8 ms·

I disagree. Unless you live in a world where ordinary failures are punished by a lifetime of penury, it doesn't really make any difference. We've all failed

by lsc 10y ago

I disagree. Unless you live in a world where ordinary failures are punished by a lifetime of penury, it doesn't really make any difference. We've all failed projects; we all expect to be able to get up afterwards and try something else. Personally, I find this talk of age discrimination super scary, and I do my best to ignore it, just because I've spent most of what I should have spent on retirement savings on my business ventures, so I myself plan on working through his age. I already seem to be "not a cultural fit" even in my mid-30s, though I suspect for reasons other than age, but certainly, the social expectations for technical people have... changed, even within my own career.

CamperBob2 10y ago
I hear what you're saying, but if you read between the lines in the article, this guy has left behind a trail of failures of the sort we'd normally give hurricane names to. He had a lot of advantages in life and wasted them all, one by one. It seems likely he has mental issues, which suggests the system is failing him in ways that have nothing to do with poverty or conventional welfare support. His life situation probably shouldn't be used as fodder for a generic cri de coeur article on those topics. But we can't be sure because the journalist couldn't be bothered to elaborate.
- lsc 10y ago
  hmm? I didn't see anything that suggested mental issues beyond what most people employed in the industry before the last boom had. He left a job to work on his own business, and failed, and handled the failure badly. If that's "a trail of failures of the sort we'd normally give hurricane names to." - then I am in serious trouble. Of course, as you said, there wasn't much detail, but very likely that was because the person in question didn't want to revisit those things.
  - CamperBob2 10y ago
    Again, I'm reading between the lines because the author left no other option. Things like, "A customer (his only one?) stopped paying (why?)" I don't think you're wrong to be concerned about age discrimination, of course. But maybe this is an example of it, and maybe it's not.
    - lsc 10y ago
      > Again, I'm reading between the lines because the author left no other option. Sure, there was no information indicating the guy didn't have serious mental issues... but there was also no information indicating that he did. Your "reading between the lines" I think blames the old guy... when there's really no evidence presented, one way or the other. >Things like, "A customer (his only one?) stopped paying (why?)" The vast majority of small computer businesses (corp to corp contractors) that I know only have one customer at a time, because they only have one worker to rent out; themselves. It's really common. It's less common for those customers to stop paying after work is rendered, but it has happened to people I trust to not bullshit me on the matter. (It's kind of common for some of these small contractors to get pissed when the "contract" ends early, and to demand compensation for that... One of those mistakes a lot of people make before they learn how things actually work, at least in my jurisdiction, the length of the contract has no bearing on anything at all. You usually get paid for hours worked; really there's no further guarantees.) >I don't think you're wrong to be concerned about age discrimination, of course. But maybe this is an example of it, and maybe it's not. I agree. Well, I'm not 100% certain I need to be concerned about age discrimination; it's in my "might be an irrational fear, but I'm not certain either way" bucket right now, but I agree about the article.

by lsc 10y ago

CamperBob2 10y ago

I hear what you're saying, but if you read between the lines in the article, this guy has left behind a trail of failures of the sort we'd normally give hurricane names to. He had a lot of advantages in life and wasted them all, one by one. It seems likely he has mental issues, which suggests the system is failing him in ways that have nothing to do with poverty or conventional welfare support. His life situation probably shouldn't be used as fodder for a generic cri de coeur article on those topics. But we can't be sure because the journalist couldn't be bothered to elaborate.

lsc 10y ago
hmm? I didn't see anything that suggested mental issues beyond what most people employed in the industry before the last boom had. He left a job to work on his own business, and failed, and handled the failure badly. If that's "a trail of failures of the sort we'd normally give hurricane names to." - then I am in serious trouble. Of course, as you said, there wasn't much detail, but very likely that was because the person in question didn't want to revisit those things.
- CamperBob2 10y ago
  Again, I'm reading between the lines because the author left no other option. Things like, "A customer (his only one?) stopped paying (why?)" I don't think you're wrong to be concerned about age discrimination, of course. But maybe this is an example of it, and maybe it's not.
  - lsc 10y ago
    > Again, I'm reading between the lines because the author left no other option. Sure, there was no information indicating the guy didn't have serious mental issues... but there was also no information indicating that he did. Your "reading between the lines" I think blames the old guy... when there's really no evidence presented, one way or the other. >Things like, "A customer (his only one?) stopped paying (why?)" The vast majority of small computer businesses (corp to corp contractors) that I know only have one customer at a time, because they only have one worker to rent out; themselves. It's really common. It's less common for those customers to stop paying after work is rendered, but it has happened to people I trust to not bullshit me on the matter. (It's kind of common for some of these small contractors to get pissed when the "contract" ends early, and to demand compensation for that... One of those mistakes a lot of people make before they learn how things actually work, at least in my jurisdiction, the length of the contract has no bearing on anything at all. You usually get paid for hours worked; really there's no further guarantees.) >I don't think you're wrong to be concerned about age discrimination, of course. But maybe this is an example of it, and maybe it's not. I agree. Well, I'm not 100% certain I need to be concerned about age discrimination; it's in my "might be an irrational fear, but I'm not certain either way" bucket right now, but I agree about the article.