

What I’ve learned in my first year as a college dropout - aruss
http://jessepollak.me/what-ive-learned-in-my-first-year-as-a-college-dropout/

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markbao
Great post. Specifically on the "I can tell in five minutes whether I'll like
someone or not part," getting into local maxima is definitely possible but
it's not a bad place to be. The folks at that level are great folks and one is
able to discern them with less work. I've found, though, that some folks that
I initially got a negative impression from turned out to be really great
people, outside of the "5 minute" criteria, though it took some work to get
there.

So as with any case of potential local maxima, my approach is to spend more
time with some of the folks that fall outside this "5 minute" criteria, to a)
meet a more diverse group of people and b) improve my "5 minute" criteria so
that there are fewer false negatives.

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freshhawk
It's a good catch to realize that the main downside to this approach is an
inevitable lack of diversity in your friend group. That feeling you are basing
it on is a general sense of cultural similarity and worldview similarity. Some
of those similarities you want but many you don't.

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incision
_> 'While efficient, I’m not sure how I feel about this revelation. At first
glance, it seems great, but as I’ve thought more about it, I’m worried that in
this initial judgement I’m likely biased towards certain types of people.'_

I'm glad the author is thinking this one over. Without exception, I've found
people who are unquestioningly confident in their quick judgments to be
horrible judges.

I'm guessing it's some sort of loop of confirmation bias latched with
confidence in the initial judgement.

 _> 'Finding a balance here is something I’m working on now.'_

For me, I've found it helps to try and change perspectives. To go from trying
to classify how I feel to considering how 'they' might feel.

It's going to sound cheesy and possibly really abstract, but I try to think of
people less as a classification problem - sorting marbles into bins and more
like legos - considering a fit for each piece.

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AceJohnny2
While it's really interesting and insightful overall, the "$40,000/year is
enough" part bothers me. I see it doesn't include health insurance, and while
it includes "savings" I have to question how much of a safety net he's
actually building himself.

It looks like a classic case of "I'm young and nothing bad's happened to me so
why get insurance?".

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jtfairbank
He says he's on his parent's insurance, so at least he has that. Also, people
survive on far less than 40k a year in the states.

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mentat
"The states" are not the Bay Area.

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Breefield
I dread the "what do you do?" question so much; lately I just deflect with
"I'm one of the assholes ruining San Francisco, what about you?"

Granted that's in the context of hanging out with people other than startup
people. At meetups and whatnot I usually give them some of the highs and the
lows, it lets the other person know they can open up too. We don't all have to
be fronting positivity 24/7.

~~~
sanderjd
Yeah, it must be so nice to do something that everybody understands. "What do
you do?" "I'm a lawyer."

~~~
Mandatum
"I'm an electrician" "I'm a teacher" "I'm in the military"

.. It's weird.

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bnzelener
I love these essays. Particularly the "what do you do", "living on $40,000",
and "value of writing".

This year I lived on around $30,000 from my start-up and probably another
$10,000 in help from parents on plane tickets and other non-essentials. It's
been a very comfortable year with travel and probably too many toys.

I live in Colorado :-)

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Omniusaspirer
The scary thing about only having 30k/yr is the lack of a real safety net
should disaster strike. I've been there and it's perfectly doable, but I'm
quite envious of the people I know with a few million in assets. Hopefully
I'll be there soon. :)

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Siecje
> a $40,000 a year salary (coming out to ~$30,000 post-taxes)

Seems like a lot going to taxes especially considering the low income.

