3 ms·

What I've been reminded of this year is that panicking is not useful. Shit can happen at anytime, and being prepared to weather a downturn of any type is alway

What I've been reminded of this year is that panicking is not useful. Shit can happen at anytime, and being prepared to weather a downturn of any type is always in fashion. Have a 3 to 6 month emergency fund is a good idea, improving your skills for unexpected job loss is a good idea, regular disciplined investing if a good idea, yada yada. So I'm just doing my best to ensure my butt is covered for if/when the defecation hits the ventilation.

SketchySeaBeast 6y ago
I agree with a lot of what you're saying - assuming it's possible for someone to do it - low wages make much of that difficult. > improving your skills for unexpected job loss is a good idea This is the one I struggle with when I see it - if your industry collapses what skills are the ones you should have been working on? Software is our own special beast, but I don't know what skills in a lesser paid profession should work on that will keep them employable. I suppose they could dabble in something like code, but that's not relevant to their current profession and if the economy goes all topsy turvy it'll be hard to get a job with little skill and no experience in your plan b.
- PopeDotNinja 6y ago
  I don't think anything can prepare you for an entire, sudden collapse. If the world software biz goes full quantum programming, qubits and all, in the span of a few days, I'm screwed. But if I get canned from my job as a dev, that work I put into learning a few algorithms, scaling on AWS, and some marketable programming language will give me a fighting chance. If I were a MUMPS programmer who had never used version control in my 20 year run in some job and I'd never learned JavaScript, losing my job would be traumatic.
  - SketchySeaBeast 6y ago
    Yeah, I think this sort of thing works for our profession, I just don't know if it helps those outside it.

SketchySeaBeast 6y ago

I agree with a lot of what you're saying - assuming it's possible for someone to do it - low wages make much of that difficult. > improving your skills for unexpected job loss is a good idea This is the one I struggle with when I see it - if your industry collapses what skills are the ones you should have been working on? Software is our own special beast, but I don't know what skills in a lesser paid profession should work on that will keep them employable. I suppose they could dabble in something like code, but that's not relevant to their current profession and if the economy goes all topsy turvy it'll be hard to get a job with little skill and no experience in your plan b.

PopeDotNinja 6y ago
I don't think anything can prepare you for an entire, sudden collapse. If the world software biz goes full quantum programming, qubits and all, in the span of a few days, I'm screwed. But if I get canned from my job as a dev, that work I put into learning a few algorithms, scaling on AWS, and some marketable programming language will give me a fighting chance. If I were a MUMPS programmer who had never used version control in my 20 year run in some job and I'd never learned JavaScript, losing my job would be traumatic.
- SketchySeaBeast 6y ago
  Yeah, I think this sort of thing works for our profession, I just don't know if it helps those outside it.