[sensibletouches]

For realistic people, it's not that big of a deal and speaks more to how people value money and things. However, I'll admit that I wish, as a 22 year-old kid, I was more knowledgeable about all those loan papers I was signing at the time.

I'm a doctor who had about $160,000 in student loan debt by the time I finished residency (during which I paid $1,000/month on a $45,000/year salary and lived like a student). After residency, my wife and I started throwing about $4-5k/month at it. Yes, that means I didn't go out and buy a brand new S55 AMG fresh out of residency, but I didn't care. I know plenty of people who will lose more on mortgages when their house doesn't appreciate like they thought it would. Or when (not if) the market crashes again.

It doesn't bother me one bit that many people on here get to ride the tech money train that I don't have a ticket for. Enjoy it, homies! But never forget (but don't stress about) the fact that the party music can stop at any time.

Everyone should enjoy what they've got and be reasonable about expenses. There's already enough to be worried about.

[gangst]

Out of curiosity, what brought you to HN? While not riding the tech train professionally, have you considered investing in or starting any products?

[sensibletouches]

When I was in medical school, I taught myself some Python and C++ to help automate some of the data collection and analysis for a cancer research project I was doing. That project was attached to a drug that I now have a minority financial interest in. Been interested in technology since I was a kid. This weekend I was toying with the Keccak hash function code just for fun, even though it has absolutely no relationship to anything useful I could do programatically. The simple pleasures...

I have a financial relationship with Epic Systems, but that's more of a nepotistic thing than it is something I earned. As far as investing in new products, I don't really have an interest at this point. Things are stable and I like it that way.