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I'm on the ordinary working job track. I like it. But if you're young, got the time ... I think it's worth a shot, or two, or more.

by duxup 2y ago

jrockway 2y ago
I think there are upsides and downsides to starting young. On the one hand, you don't have much to lose, so failure is softer. On the other hand, you're missing some experience that would be useful. I worked for a startup whose founder was a super young guy who had never had a job before being CEO. He was missing experiences like "what do I hate when my boss does" and so needed to repeat all the same mistakes. This resulted in things like... postmortem reviews with action items like "we should dock people's pay if installs are done incorrectly" instead of "we should ensure that the install crews have the tools they need to do the install correctly". (That action item was one of the few battles there that I won. We gave every installer a toolbox containing the tools to do the job. This improved the success of installs greatly. But who needs a meeting to come up with an "idea" like this?)
- duxup 2y ago
  At least if young you got the energy, time, usually fewer family obligations, maybe even naive enough to do something others won't (as a good thing) and ... you know if that's the lifestyle you want. But I hear you starting at zero life experience, that is bad. I would find it pretty painful to work at a start up and have to talk to the founder "bro let's talk about the basics of picking your battles" and do it ... well.
- DonnyV 2y ago
  I think having an entrepreneur's mindset and starting young can work. But you will end up like every billionaire we know. Elon, Bill Gates, Zuckerberg, etc. They all started young as CEOs and didn't think twice about stepping on everyone and anyone around them to get the top. Now after years of this you have people that are very powerful and have no idea how the common person lives or how it feels like to work for someone.
scarface_74 2y ago
It’s still not worth it. If you can get into a well paying BigTech company, save aggressively and let the time value of money be your friend, it statistically will make much more sense to do that.
- liontwist 2y ago
  Minor irritation: That’s not what time value of money means.
  - scarface_74 2y ago
    It is. It’s better to have made enough to save $300K when you’re 25 and put it in the stock market and let it grow than make $300K when your 50. $300K is worth more when you’re 25 and retiring at 65, than it is when you’re 55. “The time value of money (TVM) is a financial principle that states that money in the present is worth more than the same amount in the future.”
    - liontwist 2y ago
      It’s a subtle point, but it’s backwards. Money is worth more NOW so you can spend it to acquire skills, resources, and goods. If you wait then you are living life without those things. And delaying early strategic wins. Passive investing is renting out that optionality to other people, like starting a 401k early.
      - scarface_74 2y ago
        Money is worth more now because it can be invested and grow in the future instead of getting more money in the future that is worth less because you have to take into account either inflation or what the money could have made even if you are just looking at the risk free returns - ie discounted cash flows
        liontwist 2y ago
        > Money is worth more now because it can be invested and grow in the future This is circular. Why would money magically get more valuable in the future? Money is valuable for its uses, not intrinsically. The reason why you can get interest on money is because people and businesses need it NOW to do productive things, more badly than in the future. This is the entire principle behind discounting cash flows.

I'm on the ordinary working job track. I like it. But if you're young, got the time ... I think it's worth a shot, or two, or more.

by duxup 2y ago

I'm on the ordinary working job track. I like it. But if you're young, got the time ... I think it's worth a shot, or two, or more.

jrockway 2y ago

I think there are upsides and downsides to starting young. On the one hand, you don't have much to lose, so failure is softer. On the other hand, you're missing some experience that would be useful. I worked for a startup whose founder was a super young guy who had never had a job before being CEO. He was missing experiences like "what do I hate when my boss does" and so needed to repeat all the same mistakes. This resulted in things like... postmortem reviews with action items like "we should dock people's pay if installs are done incorrectly" instead of "we should ensure that the install crews have the tools they need to do the install correctly". (That action item was one of the few battles there that I won. We gave every installer a toolbox containing the tools to do the job. This improved the success of installs greatly. But who needs a meeting to come up with an "idea" like this?)

duxup 2y ago
At least if young you got the energy, time, usually fewer family obligations, maybe even naive enough to do something others won't (as a good thing) and ... you know if that's the lifestyle you want. But I hear you starting at zero life experience, that is bad. I would find it pretty painful to work at a start up and have to talk to the founder "bro let's talk about the basics of picking your battles" and do it ... well.
DonnyV 2y ago
I think having an entrepreneur's mindset and starting young can work. But you will end up like every billionaire we know. Elon, Bill Gates, Zuckerberg, etc. They all started young as CEOs and didn't think twice about stepping on everyone and anyone around them to get the top. Now after years of this you have people that are very powerful and have no idea how the common person lives or how it feels like to work for someone.

scarface_74 2y ago

It’s still not worth it. If you can get into a well paying BigTech company, save aggressively and let the time value of money be your friend, it statistically will make much more sense to do that.

liontwist 2y ago
Minor irritation: That’s not what time value of money means.
- scarface_74 2y ago
  It is. It’s better to have made enough to save $300K when you’re 25 and put it in the stock market and let it grow than make $300K when your 50. $300K is worth more when you’re 25 and retiring at 65, than it is when you’re 55. “The time value of money (TVM) is a financial principle that states that money in the present is worth more than the same amount in the future.”
  - liontwist 2y ago
    It’s a subtle point, but it’s backwards. Money is worth more NOW so you can spend it to acquire skills, resources, and goods. If you wait then you are living life without those things. And delaying early strategic wins. Passive investing is renting out that optionality to other people, like starting a 401k early.
    - scarface_74 2y ago
      Money is worth more now because it can be invested and grow in the future instead of getting more money in the future that is worth less because you have to take into account either inflation or what the money could have made even if you are just looking at the risk free returns - ie discounted cash flows
      - liontwist 2y ago
        > Money is worth more now because it can be invested and grow in the future This is circular. Why would money magically get more valuable in the future? Money is valuable for its uses, not intrinsically. The reason why you can get interest on money is because people and businesses need it NOW to do productive things, more badly than in the future. This is the entire principle behind discounting cash flows.