Hacker News Reader

Comment by slapshot | Hacker News Reader

Wait -- his mom offered to buy him lodging (and possibly tuition). Is it really "frugal" to turn down a place to sleep, or just shortsighted?

View on HN

Refusing to take money from a loved one isn't shortsightedness.

Well put.

Does the world not already provide enough difficult challenges? I encourage others to test themselves by endeavoring to make the world a better place.

Yes, I know that sounds condescending, but I cannot stand the author's self-absorbtion: "By making life harder for myself, I prove how macho I am!"

You're being downvoted, but I think you bring up an interesting contrarian position that I'm surprised so many here disagree with. Couldn't he be working on a startup, instead of living off rice in an ant-filled van?

> Couldn't he be working on a startup, instead of living off rice in an ant-filled van?

Why does "working on a startup" equate with "making the world a better place?"

Since the only way to make money is to provide something people want, if you are doing something that provides you with money, you are making your customers' world a better place, at least they must think so.

  I promise to take care of toxic waste for some large 
  manufacturing corporations. I take their money and 'dispose'
  of the waste. What if I dispose of the waste into waterways 
  (lakes, rivers,etc)? My customers are happy because the waste
  is taken off of their hands. If anyone ever finds out about
  the dumping, they can claim to no know anything (and they
  may well not know anything) and *I'm* the one that takes
  the fall, not them. In the meantime, they get to reap the
  benefits of cheaper disposal (since it's not being disposed
  of properly). I would hardly say that I'm making the world
  a better place though.

"happy customers" != "a better world"

So how does one make the world a better place?

Most methods I can think of cost a lot of money.

Love your wife and your children. Help out a friend. Clear your elderly neighbor's driveway in the winter. Sure, the effect is tiny, but you've got to start somewhere.

Let's say your customers are "everyone in the world," and your product is diamond rings. Your customers rank each other based on how big of a diamond ring they own. All customers want a bigger ring. When you sell one customer a slightly bigger ring he moves up a rank, and someone else correspondingly moves down a rank. In this abstract model if we assume rank is as important to each participant, you have provided no wealth.

This model corresponds well to bits and pieces of an absolutely massive portion of our economy.

More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positional_good http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theory_of_the_Leisure_Class

> instead of living off rice in an ant-filled van

Uh, I think you mean "instead of going to graduate school."

Plenty of people go to grad school on limited means and still manage to live in a heated, watered apartment. IMHO this whole exercise seems more like an attempt to escape consumerism (in whatever way the author has defined it), more than it is about being able to afford education.

The author is 100% clear that the exercise is an attempt to escape debt. He's got plenty of options if he just wants to afford an education.

Exactly our point. He's going to great lengths to avoid any debt, which in this society is a bit masochistic. A little debt for your future isn't going to kill you.

No, I didn't mean that at all. Loans exist for a reason. If he wants to be ultra-frugal, that's fine, but it's not necessary. Do you really believe taking a loan out for something as important as school is that terrible?

Well, he could move the van occasionally so that ants didn't set up shop inside!8-)

> but I cannot stand the author's self-absorbtion: "By making life harder for myself, I prove how macho I am!"

Aren't you projecting something unto him?

self-sufficient?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com