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The Ponzi Career

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Re: The Ponzi Career

#81

Post by yarcob »

adkadskhj wrote: post #70
musingsole wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To reiterate, it is very likely that those people who passed on you or didn't become interested due to the lack of self-marketing are not the people you would want to work with and doubly are not actually offering the job you thought you were applying for. Grifters interview and hire grifters because their org/team/company relies on the grift more than the truth to make ends meet. If you can't grift, you frankly don'…

My fear with this mindset of "They're people i wouldn't want to work with anyway" is that it's easy to say that when i'm not hungry. If my mortgage is on the line my desire for a paycheck increases. Perhaps i don't live simply enough - but i'm always concerned about stability and until i'm retired i will always be concerned about the next paycheck. I too lack skills to feel confident about common interviews, but i lo…

Having a few months to a year of expenses on the side fixes this. When you know that no matter what happens, you have enough savings to pay your recurring costs, you just aren't as vulnerable.

You are going to find a job in a year, or you could find a cheaper place to live in a year... Things just aren't as scary anymore once you have enough saved up.

If you live paycheck to paycheck it's going to be stressful no matter how big that paycheck is.

Re: The Ponzi Career

#82

Post by ghaff »

bradleyjg wrote: post #48
danans wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that there is a difference in the collateral involved, but the collateral mostly functions as a risk adjuster (which is why mortgage rates are on average lower than personal loan rates: if a borrower defaults, the house can be sold to recover part of the principal). At the end of the day, a mortgage is a contract that allows the borrower to purchase a home in exchange for a share of their future income, paid…

The difference isn’t the collateral, a personal loan like a credit card is unsecured. It’s how you calculate the payment. In a loan it doesn’t matter how much money I make, I owe what I owe. In the proposed equity arrangement I owe a percentage of my income. If I don’t make anything, I don’t owe anything. If I’m the next Musk, I owe billions.

>I owe what I owe

Which may depend on an external factor if say it's a variable rate loan pegged to the prime. At some level, this is just using a different formula to determine the payment.

Re: The Ponzi Career

#84

Post by lisper »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #79
lisper wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't doubt his honesty at all. Neither do I. That the mark of a truly great con artist ;-)

:) It would be nice. I'm a bit "on the spectrum," and we don't make very good con artists. We are, however, often perceived as arrogant, rude and unsympathetic.

Yes, I know :-) I also know (from first-hand experience) that managing the behaviors that lead you to be perceived that way is a learnable skill. It's not easy, but in my experience, putting in the effort pays handsome dividends.

Re: The Ponzi Career

#85

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

adkadskhj wrote: post #70
musingsole wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To reiterate, it is very likely that those people who passed on you or didn't become interested due to the lack of self-marketing are not the people you would want to work with and doubly are not actually offering the job you thought you were applying for. Grifters interview and hire grifters because their org/team/company relies on the grift more than the truth to make ends meet. If you can't grift, you frankly don'…

My fear with this mindset of "They're people i wouldn't want to work with anyway" is that it's easy to say that when i'm not hungry. If my mortgage is on the line my desire for a paycheck increases. Perhaps i don't live simply enough - but i'm always concerned about stability and until i'm retired i will always be concerned about the next paycheck. I too lack skills to feel confident about common interviews, but i lo…

Unfortunately, this hits the nail on the head for a lot of folks, these days.

It's easy for me to say that I will only work with those I want. I'm set, and don't actually need the work (the money would be nice, but it's not a need).

I refrain from being an "OK Boomer," but I would gently suggest that folks starting out, devote significant portions of their income to savings, and conservative (not politically "Conservative," real "conservative") investments. I'd further suggest against looking to your peers for guidance in spending habits or lifestyle choices.

The ageism in tech is really quite puzzling. We're all gonna become old. White people won't become black, men won't become women (well, they can, but it requires some really significant dedication and resources. I have friends that have made that transition. It is not something for the faint of heart); but we will all become old. The alternative is not something we like to think about.

A lot of young people that treated their elders like crap, are now, suddenly, on the receiving end of the behavior. I don't find it satisfying, in any way at all. It's heartbreaking.

Re: The Ponzi Career

#86

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

lisper wrote: post #52
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #13

I enjoyed the piece. Personally, I want no part of it, but I think it might work well for people who are not me. I've always been "on my own." My life really is a series of watersheds, where I've been the only person to believe in me, before the event, and a whole bunch of folks seemed to believe in me, after the fact. Not a particularly good setup for selling "Chris-Tokens™." Not a bad thing, in the long run. It hur…

> I don't have the personal skills to "sell" myself Actually you do. You've demonstrated them in this very comment. Maybe you don't realize this, or maybe your self-deprecation is a deliberate part of your strategy. Either way, it worked on me. This comment led me to your profile, which led me to your company web sites, which impressed me. I don't need an iOS app developer at the moment, but if I did you'd be at the…

Thanks.

I like your site (> I wear many hats, but graphic designer is not one of them).

This looks cool: http://graceofgodmovie.com

Looks like you're a great conversationalist.

Re: The Ponzi Career

#87

Post by ghaff »

stereolambda wrote: post #80

A couple thoughts if we were to "scale" the income-sharing contract concept beyond a novelty: 1. If there is, say, a hundred or even ten possible candidates to pick from, due diligence becomes brutal. Health information, full social media dumps, detailed financial disclosures etc. Also rampant discrimination. If it is unregulated, it's basically what insurance companies would like to be doing but with no limits. 2. I…

>gives you a service (at scale) instead of cash

Yeah, this sort of payback scheme probably needs a few characteristics to make sense which apply in this case.

- Incremental cost of a student is relatively low. So even if, say, 25% of the class doesn't pan out, they didn't cost you a lot that has to be somehow passed on to the other 75%.

- Likelihood that graduates can get at least a workaday job at a decent salary are pretty decent. This probably wouldn't work for film school.

Re: The Ponzi Career

#88

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

lisper wrote: post #84
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

:) It would be nice. I'm a bit "on the spectrum," and we don't make very good con artists. We are, however, often perceived as arrogant, rude and unsympathetic.

Yes, I know :-) I also know (from first-hand experience) that managing the behaviors that lead you to be perceived that way is a learnable skill. It's not easy, but in my experience, putting in the effort pays handsome dividends.

Yup. I feel as if I have done well, in that arena. I was a manager, for 25 years. I managed a couple of people "on the spectrum," and they were (and still are) amazing.

Last night, I watched The Accountant again. I really enjoy that movie. It does kinda go a bit crazy in advocating for autistic people (I get the feeling it was written by people that studied hard, but maybe don't have a lot of personal experience), but it's really fun.

I wish I had a teak-lined camper and a Renoir in my bedroom, but I'm fairly happy how things turned out.

Re: The Ponzi Career

#89

Post by adkadskhj »

yarcob wrote: post #81
adkadskhj wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My fear with this mindset of "They're people i wouldn't want to work with anyway" is that it's easy to say that when i'm not hungry. If my mortgage is on the line my desire for a paycheck increases. Perhaps i don't live simply enough - but i'm always concerned about stability and until i'm retired i will always be concerned about the next paycheck. I too lack skills to feel confident about common interviews, but i lo…

Having a few months to a year of expenses on the side fixes this. When you know that no matter what happens, you have enough savings to pay your recurring costs, you just aren't as vulnerable. You are going to find a job in a year, or you could find a cheaper place to live in a year... Things just aren't as scary anymore once you have enough saved up. If you live paycheck to paycheck it's going to be stressful no mat…

> Having a few months to a year of expenses on the side fixes this.

It doesn't, for me. I'm sitting at ~12mo with full expenses. I budget everything, so i do me full expenses, all the niceties, enterainment, etc. If i lost my job i could probably stretch it to ~24mo with the fat cut away.

Still, i worry. Keep in mind i do partially agree with you, paycheck to paycheck is a massive concern for people. It's why i obsessively envelope budget. But the concern i described in my prior post is a concern of skill, interview success, etc. Ie, feeling unsure in success of finding a job in my career path.

Re: The Ponzi Career

#90

Post by lisper »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #86
lisper wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't have the personal skills to "sell" myself Actually you do. You've demonstrated them in this very comment. Maybe you don't realize this, or maybe your self-deprecation is a deliberate part of your strategy. Either way, it worked on me. This comment led me to your profile, which led me to your company web sites, which impressed me. I don't need an iOS app developer at the moment, but if I did you'd be at the…

Thanks. I like your site ( > I wear many hats, but graphic designer is not one of them ). This looks cool: http://graceofgodmovie.com Looks like you're a great conversationalist.

> Looks like you're a great conversationalist.

Thanks. That, too, is a learnable (and teachable) skill. It did not (and still does not) come naturally to me. Took me about 20 years of concerted effort to really figure it out (and I sometimes lapse even now). But in retrospect well worth the effort.

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