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ALittleLight

A teenage boy asked the master "How do I compose a symphony?"

The master said "You're too young, you need to start with more modest projects."

"But master" said the boy "you first composed a symphony when you were half my age!"

"Yes, but I didn't ask anyone how."

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What I mean by this is that "hustling" is something of a unique, rare, or hacking like thing. You can't ask people how to do it, because if they could tell you then everyone would do it and it wouldn't work. I don't mean that like people are keeping a secret, but more like hustling means going through a dynamic and unexpected route and it's not something people can easily reduce to instructions.

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What the US and specially the tech industry call "hustling" is bullshit sprinkled with self-delusion. For every successful history of someone hustling there's a thousand more of someone hustling just as much and not getting anywhere, and usually the ones being successful are getting there with generous help from unseen forces (network, relatives, etc).

We need to stop idolizing hustling. Getting shit done without pretending it's a gambler's game will get you far.

I think something like: You will never be a billionaire without hustling. You will likely never be a billionaire with hustling. Patient and hard work over a long period is the most consistent route to success.

I always thought that creating and maintaining a network was part of the hustle. And to a certain (unhealthy) extent, relationships.

Creating an maintaining a network of people in your field is extremely important for your career, especially your later career.

I like to say. At a job you get compensated three ways. Money, experience, and contacts. There are more ways but those are the top three.

I don't think I can recall any cases in my professional history as a software developer of anyone landing a dev job due to "hustle". Unless we are using some shallow definition of it that's "Taught self how to code, passed the same technical interview as everyone else"

> You can't ask people how to do it, because if they could tell you then everyone would do it and it wouldn't work

Coding-camps?

I think a good coding camp is a plausible route to an entry level dev position. I know a Google dev who got there via a coding camp.

I wouldn't describe it as a hack or hustle though. It's basically learn the skills required, demonstrate your knowledge, then interview and get a matching job.

A coding camp is the opposite of hustling. It's called "bootcamp" for a reason - it's there to impose some structure for those who need it.

Also bootcamp is very overhyped. There's some great people that come out of them, but I think mainly the hype is the fact that college is overrated (this is a cliche opinion I know) so bootcamps are there to try to exploit some of the delta that the myopic focus on college degrees creates. But many boot camps are super myopic in their own ways.

> A coding camp is the opposite of hustling

Right on. I'm self taught before bootcamps were a thing. I learned by doing by launching a bunch of startup prototypes. Then I ran out of money so I started interviewing, went 1 for 1 and got a good 6 figure Rails job at a big corporation (skipping junior level), all with less than 1 year experience.

Many people getting into coding I talk to think this path is too hard and that a bootcamp somehow looks good on a resume and is therefore safe.

The same arguments can be made for startup accelerators. You really don't need one if you're a hustler who can build businesses. Thus they also attract some percentage of people who want a "safe" approach for their resume.

Good reply but worth considering this phenomena might actually be due to teaching being an orthogonal skill. The master is a master because of that which they produce: there’s usually no requirement to be able to teach.

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