6 ms·

Cheat Codes for Life I Know at 36 That I Wish I Knew at 26

39 points by smn1234 4y ago

PaulHoule 4y ago
I'd expect that somebody who believes "The world wants you to be normal. F*ck being normal. That’s when being extraordinary becomes impossible." would probably treat service workers poorly (they're normal, F*ck them) but instead there is the advice "Watch how people treat service workers. It tells you a lot about their character."
- dottedmag 4y ago
  Non sequitur.
- yonixw 4y ago
  Why does being extraordinary require being a jackass to people who are often merely a front? (Is the service worker in control of the discount rates, for example?)
  - PaulHoule 4y ago
    See (1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism ("I'm special") and (2) vulgarity as a tracer for a lack of conscientiousness. ("The F*ck" bit) That is, I'd expect people who use vulgar words gratuitously to be rude in general. One interpretation is that this person is narcissistic but they are also Machiavellian and knows they'll be judged for how they treat service workers.
- barabba 4y ago
  That's a rather creative expectation to form from that sentence.
- theandrewbailey 4y ago
  He also says: > Taking things for granted is a slow demise into madness. Be grateful.
- mberh7 4y ago
  I feel the opposite, being normal is highly underrated.
  - ilc 4y ago
    What does normal even mean?
    - anonporridge 4y ago
      Well adjusted to the current default societal game.
  - trts 4y ago
    Depends on what attributes you attach to the word "normal" but I somewhat agree. The bad version tracks with "incurious" or "credulous" for me, the good version is aligned with "emotionally stable" or "grounded", although that doesn't feel too normal in 2022.
- neodymiumphish 4y ago
  Is there an assumption here that all service workers are "being normal"? Nowhere in this blog is there a point about treating others differently for "being normal".
giantg2 4y ago
For number 4, what should one do other than work? Number 6 seems to be their answer, but that's still "work" just not at a salaried job. For number 6, any details on avoiding taxes? Are they in a different jurisdiction? My experience is that self employment taxes (FICA), and the need for benefits makes it so you cannot earn half as much and still take home more.
- theandrewbailey 4y ago
  Have goals and people that aren't work related. Pursue your own personal interests instead of focusing on your work or career. He kinda gives it away at the end: > 36. When you stop having big dreams that’s when you’ve died, despite not being buried yet.
  - giantg2 4y ago
    How do those dreamers support themselves?
    - georgyo 4y ago
      13. Use money to buy your time back.
      - giantg2 4y ago
        I think this is the opposite of what I'm asking. Where does the money come from?
        georgyo 4y ago
        That was the joke. A lot of the comments are with the assumption that basic life needs are met.
    - theandrewbailey 4y ago
      Most of them probably have a job. This list advises that one should not have a job as the top priority in life, but it doesn't advise against having one.
Comevius 4y ago
I started fuming about the cliches, but then I kept reading and there were many great points, but then I started fuming again because the author wrote a self-help book and they are the worst, but I still kind of want to read it.
- the-printer 4y ago
  Resist. Resist. Just copy and paste the relevant points into a text file like I may do, and move on. A broken watch can be right twice a day, Patek Phillipes are no exception. Edit: Don’t even waste your disk space.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
this_user 4y ago
Most of this reads like the pseudo-inspirational BS that people post on LinkedIn. Things that seem deep, but are so blindingly obvious and/or incredibly broad that they are of absolutely no value to the reader.
- luckylion 4y ago
  Cheat 37: people will upvote based on the title, not the content, regardless of education or social status.
- randomcarbloke 4y ago
  Some of it is self evident from a young age, the rest seems silly or plain wrong (earn less but take home more...that's not normally how tax works). Any links for actual useful and rarely shared cheatcodes/heuristics for a positive life?
  - doix 4y ago
    > earn less but take home more...that's not normally how tax works) It shouldn't be the way it works, but unfortunately it is in many places. In the UK it's definitely significantly better to have your own company than be a PAYE employee. Even without being creative at all, instead of working, paying tax and then using your post tax earnings to give your kids money, just hire them. Instantly you get another 12k tax free (or whatever the tax free allowance is). Not to mention all the stuff you can expense, being more creative with how you pay yourself (dividends have a different tax rate) etc. He's definitely right that being self employed gives you more flexibility about how you pay taxes. It definitely shouldn't be this way though. Just another way for the rich to keep the poor down.
- granshaw 4y ago
  Came to the comments expecting the typical HN putdown on top, was not disappointed.
- basicoperation 4y ago
  Indeed. In particular, I’ve seen variations of “Watch how people treat service workers” in this kind of content again and again. It really makes me wonder who needs telling “If the person you’re with is rude to people, they might not be a nice person”.
apetresc 4y ago
> When you work for yourself there’s flexibility with how much tax you pay, and most importantly, when it must be paid. > > That means you can earn half the salary from a job and still take home more money. Genius. Either this guy doesn't understand how income tax works, or I don't. (Or he's just lowkey recommending tax fraud)
- incomingpain 4y ago
  >Either this guy doesn't understand how income tax works, or I don't. (Or he's just lowkey recommending tax fraud) What you're missing is tax deductions. when you operate as salary, you get no deductions and pay maximum taxes. When you operate as sole proprietorship you can deduct 'business expenses' Business travel and parking? Deducted. Any new gadget or widget? Deducted. It doesn't create new money, you have to still earn the money in the first place, you can't go buy a porsche but you'll be surprised at how many things you can get away with at least partially deducting and when you do this to a full extent. You end up paying little to no income tax. You take home more while earning less.
  - d23 4y ago
    And then what happens when you want to pay yourself a salary? Aren't you essentially paying corporate tax rate and income tax on that amount? Maybe that doesn't apply for a sole proprietorship, but does it for a small business?
    - incomingpain 4y ago
      Payroll is a deduction as well. You only pay taxes on profit. If you paid taxes on gross revenues it'd make running any business basically impossible.
  - qbasic_forever 4y ago
    Sure hope you're getting advice from a tax professional because just deducting every gadget you buy from Amazon is not how it works. You have to prove to the IRS (if audited) that the thing is 100% for business use. The rules for stuff like home office are byzantine and complex, getting down to the level of how big the space is and how much time you spend inside it a day.
corobo 4y ago
> If you say I’m busy a lot it’s a red flag. > Stop being so freaking busy. Prioritize 2–3 goals and ditch the rest. Tripped over this one haha. If I tell someone I'm busy it's because I have prioritised 2-3 goals and am ditching them.
kbd 4y ago
This is a bunch of fluff: > 20. The best life experiences make you nostalgic later on. Oh really! > 21. Taking things for granted is a slow demise into madness. Be grateful. Gratitude. So insightful. Flagged.
qbasic_forever 4y ago
> When you work for yourself there’s flexibility with how much tax you pay, and most importantly, when it must be paid. Not in the US in my experience. Switching from full time to contract/1099 work was a nightmare for me. You have to file and pay quarterly expected income tax payments. If you want to maximize retirement savings (401k etc) or even just get good healthcare you have to do all kinds of machinations to create a business with yourself as sole employee, etc. and increase the tax burden, filings and paperwork even more. It's an enormous burden and I honestly would rather just work full time instead of deal with this stuff.
yamtaddle 4y ago
Skimmed these. Oof. The updated post at age 46 should be pretty funny. > At 26 I had a closed mind, eating disorder, and thought I was smarter than Einstein. At 36 I’ve come a long way. Mmm.
- spywaregorilla 4y ago
  Now he's smarter than two Einsteins!
kelseyfrog 4y ago
Genuine question: who is the audience for this? Or more broadly, what is the purpose of this piece? Any 26yr olds care to chime in? Are there people that get something out of this? What's that like?
- luckylion 4y ago
  > what is the purpose of this piece? selling a self-help book. > Are You Operating With Maximum Energy? > For those who are tired of dragging through the day, who want to get back the fire they once had, who are ready to reclaim your natural energy… this is your book.
- the-printer 4y ago
  It looks like the author is somewhere between a self-help dude and a productivity chap and a “life hack, growth hacker” man. So he’s trying to sell us a book, maybe teach us how to earn passive income. Things like that. I reckon that this post resonates with exactly who he’s describing in the title: Twenty-somethings (predominantly male), who are looking for advice that would give them (theoretically) a ten-year head start on whoever doesn’t read this post?
  - kelseyfrog 4y ago
    Fascinating. It would be a real treat to engage with someone for whom this material felt transformative. It feels like there would be a rather large gap between someone such as that and myself and it would be interesting to learn what makes them tick. Thank you.
    - hellisothers 4y ago
      I’ve met some of these people and its less that it’s transformative and more that it’s reaffirming their world view. It’s a circle high-5 that they know more than us sheeple.
      - kelseyfrog 4y ago
dfdz 4y ago
> "Busyness is a sign of poverty that will eventually lead to personal bankruptcy" "People who like pseudo-profound quotes are not so smart, science says" [1,2] [1] https://qz.com/566050/people-who-like-pseudo-profound-quotes-are-not-so-smart-says-science https://qz.com/566050/people-who-like-pseudo-profound-quotes... [2] https://journal.sjdm.org/15/15923a/jdm15923a.pdf https://journal.sjdm.org/15/15923a/jdm15923a.pdf
mym1990 4y ago
The idea that life has cheat codes that can just magically make things easier is a disservice to all the learning and the struggle that people have to go through to actually figure things out. The one thing I have figured out is to stop forcing all the things(sometimes it's okay), life really does have a way of bringing things around eventually.
spking 4y ago
I found this list by a 70 year-old to be significantly more interesting and useful: https://kk.org/thetechnium/103-bits-of-advice-i-wish-i-had-known/ https://kk.org/thetechnium/103-bits-of-advice-i-wish-i-had-k...
danjoredd 4y ago
>Do the work so you don’t have to pray to a fake god to get what you want. While I agree that work is needed...James 2:17 says faith without work is useless...that comment was straight up uncalled for.
oppositelock 4y ago
When you are 46 and look back at 36, you realize that you still didn't have the world figured out, and it was so cute how you believed that everything was your own hands. Now, I'm curious what I think at 56 in a few years.
excalibur 4y ago
Who drinks vanilla-flavored milk?
annacrypt 4y ago
"If I could describe my former mental illness in five words it would be this: thinking too much about myself." This is an awful statement in so many ways. If you're affected by mental illness please don't think that you're the problem. Or that it can be solved by thinking less about yourself. Even if it's the case, it's likely just a symptom, not the cause of your suffering. You can get yourself out of depressive phases with repression and 'everything-is-awesome-actionism' but it will probably come back to haunt you. The depression wants to tell you something but you have to listen to it, not give it a pep-talk. Maybe his ways are right for him. But almost every single point can have a detrimental effect on somebody with a mind that works differently. I hate the way these articles tug on the part of yourself that already shames you anyway for not having 'figured it out'. Even if you know you shouldn't listen, you can't help but feel a little worse after reading it. At least that's the way it is for me. I don't even read this type of content anymore but I felt like I needed confirmation on why I avoid it. Boy did I get it. Now that I've read it I need to articulate my thoughts and feelings to get it out of my system. It's not to be 'a hater' who wants the author to pay taxes. I wish him all the best and hope that his house of cards doesn't come crashing down again. Maybe these types of content creators are in kind of a pinch. Even if some part of him feels like he might do a disservice to certain people, he can't really write it out. It would be 'off-brand' to not write in absolutes and it would take away from the persona who knows it all. (Because despite saying he doesn't think he knows it all he comes off very much as someone who thinks he knows it all. 'Cheat codes'...) But I'm pretty sure this type of content is more damaging than helpful to most people. You can't really 'teach' life. If you know a lot about a person and his circumstances you can point them towards options they haven't considered. But that's about it. Most self-help is a scam. They sell dopamine. You feel good while reading it (if you believe in it) and making plans, but as soon as your brain is back to homeostasis you see that nothing has changed. I've seen it a dozen times in dozens of people. The only good literature in self-help is the one that actually identifies a real problem that holds you back and helps you solve it. (Trauma, ADHD, bad relationships, stress for example)

39 points by smn1234 4y ago

I'd expect that somebody who believes "The world wants you to be normal. F*ck being normal. That’s when being extraordinary becomes impossible." would probably treat service workers poorly (they're normal, F*ck them) but instead there is the advice "Watch how people treat service workers. It tells you a lot about their character."

dottedmag 4y ago
Non sequitur.
yonixw 4y ago
Why does being extraordinary require being a jackass to people who are often merely a front? (Is the service worker in control of the discount rates, for example?)
- PaulHoule 4y ago
  See (1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism ("I'm special") and (2) vulgarity as a tracer for a lack of conscientiousness. ("The F*ck" bit) That is, I'd expect people who use vulgar words gratuitously to be rude in general. One interpretation is that this person is narcissistic but they are also Machiavellian and knows they'll be judged for how they treat service workers.
barabba 4y ago
That's a rather creative expectation to form from that sentence.
theandrewbailey 4y ago
He also says: > Taking things for granted is a slow demise into madness. Be grateful.
mberh7 4y ago
I feel the opposite, being normal is highly underrated.
- ilc 4y ago
  What does normal even mean?
  - anonporridge 4y ago
    Well adjusted to the current default societal game.
- trts 4y ago
  Depends on what attributes you attach to the word "normal" but I somewhat agree. The bad version tracks with "incurious" or "credulous" for me, the good version is aligned with "emotionally stable" or "grounded", although that doesn't feel too normal in 2022.
neodymiumphish 4y ago
Is there an assumption here that all service workers are "being normal"? Nowhere in this blog is there a point about treating others differently for "being normal".

giantg2 4y ago

For number 4, what should one do other than work? Number 6 seems to be their answer, but that's still "work" just not at a salaried job. For number 6, any details on avoiding taxes? Are they in a different jurisdiction? My experience is that self employment taxes (FICA), and the need for benefits makes it so you cannot earn half as much and still take home more.

theandrewbailey 4y ago
Have goals and people that aren't work related. Pursue your own personal interests instead of focusing on your work or career. He kinda gives it away at the end: > 36. When you stop having big dreams that’s when you’ve died, despite not being buried yet.
- giantg2 4y ago
  How do those dreamers support themselves?
  - georgyo 4y ago
    13. Use money to buy your time back.
    - giantg2 4y ago
      I think this is the opposite of what I'm asking. Where does the money come from?
      - georgyo 4y ago
        That was the joke. A lot of the comments are with the assumption that basic life needs are met.
  - theandrewbailey 4y ago
    Most of them probably have a job. This list advises that one should not have a job as the top priority in life, but it doesn't advise against having one.

Comevius 4y ago

I started fuming about the cliches, but then I kept reading and there were many great points, but then I started fuming again because the author wrote a self-help book and they are the worst, but I still kind of want to read it.

the-printer 4y ago
Resist. Resist. Just copy and paste the relevant points into a text file like I may do, and move on. A broken watch can be right twice a day, Patek Phillipes are no exception. Edit: Don’t even waste your disk space.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

this_user 4y ago

Most of this reads like the pseudo-inspirational BS that people post on LinkedIn. Things that seem deep, but are so blindingly obvious and/or incredibly broad that they are of absolutely no value to the reader.

luckylion 4y ago
Cheat 37: people will upvote based on the title, not the content, regardless of education or social status.
randomcarbloke 4y ago
Some of it is self evident from a young age, the rest seems silly or plain wrong (earn less but take home more...that's not normally how tax works). Any links for actual useful and rarely shared cheatcodes/heuristics for a positive life?
- doix 4y ago
  > earn less but take home more...that's not normally how tax works) It shouldn't be the way it works, but unfortunately it is in many places. In the UK it's definitely significantly better to have your own company than be a PAYE employee. Even without being creative at all, instead of working, paying tax and then using your post tax earnings to give your kids money, just hire them. Instantly you get another 12k tax free (or whatever the tax free allowance is). Not to mention all the stuff you can expense, being more creative with how you pay yourself (dividends have a different tax rate) etc. He's definitely right that being self employed gives you more flexibility about how you pay taxes. It definitely shouldn't be this way though. Just another way for the rich to keep the poor down.
granshaw 4y ago
Came to the comments expecting the typical HN putdown on top, was not disappointed.
basicoperation 4y ago
Indeed. In particular, I’ve seen variations of “Watch how people treat service workers” in this kind of content again and again. It really makes me wonder who needs telling “If the person you’re with is rude to people, they might not be a nice person”.

apetresc 4y ago

> When you work for yourself there’s flexibility with how much tax you pay, and most importantly, when it must be paid. > > That means you can earn half the salary from a job and still take home more money. Genius. Either this guy doesn't understand how income tax works, or I don't. (Or he's just lowkey recommending tax fraud)

incomingpain 4y ago
>Either this guy doesn't understand how income tax works, or I don't. (Or he's just lowkey recommending tax fraud) What you're missing is tax deductions. when you operate as salary, you get no deductions and pay maximum taxes. When you operate as sole proprietorship you can deduct 'business expenses' Business travel and parking? Deducted. Any new gadget or widget? Deducted. It doesn't create new money, you have to still earn the money in the first place, you can't go buy a porsche but you'll be surprised at how many things you can get away with at least partially deducting and when you do this to a full extent. You end up paying little to no income tax. You take home more while earning less.
- d23 4y ago
  And then what happens when you want to pay yourself a salary? Aren't you essentially paying corporate tax rate and income tax on that amount? Maybe that doesn't apply for a sole proprietorship, but does it for a small business?
  - incomingpain 4y ago
    Payroll is a deduction as well. You only pay taxes on profit. If you paid taxes on gross revenues it'd make running any business basically impossible.
- qbasic_forever 4y ago
  Sure hope you're getting advice from a tax professional because just deducting every gadget you buy from Amazon is not how it works. You have to prove to the IRS (if audited) that the thing is 100% for business use. The rules for stuff like home office are byzantine and complex, getting down to the level of how big the space is and how much time you spend inside it a day.

corobo 4y ago

> If you say I’m busy a lot it’s a red flag. > Stop being so freaking busy. Prioritize 2–3 goals and ditch the rest. Tripped over this one haha. If I tell someone I'm busy it's because I have prioritised 2-3 goals and am ditching them.

kbd 4y ago

This is a bunch of fluff: > 20. The best life experiences make you nostalgic later on. Oh really! > 21. Taking things for granted is a slow demise into madness. Be grateful. Gratitude. So insightful. Flagged.

qbasic_forever 4y ago

> When you work for yourself there’s flexibility with how much tax you pay, and most importantly, when it must be paid. Not in the US in my experience. Switching from full time to contract/1099 work was a nightmare for me. You have to file and pay quarterly expected income tax payments. If you want to maximize retirement savings (401k etc) or even just get good healthcare you have to do all kinds of machinations to create a business with yourself as sole employee, etc. and increase the tax burden, filings and paperwork even more. It's an enormous burden and I honestly would rather just work full time instead of deal with this stuff.

yamtaddle 4y ago

Skimmed these. Oof. The updated post at age 46 should be pretty funny. > At 26 I had a closed mind, eating disorder, and thought I was smarter than Einstein. At 36 I’ve come a long way. Mmm.

spywaregorilla 4y ago
Now he's smarter than two Einsteins!

kelseyfrog 4y ago

Genuine question: who is the audience for this? Or more broadly, what is the purpose of this piece? Any 26yr olds care to chime in? Are there people that get something out of this? What's that like?

luckylion 4y ago
> what is the purpose of this piece? selling a self-help book. > Are You Operating With Maximum Energy? > For those who are tired of dragging through the day, who want to get back the fire they once had, who are ready to reclaim your natural energy… this is your book.
the-printer 4y ago
It looks like the author is somewhere between a self-help dude and a productivity chap and a “life hack, growth hacker” man. So he’s trying to sell us a book, maybe teach us how to earn passive income. Things like that. I reckon that this post resonates with exactly who he’s describing in the title: Twenty-somethings (predominantly male), who are looking for advice that would give them (theoretically) a ten-year head start on whoever doesn’t read this post?
- kelseyfrog 4y ago
  Fascinating. It would be a real treat to engage with someone for whom this material felt transformative. It feels like there would be a rather large gap between someone such as that and myself and it would be interesting to learn what makes them tick. Thank you.
  - hellisothers 4y ago
    I’ve met some of these people and its less that it’s transformative and more that it’s reaffirming their world view. It’s a circle high-5 that they know more than us sheeple.
    - kelseyfrog 4y ago

dfdz 4y ago

> "Busyness is a sign of poverty that will eventually lead to personal bankruptcy" "People who like pseudo-profound quotes are not so smart, science says" [1,2] [1] https://qz.com/566050/people-who-like-pseudo-profound-quotes-are-not-so-smart-says-science https://qz.com/566050/people-who-like-pseudo-profound-quotes... [2] https://journal.sjdm.org/15/15923a/jdm15923a.pdf https://journal.sjdm.org/15/15923a/jdm15923a.pdf

mym1990 4y ago

The idea that life has cheat codes that can just magically make things easier is a disservice to all the learning and the struggle that people have to go through to actually figure things out. The one thing I have figured out is to stop forcing all the things(sometimes it's okay), life really does have a way of bringing things around eventually.

spking 4y ago

I found this list by a 70 year-old to be significantly more interesting and useful: https://kk.org/thetechnium/103-bits-of-advice-i-wish-i-had-known/ https://kk.org/thetechnium/103-bits-of-advice-i-wish-i-had-k...

danjoredd 4y ago

>Do the work so you don’t have to pray to a fake god to get what you want. While I agree that work is needed...James 2:17 says faith without work is useless...that comment was straight up uncalled for.

oppositelock 4y ago

When you are 46 and look back at 36, you realize that you still didn't have the world figured out, and it was so cute how you believed that everything was your own hands. Now, I'm curious what I think at 56 in a few years.

excalibur 4y ago

Who drinks vanilla-flavored milk?

annacrypt 4y ago

"If I could describe my former mental illness in five words it would be this: thinking too much about myself." This is an awful statement in so many ways. If you're affected by mental illness please don't think that you're the problem. Or that it can be solved by thinking less about yourself. Even if it's the case, it's likely just a symptom, not the cause of your suffering. You can get yourself out of depressive phases with repression and 'everything-is-awesome-actionism' but it will probably come back to haunt you. The depression wants to tell you something but you have to listen to it, not give it a pep-talk. Maybe his ways are right for him. But almost every single point can have a detrimental effect on somebody with a mind that works differently. I hate the way these articles tug on the part of yourself that already shames you anyway for not having 'figured it out'. Even if you know you shouldn't listen, you can't help but feel a little worse after reading it. At least that's the way it is for me. I don't even read this type of content anymore but I felt like I needed confirmation on why I avoid it. Boy did I get it. Now that I've read it I need to articulate my thoughts and feelings to get it out of my system. It's not to be 'a hater' who wants the author to pay taxes. I wish him all the best and hope that his house of cards doesn't come crashing down again. Maybe these types of content creators are in kind of a pinch. Even if some part of him feels like he might do a disservice to certain people, he can't really write it out. It would be 'off-brand' to not write in absolutes and it would take away from the persona who knows it all. (Because despite saying he doesn't think he knows it all he comes off very much as someone who thinks he knows it all. 'Cheat codes'...) But I'm pretty sure this type of content is more damaging than helpful to most people. You can't really 'teach' life. If you know a lot about a person and his circumstances you can point them towards options they haven't considered. But that's about it. Most self-help is a scam. They sell dopamine. You feel good while reading it (if you believe in it) and making plans, but as soon as your brain is back to homeostasis you see that nothing has changed. I've seen it a dozen times in dozens of people. The only good literature in self-help is the one that actually identifies a real problem that holds you back and helps you solve it. (Trauma, ADHD, bad relationships, stress for example)