[logicalmonster]

I think this is a pretty good article, though I'd think that most financial gurus aren't trying to lie, they're just trying to give advice that's feasible for a mass audience to try and learn.

To give an example; the article mentions Dave Ramsey talking down to his callers and giving generic advice such as cutting up your credit cards. I don't follow Ramsey too closely and can't read his mind, but I'd bet he's optimizing his advice for the least common denominator within a mass audience of financially troubled people. A small percentage of financially desperate people would hear great advice about credit cards (only use cards to buy stuff you have 100% of the cash for, and pay them back instantly to get some cash and rewards back) and not internalize that as something like (it's okay to keep using my card because I'm getting money back as long as I try and pay my bill every month). For a mass audience, the safest advice on credit cards that might make an impact is to just tell everybody with a financial problem to stop using them. On an individual level, a financial expert can probably give better advice that's more suitable.

If I had to give 1 bit of general financial advice though: develop your talent stack. It doesn't matter if it's learning a new programming language, wood-working, learning to fix cars or toilets, taking a foreign language class, learning how to paint, or growing a great garden. If you have multiple skills you have more opportunities to make money as well as combining those skills in unique ways to create new business ideas and concepts. And baring some health issue, nobody can ever take a skill away from you.

[zhdc1]

> If I had to give 1 bit of general financial advice though: develop your talent stack.

This is crucial, but having a relatively high savings / investing rate is as important.

> And baring some health issue, nobody can ever take a skill away from you.

Time absolutely can. Even someone in a sedentary job in a field where their expertise won't necessarily become outdated will eventually have to hang up their cleats for one reason or another.

[larryludwig]

Talent stacking (as Scott Adams coined it) I highly recommended even if you don't own a business. I mentioned this in another blog post.

[cdaringe]

> having a relatively high savings / investing rate is as important.

Balancing that with risk and liquidity is a challenging barrier. What’s your take?

[JamesBarney]

> develop your talent stack. It doesn't matter if...

I think its 100% matters which talent you pick. Some will on average pay out 1000x over others.

[meowkit]

Work to live. Doesn’t matter if you make 10x, 100x, or even a 1000x more over a lifetime if you’re miserable doing that job.

[ericmcer]

Everyone I know who has chose a career based on passion has grown to view it as work eventually, they still enjoy parts of it but monetizing something you love and doing it 40+ hours a week turns it into work. I have friends who loved animation/art but actually working for a gaming company ended up being miserable. And 1000x would mean I could work for 1 month and make ~85 years of income so… I would be fine with that lol.

[paraph1n]

I love programming. Always have. Been doing it since I was 10 years old. It was my dream to do it for a living, even before I realized that it pays well too!

But sadly, you're right. My 40 hr/week engineering job in big tech is miserable.

I still code for fun/passion in my free time. But I cry on the inside every time I think about how much of my time and mental energy gets wasted at my day job.

I hope that either (A) I am able to retire young, or (B) I find the mythical coding job that I can actually enjoy.

Sadly, neither (A) nor (B) seems likely to happen.

[musicale]

> But I cry on the inside every time I think about how much of my time and mental energy gets wasted at my day job

I tend to agree - big tech (and the work economy in general) is somehow managing to squander vast amounts of human potential, and leaving billions of dollars on the table in the process.

Pigeonholing - where people are expected to perform the same task every day, in the same domain, for years on end - is certainly part of it. Humans are not robots. Rather, they thrive on growth, variety, and learning to do new things. But growth is considered a cost center at most companies, and variety is typically forbidden.

Tying people to projects - and punishing them for switching projects autonomously - often results in work being done slowly, poorly, and even resentfully.

Usually the reward for completing one's tasks efficiently is simply to be given more work to do. Presenteeism trumps actual productivity.

I wonder if Valve is still - or was ever - operating with a "work on whatever you want" system, and I wonder how well it could work in practice.

Surely there is some necessary and unpleasant "grunt work" that nobody will want to do, but presumably if it's important then some agreement could be reached to get it done anyway, rather than simply ordering a low-status person to do it as usually happens at a traditional company.

[jacquesm]

In the long run, you should just keep adding talents. So yes, you may end up adding a couple of 'duds', but you'd surprised how many of these initial duds turn out to have substantial value in the long run.

[tonyedgecombe]

I think logicalmonster is suggesting a much wider spectrum than just careers. There are so many everyday jobs that our grandparents did without a second thought that we have surrendered to specialists.

[jacquesm]

> If I had to give 1 bit of general financial advice though: develop your talent stack. It doesn't matter if it's learning a new programming language, wood-working, learning to fix cars or toilets, taking a foreign language class, learning how to paint, or growing a great garden. If you have multiple skills you have more opportunities to make money as well as combining those skills in unique ways to create new business ideas and concepts.

Seconded. When you are wasting time you might as well develop your skills. Fortunes are to be found on the intersection of almost any two skills, if you can add more to the pile you are adding more chances for capturing that value.

[jhanschoo]

> Fortunes are to be found on the intersection of almost any two skills, if you can add more to the pile you are adding more chances for capturing that value.

Do you have some anecdotes to share regarding this?

[jacquesm]

Yes, in fact I have a blog post in draft (for years) already called 'crossroads'. I really should finish that and post it, it might be of actual use to some people.

[effingwewt]

Please do, it's been a while and man the lego sorting[1] was amazing!

[1] https://jacquesmattheij.com/sorting-two-metric-tons-of-lego/

[logicalmonster]

One way to achieve great success is to be better than 99.9999% of people at one thing. Think in terms of Larry Bird or Steph Curry practicing shooting a basketball for many thousands of hours. Or think about a concert pianist or violinist sitting in their studio for years practicing their music over and over and over again, being obsessive about eliminating the slightest mistakes that almost nobody would even notice. If you're talented and driven, you can certainly achieve success this way, but it's pretty hard. You have to be among the best in the world at something very competitive.

But there's another way forward, combining good skills that are greater together. Here's an example of a hypothetical set of skills that can lead to a life-changing amount of fame and financial success.

* Maybe you're not among the best cinematographers in the world, but you know your way around a camera, lighting, and video editing software enough to create a reasonably polished video. Your videos are not Hollywood good, but your ability to create a good looking video is in the top 10% of the population.

* Maybe you're not the absolute funniest, best-looking, and most charismatic person in the world, but you've worked on yourself a bit and are noticeably more appealing than an average person, maybe in the top 15-20% of the population.

* Maybe you're not the absolute smartest person when it comes to computers, but you've built a few gaming PCs, took some Computer Science courses in college, read some blogs and forums, and spend some of your free time following the industry. You might be in the top 10% of the general population when it comes to general computer knowledge.

By itself, none of those skills are remarkable in the slightest. You're never going to get a job setting up special effects shots for Michael Bay, no agent is going to notice you at Starbucks and give you a contract as a model or actor, and Tim Cook isn't going to ever call you at 2 AM begging for your help with emergency fixes to some web service. But you put those 3 things together in the right way, and you can be a successful Technology YouTuber that has a mass following and influences the computer industry to some extent.

I'd think Kanye is a good example of somebody well-known to look at in terms of a list of talents that are good, but not anywhere close to the best. I'd argue that by music and fashion industry standards, he's nowhere close to the best singer, lyricist, dancer, businessman, or designer in the world. But he has a lot of skills that are all above average when compared to the general population. That's enough to be incredibly successful when combined with his self-promotional ability, risk-taking, desire to increase his knowledge, stubbornness, self-confidence, and charisma.

[France_is_bacon]

I think what you said is great, especially about having 100% of the cash to buy something, before you buy it, so that you 100% know you will be able to pay that bill and avoid the super high interest rates on credit cards.

And, there is nothing wrong with not using credit cards. Especially if you don't have a job that pays $200,000+ per year so you can afford to buy a house. But for someone making $35,000, of what use is credit?

I suppose that buying groceries and gasoline and getting cash back is fine, and worth it. And making sure you can return items if there's a problem. But the way a lot of people talk about credit cards, is that they are some kind of holy grail.

But for people who are halfway intelligent, I don't think that financial expert is really that necessary. Just read a lot of great books on the subject, watch a lot of videos, and manage it yourself. It's not that difficult. Why even pay someone. But, this does not apply to someone who has super high worth, like $250 million plus, but it's kind of dumb to talk about them, because they're going to know what to do anyways, or at least 99.9% of them.

Also, try to develop a talent stack that actually is valuable, if that's what you're going to do. Nothing wrong with learning how to grow roses, for example. That is a hobby, not a skill or talent, in my opinion. Sure, maybe one out of 100 million will somehow write a book on rose growing, but that is the exceptionally rare exception. However, learning to landscape and taking classes at your local college and getting certifications is a different issue. But even then, you have to be able to actually DO it if needed, for money - so you have to be able to life heavy stuff, work in the sun all day, etc. If you can't, what's the point. Same with your example of painting - that's a pretty useless thing to learn. And again, this is in terms of money, which you stated in the first part: "1 bit of general financial advice though: develop your talent stack"

Learn computer programming. Learn plumbing. Learn auto repair. Stuff you can make money at.

And again, nothing wrong with doing stuff as a hobby because you enjoy them, but that is a different topic.