5 ms·

Great advice. I see a lot of people in tech with inflated ideas of what success means, and they're almost all tied strictly to salary/net worth. Yeah, having

Great advice. I see a lot of people in tech with inflated ideas of what success means, and they're almost all tied strictly to salary/net worth. Yeah, having money is nice, but if that's all you base happiness/idea of success on, its going to be a bumpy road. >There are a lot of self-conscious IT people in the midwest making $70k/year feeling like failures I understand how this can point of view can develop, but one of the things I'm most grateful for in life is struggling through a slew of minimum-wage jobs out of college before transitioning into tech. That first bump to "tech salary" literally doubled my income over night and it was only 70k in a high COL east coast city. I learned how to live poor, and discovered I could still have a meaningful life while being broke. Although I still pursue career advancement, it's not just for money. And if it were to all disappear over night (which is the case for a lot of people right now), I'm comforted by the fact that I've already had it "that bad".

PiersPlowman 6y ago
You gotta dig deep first if you want to build a skyscraper, as I always heard.
pmiller2 6y ago
> Yeah, having money is nice, As someone who was broke for many years and now is less broke (cash is flowing, there's money in my accounts, but I'm deeply in negative net worth due to student debt), I think you're understating the issue, vastly. Simply put, money is freedom. If you have it, you can do things people who don't have it can't. If you have enough of it, you can do just about anything. And, I'm not necessarily talking about luxuries, I'm talking about stuff like: * If you have enough money in the bank, an unexpected car repair is a hassle, rather than a disaster. * If you can afford to buy a home, then you don't have to worry about being evicted or not having a lease renewed. * If you have enough money, you can send your kids to a good school and get them off to the best possible start in life. * If you have an absurd amount of money, you don't need to worry about going bankrupt from getting sick. As I said, none of these things are luxuries, but, to reach "don't have to worry about medical bankruptcy" levels, or even "I get to own a home and nobody can tell me I can't paint my front door pink" levels takes a huge amount of money relative to the median income today. > I learned how to live poor, and discovered I could still have a meaningful life while being broke. That doesn't mean being broke is great, good, or even not all that bad. It just means you've gotten used to it.
- worik 6y ago
  "* If you have an absurd amount of money, you don't need to worry about going bankrupt from getting sick." Or you live in a country with a socialised medical system.
  - pmiller2 6y ago
    I see you caught my implicit punch line. None of those things above the level of "unexpected car breakdown" really ought to be things people in the country with the largest economy in the world ought to be worrying about. We need to do something about that, whether it's a move toward social democracy, or even full on socialism. But, there's such a "fuck you, got mine" attitude among our political class that we're never going to see it in my lifetime, I'm sure. If it hasn't happened in the face of a global pandemic shutting everything down, I doubt the elite are going to get the message that workers are the ones that create everything of value in the economy, so we should try to elevate the lot of the average worker, rather than keeping him so stressed, sick, and insecure.
    - sam_goody 6y ago
      I agree these things should not be what "people in the country with the largest economy in the world ought to be worrying about". But Socialism is not the answer. As Churchill said "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others." Socialism is great in concept. In class, which deals with the theoretical, it sounds great. For teachers, who can teach concepts and don't need to deal with the pesky nastiness of the real world, it is the thing to teach. But in real life, Socialism, and partial socialism, and partial social by other names, are all TERRIBLE for the average dude. Study history, for real. Look at the countries which have had all the "ism's". Democracy (and in many cases, even autocracy - which is also REALLY bad) are better. I am not at all wealthy, live simply (no car, no smartphone, no whatever). I moved from the States to a socialy democratic country with an excellent public Medicaire system. Even so, if I could make it more democratic and less socialistic, I would, and so would anyone else I know. A massive amount of my neighbors have moved to the States or are waiting for papers to do so. Everyone who can afford it has supplemental insurance. It would be a shame if the States lost what they have right.

PiersPlowman 6y ago

You gotta dig deep first if you want to build a skyscraper, as I always heard.

pmiller2 6y ago

> Yeah, having money is nice, As someone who was broke for many years and now is less broke (cash is flowing, there's money in my accounts, but I'm deeply in negative net worth due to student debt), I think you're understating the issue, vastly. Simply put, money is freedom. If you have it, you can do things people who don't have it can't. If you have enough of it, you can do just about anything. And, I'm not necessarily talking about luxuries, I'm talking about stuff like: * If you have enough money in the bank, an unexpected car repair is a hassle, rather than a disaster. * If you can afford to buy a home, then you don't have to worry about being evicted or not having a lease renewed. * If you have enough money, you can send your kids to a good school and get them off to the best possible start in life. * If you have an absurd amount of money, you don't need to worry about going bankrupt from getting sick. As I said, none of these things are luxuries, but, to reach "don't have to worry about medical bankruptcy" levels, or even "I get to own a home and nobody can tell me I can't paint my front door pink" levels takes a huge amount of money relative to the median income today. > I learned how to live poor, and discovered I could still have a meaningful life while being broke. That doesn't mean being broke is great, good, or even not all that bad. It just means you've gotten used to it.

worik 6y ago
"* If you have an absurd amount of money, you don't need to worry about going bankrupt from getting sick." Or you live in a country with a socialised medical system.
- pmiller2 6y ago
  I see you caught my implicit punch line. None of those things above the level of "unexpected car breakdown" really ought to be things people in the country with the largest economy in the world ought to be worrying about. We need to do something about that, whether it's a move toward social democracy, or even full on socialism. But, there's such a "fuck you, got mine" attitude among our political class that we're never going to see it in my lifetime, I'm sure. If it hasn't happened in the face of a global pandemic shutting everything down, I doubt the elite are going to get the message that workers are the ones that create everything of value in the economy, so we should try to elevate the lot of the average worker, rather than keeping him so stressed, sick, and insecure.
  - sam_goody 6y ago
    I agree these things should not be what "people in the country with the largest economy in the world ought to be worrying about". But Socialism is not the answer. As Churchill said "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others." Socialism is great in concept. In class, which deals with the theoretical, it sounds great. For teachers, who can teach concepts and don't need to deal with the pesky nastiness of the real world, it is the thing to teach. But in real life, Socialism, and partial socialism, and partial social by other names, are all TERRIBLE for the average dude. Study history, for real. Look at the countries which have had all the "ism's". Democracy (and in many cases, even autocracy - which is also REALLY bad) are better. I am not at all wealthy, live simply (no car, no smartphone, no whatever). I moved from the States to a socialy democratic country with an excellent public Medicaire system. Even so, if I could make it more democratic and less socialistic, I would, and so would anyone else I know. A massive amount of my neighbors have moved to the States or are waiting for papers to do so. Everyone who can afford it has supplemental insurance. It would be a shame if the States lost what they have right.