It’s kind of arrogant to think that you are qualified to be the judge of your own value. If someone seems happy to pay you for your efforts, accept it in good grace and let them worry about what your time is worth.
Of course I’d look for external validation now and then, but that’s not as important to me as building skill. Periodic tests via oDesk or the like should be enough to test my self-assessments for accuracy. But I don’t care all that much about what the market thinks, really. I just want to build skills. I’ve managed to play guitar for 3 years without having the market judge its value, but I could care less. I play guitar for myself and sometimes my friends, and I do it because I care about its ‘value’: to me. I don’t need to go busking to determine that.
I think it would be worth you while to learn some economics. Comparative Advantage would be a good place to start. Your values are valid but you should be fully aware of your choices.
I think you underestimate my knowledge of economics. I know about comparative advantage, marginal cost, diminishing marginal returns, Pareto frontiers, et cetera. I took AP Econ and folk at SIAI use the terminology quite a bit.
Bow hunting skills?
I totally have bow hunting skills! But not nunchaku skills… :/
I apologize, I tend to think that people who think their own academic accomplishments are significant factors in their future salary are probably confused about the way the world works.
I also expend significant effort on unmarketable skills (snowboarding in my case) but I don’t expect anyone else to fund me for it. We live in a market economy; figure out your comparative advantage and negotiate the maximum price you can achieve for it.
I also expend significant effort on unmarketable skills (snowboarding in my case) but I don’t expect anyone else to fund me for it. We live in a market economy, figure out your comparative advantage and negotiate the maximum price you can achieve for it.
Or, like, not. I totally realize that’s what I would do if I wanted to make money, but I don’t. At least for now, I only care about unmarketable skills. That’s why I have so many of them. It was a mistake to write this post in the first person; I’m sorry for being misleading. But I’m not actually looking for employment. I have employment opportunities already, and things to do besides.
Money is not only the unit of caring, it is the unit of exchange. It is not straightforward to trade money for time however (at least by the hour) so you are comprehensible. I’m sorry if I offended you.
Making money is not my comparative advantage. :) Really, though, I intern for SIAI, and when I’m not doing that I’m building skills so that I’ll be better able to work for SIAI, and when I’m not doing that I’m building skills that are related to intelligence amplification research. That is, at least for now, my comparative advantage: there’s no easy way for me to make enough money to pay someone else to do it better than I could. Volunteering at SIAI for a year gave me a lot of domain-specific knowledge.
I’m sorry if I offended you.
You didn’t offend me at all! Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound bristly.
It’s kind of arrogant to think that you are qualified to be the judge of your own value. If someone seems happy to pay you for your efforts, accept it in good grace and let them worry about what your time is worth.
Of course I’d look for external validation now and then, but that’s not as important to me as building skill. Periodic tests via oDesk or the like should be enough to test my self-assessments for accuracy. But I don’t care all that much about what the market thinks, really. I just want to build skills. I’ve managed to play guitar for 3 years without having the market judge its value, but I could care less. I play guitar for myself and sometimes my friends, and I do it because I care about its ‘value’: to me. I don’t need to go busking to determine that.
Bow hunting skills?
I think it would be worth you while to learn some economics. Comparative Advantage would be a good place to start. Your values are valid but you should be fully aware of your choices.
I think you underestimate my knowledge of economics. I know about comparative advantage, marginal cost, diminishing marginal returns, Pareto frontiers, et cetera. I took AP Econ and folk at SIAI use the terminology quite a bit.
I totally have bow hunting skills! But not nunchaku skills… :/
I apologize, I tend to think that people who think their own academic accomplishments are significant factors in their future salary are probably confused about the way the world works.
I also expend significant effort on unmarketable skills (snowboarding in my case) but I don’t expect anyone else to fund me for it. We live in a market economy; figure out your comparative advantage and negotiate the maximum price you can achieve for it.
Or, like, not. I totally realize that’s what I would do if I wanted to make money, but I don’t. At least for now, I only care about unmarketable skills. That’s why I have so many of them. It was a mistake to write this post in the first person; I’m sorry for being misleading. But I’m not actually looking for employment. I have employment opportunities already, and things to do besides.
Money is not only the unit of caring, it is the unit of exchange. It is not straightforward to trade money for time however (at least by the hour) so you are comprehensible. I’m sorry if I offended you.
Especially if you are in a country where that kind of thing is illegal.
Making money is not my comparative advantage. :) Really, though, I intern for SIAI, and when I’m not doing that I’m building skills so that I’ll be better able to work for SIAI, and when I’m not doing that I’m building skills that are related to intelligence amplification research. That is, at least for now, my comparative advantage: there’s no easy way for me to make enough money to pay someone else to do it better than I could. Volunteering at SIAI for a year gave me a lot of domain-specific knowledge.
You didn’t offend me at all! Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound bristly.