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A couple of weeks ago, I found myself on a ladder in a basement, doing a bit of plumbing. And I thought, “Isn’t this odd? Here I am, rather well-off, cleaning o

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself on a ladder in a basement, doing a bit of plumbing. And I thought, “Isn’t this odd? Here I am, rather well-off, cleaning out the drain for an elderly black gentleman.” And it was more satisfying than most of what I’ve done at a keyboard. To elaborate, for quite a few years I’ve owned rental property in poor-to-working class parts of town, first houses and then apartments. If you’re a hands-on landlord, you will learn more than you ever wanted to know about money in America. Sure, some tenants are total flakes who would be late on rent after a PowerBall win. Most of my tenants have worked hard, gotten by with little, and struggled to make ends meet. Many of them hesitate to tell me when something needs to be fixed in their home. Often they’re concerned that I am too busy. I tell them they have every right to expect stuff to work, that it’s a part of what they’re paying for. And it makes me wonder how bad things are with other landlords. Going back to the plumbing story, I think every wealthy hedge-fund manager, etc, ought to get their hands dirty this way. It’ll either teach some humility, or let us see who the real jerks are. The latter can be first up against the wall…

Jiro 5y ago
That's an example of seen versus unseen bias. The drain was directly in front of you, and you talked to the person who owned it, so it's easy to understand that someone benefits from it. If you do a job that indirectly makes things 1% better for ten million people, it's hard to have an example you can look at. You may be improving the world more, yet feel like you're improving it less, because humans don't really understand indirect effects except intellectually, and that isn't very satisfying.
webmaven 5y ago
> [I]t makes me wonder how bad things are with other landlords. Pretty darn bad. One landlord I had was constantly playing musical chairs with appliances (stoves, refrigerators, air-conditioners) that were replaced with ones that never stayed working for very long before having to be swapped out and repaired (shoddily) again. Another got rid of tenants at the end of their lease (never longer than a year) no matter what in order to raise rents to whatever (they thought) the market would bear. They preferred having half of their units empty over not raising rates. Another considered anyone complaining about another tenant or being complained about to be a 'problem' necessitating removal ASAP, and forget about your security deposit.

Jiro 5y ago

That's an example of seen versus unseen bias. The drain was directly in front of you, and you talked to the person who owned it, so it's easy to understand that someone benefits from it. If you do a job that indirectly makes things 1% better for ten million people, it's hard to have an example you can look at. You may be improving the world more, yet feel like you're improving it less, because humans don't really understand indirect effects except intellectually, and that isn't very satisfying.

webmaven 5y ago

> [I]t makes me wonder how bad things are with other landlords. Pretty darn bad. One landlord I had was constantly playing musical chairs with appliances (stoves, refrigerators, air-conditioners) that were replaced with ones that never stayed working for very long before having to be swapped out and repaired (shoddily) again. Another got rid of tenants at the end of their lease (never longer than a year) no matter what in order to raise rents to whatever (they thought) the market would bear. They preferred having half of their units empty over not raising rates. Another considered anyone complaining about another tenant or being complained about to be a 'problem' necessitating removal ASAP, and forget about your security deposit.