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Comment by the_local_host | Hacker News Reader

A fundamental difference between trading and working for pay is that you're not risking your principal when you take a job.

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No, you are instead explicitly forfeiting substantial portions of the only life you’re ever going to get.

It doesn't have to be this way! You're on HN, a lot of us are actually doing what we enjoy, or at least are pursuing that goal.

I recognize that's the result of a whole heap of privilege, but I don't have to work and still do because it fulfills my desire to build things and... well honestly, make money.

Is watching coinbase 24/7 more fun?

Trading is also a job you have to put effort in and one that does not appeal to me at all. I'd rather be programming.

That's when you pay someone to watch Coinbase 24/7. It will show the same to everyone, so there's no need for everyone to keep watch.

Absolutely not in any single way is it more fun. I miss programming, I miss team members, I miss gut-wrenching production issue debugging.

Sometimes the stress and anxiety of crypto is physically debilitating.

But you're wrong that it's something you have to put effort into. The absolute BEST decisions i've made in crypto were inaction. The biggest regrets I have were all caving to anxiety.

The vast majority of investors acquire their investment capital by the same mechanism.

You’re not risking your principal but you can be risking your life. Who ever died trading on the market? My wife had a friend who died last year from COVID at 33. His last tweet was about how his dick manager at T-Mobile was forcing them to come into work despite the global pandemic. A life wasted in the name of selling cellphone plans. T-Mobile stock hit an all time high today tho.

I would hazard a guess that the downvotes are because if your going to include second order effect deaths like that then a lot of people have no doubt died from trading stocks as well. There was an article here on HN recently about one such tragedy. Some kid killed himself because he thought he owed a bunch of money from trading options or something (I think it was Robinhoods UI but don’t quote me on that) when I’m fact he didn’t owe the money.

I think suicide is a mental health issue more than an occupational hazard. Re: the downvotes, they’ve been going up and down. +2 to -2 to +2 to -1 again. I just said something people have feelings about, that’s all.

> I think suicide is a mental health issue more than an occupational hazard.

The two are orthogonal rather than opposed categories.

It is insane to compare a single self-inflicted death based upon misunderstanding to hundreds of thousands of deaths resulting from the corporate norms.

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