
Advice to a Young Tradesman (1748) - roschdal
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-03-02-0130
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jeremydeanlakey
> The most trifling Actions that affect a Man’s Credit, are to be regarded.
> The Sound of your Hammer at Five in the Morning or Nine at Night, heard by a
> Creditor, makes him easy Six Months longer.

> never keep borrow’d Money an Hour beyond the Time you promis’d, lest a
> Disappointment shuts up your Friends Purse forever.

> the good Paymaster is Lord of another Man’s Purse. He that is known to pay
> punctually and exactly to the Time he promises, may at any Time, and on any
> Occasion, raise all the Money his Friends can spare.

> Creditors are a kind of People, that have the sharpest Eyes and Ears, as
> well as the best Memories of any in the World.

Credit scores have replaced reputation and credit has become very impersonal.
Interestingly, most of this seems more applicable than ever... with the
exception of banging your hammer at 5 am.

~~~
mcguire
Maybe, but not in all environments. It would be interesting to update these
for the VC economy.

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alehul
The above is a debt investment, whereas VCs are generally looking at equity
investments. These are fairly different in principle and strategy, and both
have history dating back many hundreds of years.

~~~
mcguire
Yes, but.

You don't have to pay back the money, but you do have to be seen working hard.
You have to maintain good relations with your funders.

The principles are the same.

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peteradio
Summary:

Live within your means. Invest well. Collect what's yours. Trifling expenses
add up. Time is money.

~~~
mcguire
Pay what you owe, when you owe it.

~~~
waffleguy
Isn’t that what living in your means mean by definition?

~~~
war1025
I think they're different.

"Live within your means" is basically don't overextend yourself to live a life
you can't actually afford

"Pay what you owe when you owe it" means that if you said you'd pay somebody,
make sure to do so on time. It's entirely possible to be living within your
means but still have a bad habit of paying your bills weeks late.

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nickelcitymario
Key takeaway for me:

> In short, the Way to Wealth, if you desire it, [...] depends chiefly on two
> Words, Industry and Frugality; i.e. Waste neither Time nor Money, but make
> the best Use of both.

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keeganjw
Was it the norm then to capitalize every noun in English like German still
does today?

~~~
rpeden
I've found that it depends a lot on the writer.

Just as an example, if I'm remembering correctly I saw this happen a lot more
in John Adams' writing than in Thomas Jefferson's.

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bovermyer
I have to wonder how far back that advice goes.

It's oft repeated, to the tune of new wisdom being discovered and brought to
the masses, and nary a single thought given to whence it originally came nor
whether it is, indeed, new.

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freakz
Good to see good ol' Benjamin Franklin pirating other people's work.

~~~
cwbrandsma
Great artists steal.

~~~
mcguire
Research. It's research.

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bungie4
Reminds me a lot of PT Barnums article on Money written in 1880. A lot is
still applicable today.

[https://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/www/barnum/moneygetting/](https://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/www/barnum/moneygetting/)

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momentmaker
Reminds me of the advices given in the book: The Richest Man in Babylon.

~~~
hadsed
Same. A fantastic book.

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frosted-flakes
I found the contraction of _them_ to _' em_ interesting, and it flowed rather
well. I wonder why it fell out of use?

~~~
archon
I don't think it ever fell out of use, it just isn't written.

I'm from the US south, I use both "them" and "'em" in everyday speech
depending on context, but I never write "'em", even where I would use it in
speech. This is partially because "'em" in written form ends up conveying a
slightly different tone or meaning than I might intend. "Them" is just a word;
"'em" has more nuance and is more easily misunderstood.

~~~
frosted-flakes
That's what I meant, in writing. Of course, it's still spoken that way.

~~~
mywittyname
There was a push in American education against using contractions in writing
sometime in the earlier 20th century (perhaps earlier). The APA style guide
says to avoid contractions in all official writing. People probably continued
to write as they were taught in grammar school.

If it were to make a comeback today, it would probably be in the form of "m".
Like, "ru goin w/m?"; or "m ain't spiders. mr2 spiders."

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tlarkworthy
I did not know that style of title was so old. I assumed it was crafted by
digital metric driven forces.

~~~
Xophmeister
> Hitherto we solicit advise to our merry apprentice; thou won’t believeth
> doctrine 3!

