5 ms·

This resonates a lot with me. At school I coasted, ignored all home work, never studied, and was a consistent C. I was continually told I could fo better by put

This resonates a lot with me. At school I coasted, ignored all home work, never studied, and was a consistent C. I was continually told I could fo better by putting in some work (an objective viewpoint I agreed with.) But i had better things to do. I started programming in grade 7, from a book, with a Apple 2 (circa 1982). There were no forums, no Internet just me and a thin booket that came with the computer, plus later, the odd magazine. It was never "hard", but it was fun. It taught me how to build things, how to approach problems, how to throw something away and make things better. How to imagine. Ultimately I would study comp Sci- people would teach me the right way to program, and 40 years later it's still my career. As I predicted at the time (somewhat obnoxiously to my then teachers, sorry Mrs Hodge), I had better things to do than raise my Geography score from a C to an A. School is important, but finding something you enjoy, where "work" feels like "fun" is the truely "gifted child".

szundi 3y ago
True when you happened to find just one of the soon best paying new activities. Catching butterflies would have worked out less awesome probably.
- malikNF 3y ago
  Ackchyually.... [1][2] [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_butterfly_breeding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_butterfly_breeding [2]https://money.cnn.com/2014/08/14/smallbusiness/butterfly-farm-jobs/ https://money.cnn.com/2014/08/14/smallbusiness/butterfly-far...
- bruce511 3y ago
  Yeah, it didn't hurt that my interest co-incided with history. But there are lots of professions that can start as teenage interest. A friend of mine was obsessed with birds, he went into nature conservation, started in a bird reserve, and has had a long career climbing the ladder in that space. And also tour-guides bird watchers. Sure, not everything works out, but if you can turn your fun into your job, then you're one off the lucky ones.
- jokethrowaway 3y ago
  If you escape the employee mentality you can turn almost anything into a small business which provides value to the world. I really wish the world economy would be structured like this, with smaller entities taking more risk and responsibilities and less enormous corporations filled with people hating their lives.
  - rmbyrro 3y ago
    Selling is the hard part of this world view. Most people don't have a well-suited psychological framework and it's hard to develop one. It's difficult to tell if it's even possible for so many people to become minimally good at selling to support themselves financially through a small venture.
  - bruce511 3y ago
    The "employee mentality" as you put it has a lot of upsides. You get paid every month. You don't have to worry all the time about making payroll. Your day starts at 9, and ends at 5, what happens outside those hours is not your problem. When it all goes tits-up, you just walk away. No responsibilities, no debt. Polish your resume, blame the result on "bad management" and move on to the next gig. Want to go to another country? - quit your job, and buy a ticket. No responsibilities, no debt, no nothing. Just pack your desk and walk away. By contrast a small business employer (or a one-man-shop) doesn't get to go on vacation, answers the phone day and night, hustles each month just to keep the lights on, risks all their time and assets on uncertain outcomes. They get to work, look at the parking lot, and take on responsibility to make sure all those employees are paid at the end of the month - their families and their creditors are relying on you. Even in the good times you're the one making decisions, deciding what risks to take, when to spend, when to save. All the while your employees tell you what you're doing wrong. And complain you're getting rich off their labor. While your bank manager refuses you a loan because you're "self employed". And you get to take personal surety for company debts and leases... Oh, and when cash is tight you're first in line to get short-paid. Who wouldn't want to be a small business owner? It's a barrel of laughs.
learningerrday 3y ago
This reminds me of a powerful post I read a while ago with the charter to "Half-ass [your projects] with everything you've got!". Pre-commit to what level of quality you're looking to achieve and then strive to do just what is necessary to get there: https://mindingourway.com/half-assing-it-with-everything-youve-got/ https://mindingourway.com/half-assing-it-with-everything-you...
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
lqet 3y ago
> At school I coasted, ignored all home work, never studied, and was a consistent C. I was continually told I could fo better by putting in some work (an objective viewpoint I agreed with.) That was me 100%. I passed elementary school with flying colors without ever doing any homework or actively participating in class (I had better things do to: reading comics and building LEGO contraptions) and simply continued this approach in highschool, with much, much less success. But neither did I care nor did I have any time for studying or doing homework - I taught myself programming in Batch and BASIC in the 90ies from the MS-DOS manpages, and later, when we had access to the internet, Delfi, Visual Basic and C++. I had finished a small tool with a few 100 users when I was 13, and I had to take care of them and fix bugs. There simply wasn't time left for any school work. University was just a natural extension of this childhood interest into adulthood. It didn't feel like school at all, and there I quickly discovered that math (well, computer science math at least) is actually pretty easy, and all you need is practice.

szundi 3y ago

True when you happened to find just one of the soon best paying new activities. Catching butterflies would have worked out less awesome probably.

malikNF 3y ago
Ackchyually.... [1][2] [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_butterfly_breeding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_butterfly_breeding [2]https://money.cnn.com/2014/08/14/smallbusiness/butterfly-farm-jobs/ https://money.cnn.com/2014/08/14/smallbusiness/butterfly-far...
bruce511 3y ago
Yeah, it didn't hurt that my interest co-incided with history. But there are lots of professions that can start as teenage interest. A friend of mine was obsessed with birds, he went into nature conservation, started in a bird reserve, and has had a long career climbing the ladder in that space. And also tour-guides bird watchers. Sure, not everything works out, but if you can turn your fun into your job, then you're one off the lucky ones.
jokethrowaway 3y ago
If you escape the employee mentality you can turn almost anything into a small business which provides value to the world. I really wish the world economy would be structured like this, with smaller entities taking more risk and responsibilities and less enormous corporations filled with people hating their lives.
- rmbyrro 3y ago
  Selling is the hard part of this world view. Most people don't have a well-suited psychological framework and it's hard to develop one. It's difficult to tell if it's even possible for so many people to become minimally good at selling to support themselves financially through a small venture.
- bruce511 3y ago
  The "employee mentality" as you put it has a lot of upsides. You get paid every month. You don't have to worry all the time about making payroll. Your day starts at 9, and ends at 5, what happens outside those hours is not your problem. When it all goes tits-up, you just walk away. No responsibilities, no debt. Polish your resume, blame the result on "bad management" and move on to the next gig. Want to go to another country? - quit your job, and buy a ticket. No responsibilities, no debt, no nothing. Just pack your desk and walk away. By contrast a small business employer (or a one-man-shop) doesn't get to go on vacation, answers the phone day and night, hustles each month just to keep the lights on, risks all their time and assets on uncertain outcomes. They get to work, look at the parking lot, and take on responsibility to make sure all those employees are paid at the end of the month - their families and their creditors are relying on you. Even in the good times you're the one making decisions, deciding what risks to take, when to spend, when to save. All the while your employees tell you what you're doing wrong. And complain you're getting rich off their labor. While your bank manager refuses you a loan because you're "self employed". And you get to take personal surety for company debts and leases... Oh, and when cash is tight you're first in line to get short-paid. Who wouldn't want to be a small business owner? It's a barrel of laughs.

learningerrday 3y ago

This reminds me of a powerful post I read a while ago with the charter to "Half-ass [your projects] with everything you've got!". Pre-commit to what level of quality you're looking to achieve and then strive to do just what is necessary to get there: https://mindingourway.com/half-assing-it-with-everything-youve-got/ https://mindingourway.com/half-assing-it-with-everything-you...

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

lqet 3y ago

> At school I coasted, ignored all home work, never studied, and was a consistent C. I was continually told I could fo better by putting in some work (an objective viewpoint I agreed with.) That was me 100%. I passed elementary school with flying colors without ever doing any homework or actively participating in class (I had better things do to: reading comics and building LEGO contraptions) and simply continued this approach in highschool, with much, much less success. But neither did I care nor did I have any time for studying or doing homework - I taught myself programming in Batch and BASIC in the 90ies from the MS-DOS manpages, and later, when we had access to the internet, Delfi, Visual Basic and C++. I had finished a small tool with a few 100 users when I was 13, and I had to take care of them and fix bugs. There simply wasn't time left for any school work. University was just a natural extension of this childhood interest into adulthood. It didn't feel like school at all, and there I quickly discovered that math (well, computer science math at least) is actually pretty easy, and all you need is practice.