11 ms·

Yep 5hrs is an easy day. I cannot run a business because I'm too moral. To run a business means paying people just enough to live and not their true value (at

by oneshot 16y ago

Yep 5hrs is an easy day. I cannot run a business because I'm too moral. To run a business means paying people just enough to live and not their true value (at least at the start up stage of a company) which screams of exploitation. I have issues with accepting money and I'm assuming its a result from subconscious programming and being very poor. I also feel awkward managing and teaching people three times my age. Sometimes I just want to be a kid again and be around teens my age, ironically I tend to get along better with adults. Then there is always the risk of the venture failing. I cannot have a boss/work for someone because I dislike authority and hate having eyes preying over me. I also like to have a bit of freedom and flexibility and see ways the organization could be more efficient which the boss doesn't see. Great definition of employment and spot on pertaining to the bills. College also feels as if its just a machine spitting out cogs for the system.

patio11 16y ago
Stop thinking like a poor person. Seriously. It will comprehensively undermine your efforts to not be poor. (Learning how to fake being upper class is one of the best reasons to go to college, by the way. I didn't exactly do polo when I was younger, but I've learned enough to hide obvious traces of that in professional situations. Simplest possible example: watch how successful businessmen act when told "No" by someone in a position of momentary authority versus how poor people act. The magic word is "options", as in "OK, what are my options?" There are almost always options, no matter how much the DMV clerk/airline CS drone/etc is saying policy this and rules that.) Running a business is not coextensive with underpaying people. Heck, running a business isn't coextensive with having employees. I've been doing this for a couple of years and nobody but myself goes hungry if I don't make payroll -- when I need something done, I buy it from another small business and at the end of the day I pay them what we agreed on and we're even. On the other end of the scale, there are many people on HN who pay their employees quite well indeed and who still do quite well for themselves. (While they're not exactly as prevalent on HN as they are in the real world, there are a lot of 5 man software companies busy cranking out boring systems which do boring things that make boring seven figures a year in profit and have boring sharing arrangements where the employees make boring bonuses and the principals sleep on boring piles of gold coins.) A talent for obsessive optimization is a gift in running your own business, as long as you also get stuff done. I have known people who are born optimizers and I also know people who are just lazy. If you're just lazy, business may not be for you.
- oneshot 16y ago
  Well said! I happen to be apart of one of those "5 man" companies, its much easier said than done.
elviejo 16y ago
I agee with you in many respects: a) I don't want employees because managing employees is hard and is hard to motivate them.... so what do I do? I want partners in my company that share my motivation that work with me to make good money and good quality of life the (5 person company, mentioned earlier). b) I've become basically unemployable... I had a company before and the independence and mental freedom it gives is such that working for someone else is very hard. so place with a punch card is out of the question, a place with yearly 360 reviews almost... What is left, small software studios or marketing companies... some of them are very cool. Remember not every company is out of a dilbert cartoon, or an episode from the office. I'd go so far as to say that most small companies aren't like that at all... 3. I'm in the same optimization train as you do... here the first thing to do is to to forget about local optimization (ie small stuff) and focus in the optimization of the whole organization. Read about Theory of Constraints and The Goal (Goldratt) to see why being an optimizer is a great advantage. 4. You claim to be "a very moral person". Ok so here is the thing your work is how you make a positive mark in your fellow human beings. If you refuse to put your talent to work in the service of others you are just being selfish. 5. So go out and do something of service to others. and see if it provides you of the self respect you need, puts food in the table, provides you with the level of independence you desire.

by oneshot 16y ago

patio11 16y ago

Stop thinking like a poor person. Seriously. It will comprehensively undermine your efforts to not be poor. (Learning how to fake being upper class is one of the best reasons to go to college, by the way. I didn't exactly do polo when I was younger, but I've learned enough to hide obvious traces of that in professional situations. Simplest possible example: watch how successful businessmen act when told "No" by someone in a position of momentary authority versus how poor people act. The magic word is "options", as in "OK, what are my options?" There are almost always options, no matter how much the DMV clerk/airline CS drone/etc is saying policy this and rules that.) Running a business is not coextensive with underpaying people. Heck, running a business isn't coextensive with having employees. I've been doing this for a couple of years and nobody but myself goes hungry if I don't make payroll -- when I need something done, I buy it from another small business and at the end of the day I pay them what we agreed on and we're even. On the other end of the scale, there are many people on HN who pay their employees quite well indeed and who still do quite well for themselves. (While they're not exactly as prevalent on HN as they are in the real world, there are a lot of 5 man software companies busy cranking out boring systems which do boring things that make boring seven figures a year in profit and have boring sharing arrangements where the employees make boring bonuses and the principals sleep on boring piles of gold coins.) A talent for obsessive optimization is a gift in running your own business, as long as you also get stuff done. I have known people who are born optimizers and I also know people who are just lazy. If you're just lazy, business may not be for you.

oneshot 16y ago
Well said! I happen to be apart of one of those "5 man" companies, its much easier said than done.

elviejo 16y ago

I agee with you in many respects: a) I don't want employees because managing employees is hard and is hard to motivate them.... so what do I do? I want partners in my company that share my motivation that work with me to make good money and good quality of life the (5 person company, mentioned earlier). b) I've become basically unemployable... I had a company before and the independence and mental freedom it gives is such that working for someone else is very hard. so place with a punch card is out of the question, a place with yearly 360 reviews almost... What is left, small software studios or marketing companies... some of them are very cool. Remember not every company is out of a dilbert cartoon, or an episode from the office. I'd go so far as to say that most small companies aren't like that at all... 3. I'm in the same optimization train as you do... here the first thing to do is to to forget about local optimization (ie small stuff) and focus in the optimization of the whole organization. Read about Theory of Constraints and The Goal (Goldratt) to see why being an optimizer is a great advantage. 4. You claim to be "a very moral person". Ok so here is the thing your work is how you make a positive mark in your fellow human beings. If you refuse to put your talent to work in the service of others you are just being selfish. 5. So go out and do something of service to others. and see if it provides you of the self respect you need, puts food in the table, provides you with the level of independence you desire.