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TLDR he rode the tech bubble, lived frugally and poured his savings into what happened to be a very favorable stock decade, which together with his tech stock o

by yholio 5y ago

TLDR he rode the tech bubble, lived frugally and poured his savings into what happened to be a very favorable stock decade, which together with his tech stock options from employers made him a multimillionaire. Not to disrespect the effort that went into this, but let's make this very clear: this type of trajectory is only possible for a very limited few, in a particular moment in history. Everything seems to indicate that, save for a few samurai, the tech overlords are a powerful force driving inequality today.

apples_oranges 5y ago
Tech is not a bubble, software is transforming everything (/eating the world).
- astura 5y ago
  Software companies can both transform the world and simultaneously be an equity bubble.
  - seaman1921 5y ago
    PE 28 does not seem like an equity bubble.
- yholio 5y ago
  The eating part might be more literal than most expect. For example, it's hard to argue that software made journalism better. Sure, there is some efficiency in using a phone to record interviews and sending the results of your work on seconds on the other side of the world - as opposed to things like notepads and telexes. On the other hand, Google and Facebook almost completely eviscerated the revenue streams that fed traditional journalists, without putting anything in it's place. Instead of a large number of local papers and ad agencies earning local revenue and funding journalists, you have a massive revenue stream going into Google's offshore tax shells, of which a part is used to fund their software mercenary army, and the bulk is reimvested into further tech monopolies. The corrupt and the despots surely welcome the tech overlords.
  - oblio 5y ago
    Worse than that, they're taking away money from local businesses. Local markets, local stores, local shops, local newspapers, local magazines, small businesses, etc. They're vampires centralizing local revenues worldwide and for what?!? That money gets reinvested or offshored so that about 100 billionaires live like kings with about 2 million millionaire flunkies working for them.
goodpoint 5y ago
Also you need to be extremely lucky to be born in the right country and the right area, have a healthy childhood and access to learning, have no physical or psychological illness, have no moral qualms with working for those companies, and the list goes on. > this type of trajectory is only possible for a very limited few We are talking 0.1% of human population if not less.
yunohn 5y ago
> the tech overlords are a powerful force driving inequality today. I would truly disagree; tech is transforming lives across the class spectrum, globally. In fact, what you should be concerned about is how other industries think it’s acceptable to significantly underpay their average employee. And the ironic part is that tech companies still pay managers and executives way more than the average SWE - at FAANG, often directors make more than their entire reporting chain.

by yholio 5y ago

apples_oranges 5y ago

Tech is not a bubble, software is transforming everything (/eating the world).

astura 5y ago
Software companies can both transform the world and simultaneously be an equity bubble.
- seaman1921 5y ago
  PE 28 does not seem like an equity bubble.
yholio 5y ago
The eating part might be more literal than most expect. For example, it's hard to argue that software made journalism better. Sure, there is some efficiency in using a phone to record interviews and sending the results of your work on seconds on the other side of the world - as opposed to things like notepads and telexes. On the other hand, Google and Facebook almost completely eviscerated the revenue streams that fed traditional journalists, without putting anything in it's place. Instead of a large number of local papers and ad agencies earning local revenue and funding journalists, you have a massive revenue stream going into Google's offshore tax shells, of which a part is used to fund their software mercenary army, and the bulk is reimvested into further tech monopolies. The corrupt and the despots surely welcome the tech overlords.
- oblio 5y ago
  Worse than that, they're taking away money from local businesses. Local markets, local stores, local shops, local newspapers, local magazines, small businesses, etc. They're vampires centralizing local revenues worldwide and for what?!? That money gets reinvested or offshored so that about 100 billionaires live like kings with about 2 million millionaire flunkies working for them.

goodpoint 5y ago

Also you need to be extremely lucky to be born in the right country and the right area, have a healthy childhood and access to learning, have no physical or psychological illness, have no moral qualms with working for those companies, and the list goes on. > this type of trajectory is only possible for a very limited few We are talking 0.1% of human population if not less.

yunohn 5y ago

> the tech overlords are a powerful force driving inequality today. I would truly disagree; tech is transforming lives across the class spectrum, globally. In fact, what you should be concerned about is how other industries think it’s acceptable to significantly underpay their average employee. And the ironic part is that tech companies still pay managers and executives way more than the average SWE - at FAANG, often directors make more than their entire reporting chain.