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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

#81

Post by outericky »

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'].

30 or not, there is plenty of wisdom in his years. He's done a lot in his short time, more than many will do in twice as long.

Plus 20 (and 30 somethings) would rather here from a determined successful peer, than someone far older.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#82

Post by joeperks »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #53
ionforce wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I admire your empathy and that you evidently examined the situation versus reacted. Props to you.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#84

Post by outericky »

sz4kerto wrote: post #17
amackera wrote: post #4

Sam seems so wise, even for somebody so young! Everything he writes is a pleasure to read. Calm, considered, sometimes controversial, but always worth digesting.

Many 20 yo liberal arts students (sorry, exaggerating here) could come up with a list like that but nobody would care because they're not the head of YCombinator. With Status comes authority, with authority comes self confidence and with that comes the feeling of wisdom. This is a good list, worth reading and talking about it; but for me wisdom means non-trivial, sometimes contraintuitive deep insight. Wisdom needs i…

Seems like Sam has all 3 of your points "intelligence, experience and perspective" - or does experience only get quantified in years?

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#85

Post by AndrewKemendo »

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'].

This was my thought as well.

Not because he is 30, Audie Murphy [1] was 19 when he won the Medal of Honor, was an accomplished actor and had two kids by 30, but because his experience is very narrow and not particularly deep.

Sam is a smart guy, no doubt, but I think he thinks he is smarter than he actually is.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Murphy

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#86

Post by benihana »

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'].

>Are we really at the point where a 30 year old can offer sage advice on living life? Wow.

At least he offered advice. I'd rather hear a 30 year old's obvious platitudes than an old wise guy's complaints about how obvious the advice is.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#87

Post by tarekmoz »

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'].

Well, I am almost 40 and I am getting a lot out of that blog post.

I've also got a couple of sage advices from my 4 years old daughter, you know... :)

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#89

Post by falcolas »

runesoerensen wrote: post #31
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'].

I can't say I'm surprised to see this as the top comment, but I think it's sad that you (and apparently many other upvoters) don't think 30 year olds can offer valuable advice on life. It's also wrong as proven by history. Many writers have produced some of their best works at the same age. One example is Kirkegaard who wrote "Fear and Trembling"[1] at age 30. If you think that Sam's advice is narrowminded or bad as…

And there are many more (including folks like Einstein and others) who hit their stride somewhat later in life.

Even the ones who hit it early didn't magically get worse after they hit 30. :)

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#90

Post by joeperks »

lukasm wrote: post #52

"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

I like that second quote a lot, I bookmarked your ref to read this evening.

However, I do think it is important we consider Mr. Altman's follow up to your quote: "Even if you miss, you’ll probably end up in a pretty good place." If it weren't for this, "Aim to be the best in the world at whatever you do professionally." would have made me shift in my seat.

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