I’m in somewhat agreement with this general idea, but I think that most people that try to “build knowledge” ignore a central element of why money is good, it’s a hard to fake signal.
I agree with something like:
So, two years ago I quit my monetarily-lucrative job as a data scientist and have mostly focused on acquiring knowledge since then. I can worry about money if and when I know what to do with it.
A mindset I recommend trying on from time to time, especially for people with $100k+ income: think of money as an abundant resource. Everything money can buy is “cheap”, because money is “cheap”.
To the extent that I basically did the same (not quit my job, but got a less well-paying, less time-consuming job doing a thing that’s close to what I’d be doing in my spare time had I had no job).
But this is a problem if your new aim isn’t to make “even more money”, i.e. say a few million dollars.
***
The problem of money is when it scales linearly, when you make 50k this year, 55 the next, 100k ten years later. Because the difference between 50 and 100k is indeed very little.
But the difference between 100m and 100k isn’t, 100m would allow me to pursue projects that are far more interesting than what I’m doing right now.
***
Knowledge is hard to anchor. The guy building TempleOS was acquring something like knowledge in the process of being an unmedicated schizophrenic. Certainly, his programming skills improved as his mental state went downhill. Certainly he was more knowledgeable in specific areas than most (who the **** build a x86 OS from scratch, kernel and all, there’s maybe like 5 or 6 of them total, I’d bet there are fewer than 10,000 people alive that can do that given a few years !?)… and those areas were not “lesbian dance PhD” style knowledge, they were technical applied engineering areas, the kind people get paid in the millions for woerking in.
Yet for some reason, poor Terry Davis was becoming insane, not smart, as he went through life.
Similarly, people doing various “blind inuit pottery making success gender gap PhD” style learning think they are acquiring knowledge, but many of the people here would agree they aren’t. Or at least that they are acuqiring knowledge of little consequence, which will not help them live more happily or affect positive change, or really any change, upon the world.
At most, you can see it “fail” in the knolwedge you’ve acquiered once it hits an extreme, once you’re poor, sad, and alone in spite of a lifetime of knowledge acquistion.
Money, on the other hand, is very objective, everyone wants it. Most need it. Everyone, to some extent, won’t give up theirs or print more of it very easily. It’s also instant. Given 10 minutes I can tell you +/-1% how much liqudity I have access to in total at this very moment. That number will then be honored by millions of businesses and thousands of banks accross the world who will give me services, goods or precious metals, stakes in businesses and government bonds in exchange for it. I can’t have any such validation with knowledge.
So is it no a good “test of your knowledge” to try and acquire some of it ?
Even if doing a 1-1 knowledge-money mapping is harmful, doing a, say, 0.2 − 1 knowledge—money mapping isn’t. Instead it serves as a guideline. Are you acquiring relevant knowledge about the world ? Maybe you’re just becoming a numerology quack, or a religious preacher, or a self-help guru, or a bullshiter, or whatever.
Which is not to say the knowledge-money test is flawless, it isn’t, it’s just the best one we have thus far. Maybe one could suggest other tests exchanging knowledge for things that one can’t buy (e.g. affection), but most of those things are much less easy to quantify and trying to “game” them would feel dirty and immoral, trying to “game” money is the name of the game, everyone does it, that’s part of its role.
I generally agree with this comment, and I think the vast majority of people underestimate the importance of this factor. Personally, I consider “staying grounded” one of the primary challenges of what I’m currently doing, and I do not think it’s healthy to stay out of the markets for extended periods of time.
This is a great comment, and I kind of really want to see it get written up as a top-level post. I’ve made this argument myself a few times, and would love to see it written up in a way that’s easy to reference and link to.
I will ping you with the more cohesive + in depth, syntactically and grammatically correct version when it’s done. Either this Monday or the next, it’s been in draft form ever since I wrote this comment...
Though the main point I’m making here is basically just Taleeb’s Skin in the Game idea, he doesn’t talk about the above specifically, but the idea flows naturally after reading him (granted, I read the book ~3yrs ago, maybe I’m missremembering the)
I’m in somewhat agreement with this general idea, but I think that most people that try to “build knowledge” ignore a central element of why money is good, it’s a hard to fake signal.
I agree with something like:
To the extent that I basically did the same (not quit my job, but got a less well-paying, less time-consuming job doing a thing that’s close to what I’d be doing in my spare time had I had no job).
But this is a problem if your new aim isn’t to make “even more money”, i.e. say a few million dollars.
***
The problem of money is when it scales linearly, when you make 50k this year, 55 the next, 100k ten years later. Because the difference between 50 and 100k is indeed very little.
But the difference between 100m and 100k isn’t, 100m would allow me to pursue projects that are far more interesting than what I’m doing right now.
***
Knowledge is hard to anchor. The guy building TempleOS was acquring something like knowledge in the process of being an unmedicated schizophrenic. Certainly, his programming skills improved as his mental state went downhill. Certainly he was more knowledgeable in specific areas than most (who the **** build a x86 OS from scratch, kernel and all, there’s maybe like 5 or 6 of them total, I’d bet there are fewer than 10,000 people alive that can do that given a few years !?)… and those areas were not “lesbian dance PhD” style knowledge, they were technical applied engineering areas, the kind people get paid in the millions for woerking in.
Yet for some reason, poor Terry Davis was becoming insane, not smart, as he went through life.
Similarly, people doing various “blind inuit pottery making success gender gap PhD” style learning think they are acquiring knowledge, but many of the people here would agree they aren’t. Or at least that they are acuqiring knowledge of little consequence, which will not help them live more happily or affect positive change, or really any change, upon the world.
At most, you can see it “fail” in the knolwedge you’ve acquiered once it hits an extreme, once you’re poor, sad, and alone in spite of a lifetime of knowledge acquistion.
Money, on the other hand, is very objective, everyone wants it. Most need it. Everyone, to some extent, won’t give up theirs or print more of it very easily. It’s also instant. Given 10 minutes I can tell you +/-1% how much liqudity I have access to in total at this very moment. That number will then be honored by millions of businesses and thousands of banks accross the world who will give me services, goods or precious metals, stakes in businesses and government bonds in exchange for it. I can’t have any such validation with knowledge.
So is it no a good “test of your knowledge” to try and acquire some of it ?
Even if doing a 1-1 knowledge-money mapping is harmful, doing a, say, 0.2 − 1 knowledge—money mapping isn’t. Instead it serves as a guideline. Are you acquiring relevant knowledge about the world ? Maybe you’re just becoming a numerology quack, or a religious preacher, or a self-help guru, or a bullshiter, or whatever.
Which is not to say the knowledge-money test is flawless, it isn’t, it’s just the best one we have thus far. Maybe one could suggest other tests exchanging knowledge for things that one can’t buy (e.g. affection), but most of those things are much less easy to quantify and trying to “game” them would feel dirty and immoral, trying to “game” money is the name of the game, everyone does it, that’s part of its role.
I generally agree with this comment, and I think the vast majority of people underestimate the importance of this factor. Personally, I consider “staying grounded” one of the primary challenges of what I’m currently doing, and I do not think it’s healthy to stay out of the markets for extended periods of time.
I like this coinage.
This is a great comment, and I kind of really want to see it get written up as a top-level post. I’ve made this argument myself a few times, and would love to see it written up in a way that’s easy to reference and link to.
I will ping you with the more cohesive + in depth, syntactically and grammatically correct version when it’s done. Either this Monday or the next, it’s been in draft form ever since I wrote this comment...
Though the main point I’m making here is basically just Taleeb’s Skin in the Game idea, he doesn’t talk about the above specifically, but the idea flows naturally after reading him (granted, I read the book ~3yrs ago, maybe I’m missremembering the)
What was your old job, and what is your current job?