4 ms·

I'll do it one better. As a gamer when I was younger, I knew they were the future. I asked for shares for my bday at the time and got them at least at $22.88 a

I'll do it one better. As a gamer when I was younger, I knew they were the future. I asked for shares for my bday at the time and got them at least at $22.88 a share as that's as far back as my records go.

crtified 2y ago
Nice one! :) When I read that undeniably impressive anecdote, what really stands out is not the shares or the money - it's the incredible childhood you had, the smart and organised parents who raised you in a way that you'd even understand those notions at a young age, and be in a position to enable them. The way I was raised, I could top my schoolmates academically no problem, but the concepts and methods for creating monetary wealth - beyond "I need to somehow scrape together enough to pay for the next week's needs" - weren't even part of my (or my family's) universe, until I gradually learned them by accretion from decades of my own adulthood.
- shostack 2y ago
  For sure a healthy dose of privilege enabled that. I was surprised to learn my father even owned NVDA shares from even further back for some reason. The most valuable thing he taught me though was not buying individual shares, but low fee index funds. Ie. the Boglehead approach.
digging 2y ago
> I knew they were the future I think you made a good bet, but it's important to recognize it was a bet. Believing something is true, and then turning out to be correct, isn't the same as knowing something. The future is not knowable - it's only varying degrees of predictable.
skirmish 2y ago
Hah, as a starving student I knew 3d gaming was the future, and thus scrounged $1.5k to invest into TDFX. Next, they sold all assets to NVDA and dissolved the company [1]. [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20010405091710/http://www.3dfx.com/rel-15dec_2.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20010405091710/http://www.3dfx.c...

4 ms·

I'll do it one better. As a gamer when I was younger, I knew they were the future. I asked for shares for my bday at the time and got them at least at $22.88 a

by shostack 2y ago

crtified 2y ago
Nice one! :) When I read that undeniably impressive anecdote, what really stands out is not the shares or the money - it's the incredible childhood you had, the smart and organised parents who raised you in a way that you'd even understand those notions at a young age, and be in a position to enable them. The way I was raised, I could top my schoolmates academically no problem, but the concepts and methods for creating monetary wealth - beyond "I need to somehow scrape together enough to pay for the next week's needs" - weren't even part of my (or my family's) universe, until I gradually learned them by accretion from decades of my own adulthood.
- shostack 2y ago
  For sure a healthy dose of privilege enabled that. I was surprised to learn my father even owned NVDA shares from even further back for some reason. The most valuable thing he taught me though was not buying individual shares, but low fee index funds. Ie. the Boglehead approach.
digging 2y ago
> I knew they were the future I think you made a good bet, but it's important to recognize it was a bet. Believing something is true, and then turning out to be correct, isn't the same as knowing something. The future is not knowable - it's only varying degrees of predictable.
skirmish 2y ago
Hah, as a starving student I knew 3d gaming was the future, and thus scrounged $1.5k to invest into TDFX. Next, they sold all assets to NVDA and dissolved the company [1]. [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20010405091710/http://www.3dfx.com/rel-15dec_2.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20010405091710/http://www.3dfx.c...