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I grew up with a lot of money insecurity, was homeless for a while and started my career with nothing - one change of clothes and a floor to sleep on. I’ve sinc

I grew up with a lot of money insecurity, was homeless for a while and started my career with nothing - one change of clothes and a floor to sleep on. I’ve since done very well for myself and have a considerable amount of net worth at this point and a lucrative forward for as long as I want to keep working at it. I’ve lost most of my money anxiety, but it took a lot of purposeful work inside myself to achieve that including years of daily meditation and intentional study of Buddhism. Before that my money anxiety was unbearable. It didn’t matter how little or how much I had, because it wasn’t about money in truth. It was a fear of losing control and other things like self worth and identity issues as a result of my earlier life. As I learned to let go of the self and my identity and live life as it is rather than what I’m afraid it might be I’ve lost my fears, not just about money but all of them. In my experience lack of money instigated my anxieties but once they started it didn’t matter how little or much I had. That said it drove me to get more and more, and I enjoy having more than when I had none. But even if I lost it all I would be ok now.

TotalCrackpot 3y ago
That's interesting - does your career require any formal education? Or were you able to develop some crucial skill on your own? Can you share what is your career about and where you started and where are you now? For example - do you hire employees or are you a landlord now, or are you an employee?
- fnordpiglet 3y ago
  No, I’m a software engineer. I barely graduated high school because I was too busy smoking pot and programming at a time when you needed a degree to get a good job so didn’t have much opportunities despite being pretty skilled at programming. I got a job at Netscape tho as one of the first tech companies that didn’t look at credentials before skill. I did well there and did my own companies. But before I had nothing and move to California with $5 and a change of clothes, slept on the floor of someone I randomly met on irc (I was lucky it didn’t turn out worse than it did don’t try this at home!) until I found a job. Anyway, after Netscape and my startups I became a quant on Wall Street, finished my cs degree, and have had a successful career since. Now I’m the top IC at a late stage startup.
  - TotalCrackpot 3y ago
    I don't really see how you become a quant on Wall Street before you finish the CS degree, they I think look at credentials a lot, can you at least give the name of the prop shop that hired you without a formal education? Did you have any good results in algorithmic competitions or math competitions in high school? And how did you learn programming without an actual computer? Did your parents buy you a computer when you were young?
    - dan-robertson 3y ago
      Some shops care more than others. Going to a target school also matters a lot more for interns/new grads than for more experienced hires.
      - TotalCrackpot 3y ago
        How do you practice for becoming a quant outside of the academic system?
        fnordpiglet 3y ago
        You do things because you love it and couldn’t do anything other than that. You build and study not because you want a job but because when you wake up in the morning everything else you have to do is a chore and the reason you live is to learn and see things work. If that’s who you are, you will struggle with the chores of life like shelter and food for a while but you’ll learn and do so much of value people can’t ignore it.
        TotalCrackpot 3y ago
        Ok, so how do you practice in practice? What specific actions do you do to make yourself more attractive to prop shops?
    - currymj 3y ago
      early 2000s was a different time also. nerd career paths hadn’t yet become prestigious and formalized. there were no middle schoolers optimizing their resumes for how to get a Jane Street internship in 8 years bc Jane Street was only a few years old. same for a lot of other firms.

TotalCrackpot 3y ago

That's interesting - does your career require any formal education? Or were you able to develop some crucial skill on your own? Can you share what is your career about and where you started and where are you now? For example - do you hire employees or are you a landlord now, or are you an employee?

fnordpiglet 3y ago
No, I’m a software engineer. I barely graduated high school because I was too busy smoking pot and programming at a time when you needed a degree to get a good job so didn’t have much opportunities despite being pretty skilled at programming. I got a job at Netscape tho as one of the first tech companies that didn’t look at credentials before skill. I did well there and did my own companies. But before I had nothing and move to California with $5 and a change of clothes, slept on the floor of someone I randomly met on irc (I was lucky it didn’t turn out worse than it did don’t try this at home!) until I found a job. Anyway, after Netscape and my startups I became a quant on Wall Street, finished my cs degree, and have had a successful career since. Now I’m the top IC at a late stage startup.
- TotalCrackpot 3y ago
  I don't really see how you become a quant on Wall Street before you finish the CS degree, they I think look at credentials a lot, can you at least give the name of the prop shop that hired you without a formal education? Did you have any good results in algorithmic competitions or math competitions in high school? And how did you learn programming without an actual computer? Did your parents buy you a computer when you were young?
  - dan-robertson 3y ago
    Some shops care more than others. Going to a target school also matters a lot more for interns/new grads than for more experienced hires.
    - TotalCrackpot 3y ago
      How do you practice for becoming a quant outside of the academic system?
      - fnordpiglet 3y ago
        You do things because you love it and couldn’t do anything other than that. You build and study not because you want a job but because when you wake up in the morning everything else you have to do is a chore and the reason you live is to learn and see things work. If that’s who you are, you will struggle with the chores of life like shelter and food for a while but you’ll learn and do so much of value people can’t ignore it.
        TotalCrackpot 3y ago
        Ok, so how do you practice in practice? What specific actions do you do to make yourself more attractive to prop shops?
  - currymj 3y ago
    early 2000s was a different time also. nerd career paths hadn’t yet become prestigious and formalized. there were no middle schoolers optimizing their resumes for how to get a Jane Street internship in 8 years bc Jane Street was only a few years old. same for a lot of other firms.