The things he focuses on. 1. Join a company that's growing and moving up. He talks about getting in the elevator by joining the right company. And how everyone during certain years at Microsoft did well (just one example). 2. Next he recommends ignoring compensation in the early days of your career. I see this at my company sometimes. Mid lev…

If it's early in your career ( After that I think you have a point. I work at a FAANG as a SWE (15 YOE) and want to move into management, but it requires a SWE promotion first to staff engineer I don't think I'm capable of getting at this company. (I've been a staff engineer at a previous firm though). I could switch to a lower tier company and definitely find a way to move into management and develop my career on th…

[deleted]

Re: Is my advice too mercenary?

#79

Post by qq66 »

randrews wrote: post #63

One of the wisest pieces of career advice I ever heard was "you cannot change an organization by leaving it." It works both ways: if you're leaving in hopes that it'll be a wake-up call to management that a valuable person left, then it probably won't be. And, if you leave your workplace to improve your own life, you've also necessarily chosen not to try and improve the workplace. Leaving means giving up on trying to…

You cannot meaningfully change any organization without being one of the ~10 most powerful people in it.
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