The mystique of Goldman Sachs • Hacker News Board

Re: The mystique of Goldman Sachs

#91

Post by ghaff » Thu, Dec 15, 2016, 9:57 PM UTC

optionalparens wrote: post #90

ghaff wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was having this exact discussion with one of my colleagues yesterday and he said almost precisely what you're saying. A lot of schools have moved away from even having shop and, in many circles, there really is this condescending attitude toward "the trades." Most of these jobs are neither especially easy nor the path to great riches. But there's a lot of demand in many places for skilled trades people and the pay…

The pay certainly is not good for a lot of these jobs, but nor is it good for a lot of white collar jobs. The difference is often the long-term ceiling which is not a guarantee. For instance I know people who work for non-profits or more niche professions that make very little, but they need post-graduate degrees. Even professors in certain fields don't make a lot vs. many types of jobs, so education is not a guarant…

In terms of pay, the situation in the trades is probably more akin to white collar professional services than a lot of people probably would like to admit. Yes, there are superstar experts in white collar fields who can individually make hundreds or even thousands of dollars an hour. But, in the main, the path to making the best money is to own your own business and charge out the services of more junior people for a bit more than they cost you.

Re: The mystique of Goldman Sachs

#92

Post by kkhire » Fri, Dec 16, 2016, 8:50 AM UTC

muninn_ wrote: post #67

jbob2000 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For one individual to make their own decision to do those things, no issue. But when a group of wealthy elite make it their mission goal to vacuum up money from everyone below, that's disgusting. The executive team at GS decided that they wanted to hire programmers to handle investing, instead of hiring programmers to handle nobler tasks. At least when Google develops banner ads, they are providing value to the milli…

Google (or Facebook) developing those ads aren't providing value in a vacuum. Now my Internet experience sucks, my privacy is exploited, I'm psychologically manipulated to buy more shit I don't need (to increase the stock value of companies that GS is evaluating), and I become addicted to getting updates, and receiving the latest fake news. It's easy to come out with a trendy anti-investment banking stance and claim…

agree with everything you said.

there's this demonization of wall street and financial institutions as if it's a brain drain to make money. what does that make the millions of ad tech and food delivery startups then?

its the backbone of the economy. no companies can be formed and no biz's can do transactions without the banks working well. the more efficient and sophisticated they can be, the better off everyone else is.

ultimately, much of the money on sand hill road is coming from LPs who made it in finance

Re: The mystique of Goldman Sachs

#93

Post by kkhire » Fri, Dec 16, 2016, 8:56 AM UTC

optionalparens wrote: post #52

jbob2000 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's disgusting to me that that much brainpower was/is dedicated to stock trading. All that programming and the only thing we get for it is that we can correctly value a company.

I agree it's disgusting to think of people working for a company like Goldman, but not sure I agree with the rest. Also some people are just trying to put food on the table, and they could compromise, but they don't and it's not proper for me to judge them even though I am. Firstly, Goldman can't correctly value a company - no one so far can. The best Goldman can do is use their position of power to effectively tell…

>working for a company is almost never the answer for maximizing your brain

yup. which is why the next decades will be about bringing back time to humans instead of forcing them to monetize every hour they can to pay bills