Have kids while you're still (relatively) young
548 karma · joined September 16, 2021
(all ages)
cars: 1
buses: 7.97
motorcycles: 1.93
light trucks: 1.45
heavy trucks: 0.96
cars: 1
buses: 11.85
motorcycles: 3.77
cars: 1
buses: 16.7
Here are a few Qs to discover your blind spots: Have you spoken to the large industrial employers in your region? The nearest hospital? The fastest growing companies in your state? The businesses that sponsor local sporting events and festivals? Have you looked out of area? Tried contract work? Gotten feedback from a recruiter? Asked a prof if they can introduce you to anyone? Called the mayor? Schmoozed at a Chamber of Commerce meeting?
Half these things may sound uncomfortable and awkward, but I guarantee you won't get through the list without being offered a job. Put yourself out there in multiple ways.
Probably looks that way to the billionaire founders too. Gates, for example, happened to grow up when only a few kids had computers at home, and working with them was not that far separated from the hardware. He happened to live in a region that needed traffic control software, so he ran with that and succeeded. With one win under his belt, he and his small team were well positioned to parlay into PC software at a time when IBM was uniquely vulnerable. Had any of those variables been different, Chuck Robinson might have become the richest man in the world.
(Chuck, though fictitious, had a mundane career like 99.999% of SWEs that have ever lived)
Seems like every historical instance of individuals ceding their rights to an organization goes rotten. Maybe this time will be different.
I know of no union that would give me the flexibility I currently enjoy--flexibility to bill hourly on some projects, lump sum on others. Flexibility to invest my retirement savings as I wish. Flexibility to work 12 hours days 7 days a week for 6 weeks, then take two months off to travel. Flexibility to tell clients "this is how _I_ do it, full stop. Flexibility to choose my own wage and benefits and career trajectory. Flexibility to work for equity alone, or barter, when it makes sense.
That's my reality, and I have yet to see a union that offers anything close.
You are, however, free to work for yourself or any other company.
I'm not sure I understand the question; can you rephrase?
In theory, yes. In practice, a union brings with it economic incentives to do more than just represent the workers. Many of its incentives are in conflict with the wellbeing of individual workers, the company, and the economic wellbeing of the jurisdiction in which they operate.
> What makes you less optimistic about it?
Corruption, bureaucracy, institutional inertia, incentives for rent seeking, and loss of agency for the individual worker.
Second, you're focused on the most successful person out of a billion. I assume you don't lie awake at night wondering why you weren't the one lottery winner out of a billion, so why worry that your career hasn't eclipsed that of Zuck or Gates or Wang?
My advice is to get out of the bubble. Visit some small towns and eat dinner with the locals. Go to a 3rd world country for a month. To them, you're the rich guy that makes them feel some type of way.
As a result, the union would be known as a place that caters to midwits and incompetents.
Interviewer: What method do you use to bake an apple pie?
Chef: For a traditional pie, I'll go with Granny Smith apples and cut ice cold shortening into the flour for a light flaky crust. That said, some of my customers like the fuller flavor of Macintosh apples, which need a bit less cooking time and more lemon to balance the sweetness. One of my regulars orders their pies parbaked on graham cracker crust, which required X Y and Z changes from the traditional method.
If it's "going away to college to get an ag degree," you'll find that most who embark on that journey change course by graduation, as they can make more money with less work in corporate farm ops.
That said, I know someone who went out and knocked on farmhouse doors in a nearby river valley. She met and befriended an octogenarian farmer who gifted her ~160 acres on the condition that she give the farm away for free when she retires. I'm sure that's the exception, not the rule.
That was 15 years ago, the old man is long gone but she's still running the farm today, raising heirloom livestock and selling top shelf meats to chefs in the city.
In the broadest sense, organics could refer to any molecule of carbon and hydrogen, however I don't think that's how it's used here.
> Why are so many people jobless?
Perception -- Unemployment is lower today than in 82 of the last 94 years.
> Why are so many companies going bankrupt?
Perception -- Bankruptcies, currently around 50k companies per year, are also at historic lows. Before about 2015, 100k to 150k was the norm.
> Why so many people are homeless?
Perception -- Homelessness appears to be on the decline, having fallen from 210 per 100k population to 170 per 100k in the span of 10 years.
> Why there are so many people under mental health issues?
I have a several hypotheses on this one.
Broken -- Lifestyles in the developed world have evolved faster than our biology. Men have few paths to fulfill their drive to build and conquer. Women have few (if any) children to nurture. And children have little unsupervised play and exploration, and practically zero responsibility. These stresses push some people (e.g., the man who would build a home on the frontier but can't bear an office job) over the brink and into mental illness.
Broken -- In the past, people with severe mental illness were less likely to reproduce. Many were institutionalized, killed, or left to their own devices. This limited the proliferation of genes that code for mental illness. Now that we've spent several generations trying to keep everyone comfortably afloat, it's only natural that we see more people carrying (and expressing) genes that code for mental illness. Same principle explains the increase in other conditions that are no longer likely to be fatal: Asthma, poor eyesight, premature birth, etc.
Perception -- We diagnose more often (and for less severe cases) and the taboo against having a mental illness is lower than it used to be.
The sound they make in movies couldn't be further from reality.
Imagine applying OP's reasoning to calculus or programming. We'd all be "stealing" from Leibniz and Ritchie, and progress would be crushed.
Are journalists just phoning it in at this point?