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thecage411on For business school graduates, investment banking is out and consulting is in

For someone in type A, how do you decide if it's worth pursuing an MBA vs moving into technical management without an MBA vs sucking it up?

thecage411on For Billion-Dollar Companies, Venture Deals Outstrip Going Public

This is exactly what I meant, thanks for filling in the details.

thecage411on For Billion-Dollar Companies, Venture Deals Outstrip Going Public

I wish more people knew this. Even if you beat the odds and the startup you work for goes places, you may only get 10%-15% of the proceeds now, and be hoping for the rest even further out in the future. Almost certainly better to just work for a public company from the start.

thecage411on Java Developers

I've noticed that the combination of math and communication skills is pretty well correlated with producing clean designs and code. Data scientists probably have those skills more often than programmers, but I'd argue that it's the skills rather than the culture that account for the difference you are seeing.

thecage411on The Problem With Founders

Do founders get the 'fame' ? Sure, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Sometimes it makes you a target. I was amazed at how much Eric Schmidt paid for personal security (its in the 10Q) he can afford it of course but really? You have to hire ex-special forces types because you're too tempting a kidnapping target? I personally would much rather be anonymously wealthy than 'target on your back' wealthy.

Eric Schmidt almost surely doesn't _need_ ex special forces guys doing his security. He does it because it makes him feel/look important, or he's paranoid, or he may as well because he has the money and the company may pay for it anyway.

There are plenty of super-rich super-famous people in SV who don't have large security entourages and get by just fine.

thecage411on A Billionaire Mathematician’s Life of Ferocious Curiosity

This has to be the most bizarre interpretation of the broken window fallacy I've read.

thecage411on Just how much is that 2% really worth?

Not necessarily, it only starts the long term capital gains clock: you still need to hold the stock for a year and have the grant be at least two years in the past to qualify.

Also, the company may not allow you to early exercise. Ask them before accepting an offer!

thecage411on Show HN: Free, anonymous coding interview practice

The answer is florida, right?

thecage411on I Sold My Startup for $25.5 Million

Do you think founders have a moral obligation to educate potential employees about financial projections?

thecage411on I got tired of packing my own capsules so I made Nootrobox

FWIW if nootropics are seen as somewhat "mysterious and shady" I wouldn't use the words "drop-dead".

thecage411on From Poverty to Prosperity: A conversation with Bill Gates [pdf]

Have you done the math?

thecage411on From Poverty to Prosperity: A conversation with Bill Gates [pdf]

> Where will the money come from? The math doesn't work.

This is of course a ridiculous argument when the parameters of the discussion haven't even been established.

For example, we could get rid of all our social services and use the outlays and administrative costs on a basic income (minus the administrative costs of the basic income itself). That might not be a good idea for various reasons, but there's no law of mathematics preventing it.

thecage411on To Get a Home in San Francisco, First Get a $200,000-a-Year Job

I'd rather be asset rich than straight up poor!

thecage411on How Wall Street recruits so many Ivy League grads

"Working insane hours is a sign of commitment, of willingness to sacrifice for the job; the personal destructiveness of the practice isn’t a bug, it’s a feature."

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/20/three-piece-suit...

thecage411on Lectures Aren't Just Boring, They're Ineffective, Too

I still remember the shock I had upon taking my first few graduate-level classes. The lectures and assignments were actually focused on the material rather than weeding people out through large, poorly specified projects / problem sets.

thecage411on CEO complaints : employee not motivated after being fired

No it isnt. See other comments in this thread.

thecage411on Employee Equity

It depends on what you mean by value; if you mean the price someone is willing to pay for them this is clearly not correct -- otherwise every out-of-the-money option would sell for 0.

thecage411on [dead]

I do find it amusing that legal experts were consulted for their insight on business and economics.

thecage411on How Being a Doctor Became the Most Miserable Profession

I don't think your example is very strong. It's not exactly clear what you mean by government "sticks its nose in your internet business" but for most that probably means regulation. But in your example Medicare is just a really big insurance company; if a private sector insurance company denied your claim for some stupid reason would you complain about the private sector? I'm sure there are examples of onerous regulations that would make a better example?

thecage411on Memories of Steve

He who dies with the most stuff wins.

thecage411on U.S. stock markets are rigged, says author Michael Lewis

What about randomizing the auction time?

thecage411on Elon Musk: To the People of New Jersey

Except that the terms "economic central planning" and "rent seeking" are orthogonal, even if the results are the same. You could, in theory, have economic central planning without rent seeking -- though it may not work that way in practice.

I think the above poster had it correct; refer to it as "crony capitalism" to non-economists.

thecage411on STEM Shortage Claims and Facebook's $19 Billion Acquisition of WhatsApp

What's your definition of public? For #2 and #3 things seem less public, since the conversation is between the manager and the individual, rather than the entire team. Maybe I'm just misinterpreting though.

thecage411on STEM Shortage Claims and Facebook's $19 Billion Acquisition of WhatsApp

Can you give an examples political considerations that are out in the open in a formal org compared to open allocation? I think you could make a case for the opposite.

thecage411on Why vacation at tech companies should be mandatory

I didn't see anything in article about forcing you to take time off when the company is slow. In fact this seems to contradict one of their goals, to make sure the systems are maintainable without you.

thecage411on WhatsApp’s Founder Goes From Food Stamps to Billionaire

Yes! Your quote reminded me of Jaime Escalante, the calculus teacher portrayed in Stand and Deliver. In the movie, he teaches some completely unprepared kids calculus and they pass the AP exam. In real life, he taught for years and set up feeder programs so the students would be ready. More here: http://reason.com/archives/2002/07/01/stand-and-deliver-revi...

thecage411on We Need Young People To Take Risks And Build Inspiring Things

What I've seen happen, at least with doctors, is a bunch of them get together and from a group/partnership and then the group negotiates with hospitals. This has the advantage of increased leverage as a group and thus much better conditions than just an individual working for a hospital, but you aren't getting high-finance rich with that arrangement.

thecage411on We Need Young People To Take Risks And Build Inspiring Things

How does one, after a couple of startups, move to a hedge fund? What skills are they looking for? Any good reading out there?

thecage411on Report: Dell layoffs this week – 15,000 to be hit

Well, the weather is good in some places. It's because of the recent good weather! No, it's because of the simultaneous good and bad weather in different parts of the country!

thecage411on Krugman's Three Money Pits

I'd say there are three main reason, in decreasing order of legitimacy: 1) he uses his academic credentials to write a more-or-less partisan column 2) a lot of the time he can't just disagree with someone, he has to call them an idiot and corrupt as well 3) he's a keynesian and hard money supporters are loud on the internet

When he sticks to economics (his blog has a higher percentage of economic material compared to his column) he is definitely worth reading and shouldn't be dismissed with ad hominem attacks.