Hacker News Reader

Comment by onos | Hacker News Reader

There is a lot of encouragement of guilt in the USA today. In general, shouldn’t we embrace a value system that encourages good behavior? Eg honor those who do relatively well in life, given the circumstances they are born into?

The immediate leap to discredit the success of others through assertion of privilege seems like it would discourage doing well.

A better solution imho would be to celebrate success but to also encourage the successful to share their insights with others so as to spread the fortune - much as the author of this post has done.

View on HN

I agree with you in general but a useful question to ask is: How easy is this to do outside of tech (and other competitive industries like finance)? Competitive industries have high upside but inherently have limited opportunities at the top.

You even see in this thread how people within tech but unable to pull FAANG salaries see this story as impossible. It's one viewpoint to think that it's possible for everyone to become skilled enough to work at a FAANG-like job (including passing the interview); probably correct so some degree. It's another (less rational) to think that every software engineer can work at FAANG-like jobs simultaneously; there just aren't enough positions.

This gets even more dire outside of tech. What job are you going to switch to every 3 years that nets you a 30% salary increase? If that kind of opportunity was wide-spread, there would be a lot less income inequality (or at least more social mobility).

> but to also encourage the successful to share their insights with others

laughing my ass off ... I expect the successful first and formost to share their success through actually paying taxes - then we can talk about their advice which won't be useful for the majority anyway b/c success in monetary terms is always defined by being focused on a minority.

I'm not sure where you live, but in the US, the government has done a terrible job with capital allocation and for every dollar given to the government in taxes what % do you think goes to helping those in need who deserve the help?

so, charities and donations instead?

I would certainly go with a givewell approved charity before donating my money to the government

Completely agree. This guilt culture is little more than an attempt to retain the benefits of the "privilege" vs sharing the spoils with the less fortunate.

> A better solution imho would be to celebrate success but to also encourage the successful to share their insights with others so as to spread the fortune

Ideally yes. Though IME often the advice isn't applicable, so beyond a few fundamentals they break down. For example I cannot un-have kids, and getting a master's or doing a startup on the side would basically require neglecting them for too long. (Or quiting my day job and burning through our savings.) Lifestyle advice like modest living or moving far away also requires buy in from an SO or a painful break up/divorce. It's also a risk since they may change their mind early in the plan. Or they may decide the outcome wasn't worth the sacrifice and want to (or you to) return to the grind.

"Doing well" isn't "good behavior" because it's mostly winning zero-sum games.

Also LOL @ "insights"

Reply on news.ycombinator.com