firstplacelast

I've always felt like people after 60 calm way the fuck down. They're done, over it, just trying to take it slow and enjoy life.

I had a job selling newspaper subscriptions door-to-door when I was young (like 15ish), the thing I noticed was that grumpy people are normally in the mid-30s to mid-50s range.

I worked that job for 9 months (it was awful) and I would talk to upwards of 30 people a night, 4-5 nights a week. What I noticed (and this is all anecdotal), 30's-mid 40's women were always very polite and would make time if they had it, men in that range were extremely rude and had little patience for a solicitor. Mid-40's to 60 the roles reversed, women would be a lot ruder, but the men would be nicer and almost had an appreciation that I was hustling and would make some time for me.

Over 60, most women and men were pretty laid back and accommodating if they had the time.

I've been asked that question a few times. Currently interviewing and was asked that by one company by the guy that runs the dept, he also went on to ask me why I "want to work in this field". It was for a job that was pretty much the exact same as what I'm doing now (just trying to move cities). I found it incredibly insulting to have to justify why I want to do the work that I do, when I've been doing it for many years.

When they offered me a second interview I immediately turned it down.

I'm interviewing for the first time in years, totally forgot how degrading it is. For one company had 1 interview/week (each relatively short) for 4 weeks, passed the technical (my third interview) and then the 4th/final interview I was asked 95% the same questions that were asked in the 2nd interview. I gave the same answers. And then I was turned down.

I've been living in the same place for 3 years in CA, right on the beach. Have not had any rent increase in that time. It's probably a rarity, but pretty sure this will ensure mgmt raises prices to the max every year as they know they can't do large increases when they need it.

So this will likely hurt many, many other renters. Not to mention makes it harder to move across town (they'll do massive rent increases every time a unit is vacant in anticipation of not being able to do it while you're there) and will hurt any newcomers to the state (ya know the same shit we like to bitch about Boomers doing).

It's not a sentiment of needing to be uber successful for the sake of being successful. It's the fact that not being highly successful often means you can't afford even a crappy home in your city, can't have kids, have a hard time justifying the expense of a vacation, can't pay off massive student loans, can't justify the cost to travel to your home town on holidays to see family, likely won't be able to retire early or even "on time", etc etc etc.

You need to be making way above average in at least 50% of the country to afford those things (yes, many people that can't afford those things still do them, but it will bite them in the ass later).

People like stability. People, on average, have less stability these days.

It's super great for exploitation though. Start companies people! Probably no better time, at least outside the tech industry, workers are cheap.

Maybe it's how you grew up or where you grew up, but I know some 1%-ers, who are rich but not SF/NYC rich, that take much pride in their lawn, garden, and having a tidy home. And they very much enjoy being the ones that take care of it. As much as my dad loves to bitch about his lawn that takes 4 hours to mow, he loves doing yardwork. I think it's actually relaxing for him and gives him a sense of accomplishment he doesn't get from sitting behind a desk all day.

I mean it's all a game as much as it sucks. One of my best friends in high school was a salutatorian because the school didn't wait grade. She took zero AP classes and very few honors classes. She knew what she was doing.

Friends in college took less challenging majors to boost GPA for med school (business admin, environmental policy, etc) to boost grades and there core classes were easy so it gave them more time to focus on med school pre-reqs.

It has been and always will be a game. Few things in this world come down to meritocracy because the way we socialize and the way we interview does not beget that in absolute terms.

Tech did a better-than-most job as a meritocracy for while, but I believe those days are done. Most areas f tech are too mainstream with too much obvious money at stake.

Because people are willing to work for wages that can't buy them the shittiest home within a reasonable commute to their office.

If people were more willing to die, unionize, or advocate for a mediocre life, this wouldn't happen.

If you're working for less than it takes to buy the shittiest home in your city, you are exacerbating inequality and thus making the world worse. Better to sit on the sidewalk until you're dead.

And what was the interest rate charged?

Bet it was lower than what the government charges kids that are trying to make a better life for themselves and contribute to a productive society.

Human garbage.

Did you demand money when they bailed out the banks? Or what about when they recently passed massive tax cuts for the rich? Did you demand money then? Do you demand money every time someone declares bankruptcy due to medical bills (they can't give that medical treatment back!).

So many garbage people that can't see the forest for the trees. Think of how many more customers with disposable income you could have (if you wanted to start a business) if so many people in this country weren't deep in debt.

Unpopular opinion: If you can't afford to buy the crappiest home within a somewhat unreasonable commute to your office, you are not colloquially middle class.

While you may fall in the middle of the distribution, when most people say 'middle class' they mean you have a reasonable amount of stability and security in your life.

Awww, this makes me sad. I am a dog lover and I forget that some people are really not. I'm currently in a small office where the CEO brings his dog. It's an older, smaller (I think terrier) breed and he's the only one that does it currently.

But this dog is fantastic! I think I've heard him bark like 2x in the 3 years I've been there, he's quite laid-back and wanders around the office but is more likely to follow the CEO around and lay at his feet or he sleeps outside the conference room when the CEO is in meetings. He will come to the kitchen when people are in it, but he has been trained to stay out of it so he just sits at the door.

I love, love, love having him in the office and I think everyone else does too (but now I'm hoping there aren't people adversely affected that don't speak up). Even when the CEO is traveling, sometimes his wife will drop him off for the day because the dog is so chill and people like the interaction, will take him on walks around the business park, etc.

I have to actually DO things to learn it well. Out of all the subjects I had in school, I was best in math and I think that's why. You can actually do math at home in your room and get immediate feedback (the answer is either right or wrong). You can't DO science in your room, you just memorize and see if you memorized correctly. You can do things like write English, but at the same time there's a lot of objectivity there and it's hard to get immediate feedback.

I CAN memorize well. But that is barely learning something. I do not learn by memorizing, I do not learn by being lectured at for an hour at a time. School was not very worthwhile for me outside of the fact that I had to collect signals so people will believe I'm slightly better than mentally retarded. I slept through much of high school - my teachers would pull me aside and say "please try to stay awake - your grades are great so I guess it's fine but please try."

I skipped half of my classes in undergrad - some of the easier business and science courses I only showed up for the tests. Some of my courses I went from an A to a B/B- minus because they penalized absences.

And I still ended up with good-to-great GPA's, a healthy number of academic scholarships, and a couple degrees.

If I'm not actually in it, building it and getting relatively quick feedback on if my solution is correct or not - I'm not learning very well. I'll memorize all day - but what a waste of time.

Had no idea about India, but I am gearing up to move to the UK soon and was looking into phone plans.

Even Europe is way, way cheaper than America. Why is it so expensive here? Anyone know? Is it just that a few companies run the market and can charge what they want? Or are there less nefarious reasons?

He raised money for start-ups and was a marketing consultant. Ended up on advisory boards for various start-ups and most recently as a CXO for a prominent start-up (which got tons of traction but ultimately went down in flames). He had his hand in a bunch of different companies and often worked for equity and a small fee.

And as smart as the guy is in many respects (language, social skills, etc), he is a dumb-dumb when it comes to technical anything or analysis of any type of market/business. But holy fuck, that guy can sell anything (most especially himself - was a fascinating person to watch).

Possibly.

The wealthiest person I ever dated (he wasn't super wealthy while we were together just doing well, but I just saw him a month ago and he was excited because he CAN retire now but doesn't want to - he's 38) spent TONS of money doing rich people things in the pursuit of wealth, he stretched his bank account very thin over and over doing this.

Going to Sundance, Cannes, Burning Man, TED, etc to network. Spending gobs of money on impressing friends and others he wanted to be friends with. Picking up thousand dollar tabs for groups of people then minorly freaking out the next day.

But spend money to make money. Worked for him. And he got to be super self-indulgent along the way.

I work for a tech start-up, everyone above me basically has a PhD.

I dress down for work because I don’t want to A) feel out of place and B) draw attention from dressing better than my boss.

My boss typically wears ratty jeans and a t-shirt (often with graphics on them). I opt for nice jeans and a plain colored shirt most days.

Much rather this than have to wear a suit everyday, but I’ve got all sorts of polos, button-downs, and nice khakis I don’t bother to wear (but have worn at previous companies that were larger and more formal).

Doesn’t bother me, but I definitely know I alter my choices to fit with group dynamics.

Even for people that study well-paying subjects and do well in school and for whom a 100k loan balance is worthwhile, it is still better to leave school with no debt.

Fun anecdote, an ex of mine was admitted to Mayo Clinic Medical School back when we were seniors in college. I don't remember all the details completely well, but they put a huge emphasis on getting students through med school debt-free so they could focus on being the best physicians possible in any area of medicine and for however long it took. My ex ended up with a full-ride with their help and it made it much easier for her to focus on being the best physician possible, less stress/able to buy a small home while in med school/take up additional study opportunities/trips/and again much less general stress (we are still friends 14 years later).

It sucks that us Americans are so boot-strapped oriented, but ah-well it makes them easier to exploit.

There's still a massive difference between schools that don't fall into the private/top-tier bin. Sorry.

I am from a family of 10 kids and we all went to and were accepted to different schools (all non-private/non-top tier)...there is a massive difference in education levels between schools (maybe it won't affect your career trajectory, but I didn't go to college for a career, I went to learn and be surrounded by others of my caliber).

I love that this is downvoted. LOL. I'm all for vaccination, but you are 100% correct.

Went through this process with my school and was continually denied. Had letters from relatives, a psychologist, and a school counselor and was not declared as a dependent on my dad's taxes throughout undergrad. I didn't live with or speak to my father for the entirety of undergrad and beyond...still didn't make a difference.

Oof. This is a very out-of-touch comment. This isn't about the difference between Harvard and a good state school.

Sounds like a fantastic businessman. My CEO is always talking about how to corner the market and (without disclosing what we do) make it so some industries have to use our product if they want regulatory approval.

Think like your masters.

>I find extroverts remember facts like these...

I like your overall point, but disagree here. I actually find a lot of introverts (such as myself) remember MORE minutiae than extroverts because we are more prone to listen than to speak.

We just won't bring it up out of nowhere because we already know how the conversation will go or are not piqued enough by the subject matter to think it warrants a conversation.

"Oh, hows your son doing in soccer?

So great. he won/lost x/y/z games. He's such a n/m/o player and feels r/s/t about it.

Ohhh, that's great." End scene.

Sure.

The question is the type of society we want to live in.

Do we want to credential sub-par kids becuase “money” and give them a better chance at life to run the country?

Or do we want to promote the best and most astute thinkers and give them the best chance to run our country?

>Most of the kids in the elite education system are alright, they didn’t build this world and generally believe in an equitable one.

When I went to (not an Ivy, but a well known) college I ended up in a very nice fraternity with ridiculous numbers of guys that had trust funds (I think the highest number I knew of was 30M - although that guy was a chill stoner than didn't want much from life). A few had families with private jets. One owned a chandelier in their house that was worth 2x the house I grew up in.

I absolutely believe that these people would say they believe in an equitable society. I also know 90% of them are pretty solid people, a few assholes but I know lots of middle class and poor people that are assholes, too.

The issue is, they do not understand what life is like for middle class people, much less lower-class people. They do not understand the degree that making a society equitable would take and much of those ideas when discussed, even among friends, were vehemently scoffed at.

The problem is, lots of these people get to go on to become the decision makers of our society. And while completely fine people, they do not understand the realities of 80% of the country. I'd much rather Harvard and Yale and USC take the Cal-tech route and fill their halls with much more deserving kids (who are moreso likely to come from middle and lower class families than what's happening in present day).

It's ultimately the question, are you a bad person if you make a decision without understanding or knowing all the implications? I think the answer is no. But these people do not understand all the implications because they don't understand how most people in our society live. We should do our best to make our decision makers people that truly understand how most of us live - as unrealistic as that idea seems.

The same can be said about heterosexual sex. How do you know people are “attracted to the opposite sex” when they really just “have sex with the opposite sex.”

Make college available for everyone for free, but make asking for and talking about degrees illegal in job interviews.

Force employers to actually vet people for what they know and can do and not force otherwise capable people to jump through expensive hoops to display pseudo-signals.

Not only will we be able to help people improve their skills as a society, but I bet college enrollment goes down across the board because most jobs aren’t that hard. Most jobs don’t actually need degrees, it’s just that degrees make hiring much easier.

I think they were being a bit extremist with their language to make a point. However, fun anecdote, at my high school one of the janitors was a multi-millionaire (we lived in a fly-over state in a small city, so he was crazy rich by our standards).

He made it all because he was extremely good at playing/investing in the stock market (he never had a professional job in his life). The economics teachers would invite him to speak to their classes on a regular basis.

Well duh, your salary is more tightly correlated to your leverage than the value you create.