Fox's Journey: And Onto the Sunlight!

Where are you and where are you going?
TopHatFox
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Re: Fox's Journey: And Onto the Sunlight!

Post by TopHatFox »

@zbigi, yeah failed entrepreneur is likely the most common, or the fake entrepreneur that doesn't actually make any money selling an MLM scheme.

Still, if you have a genuine startup and meeting after meeting is failing, that tells me that either what you're offering sucks or how you're offering it sucks. My guess is that it would become apparent and you should pivot to the next idea. It's not uncommon to have to go through 20 ideas to find a winner. If your product or service is good, the meetings will go better, just like an employee with in-demand skills and experience sells better at interviews. I think there is some semblance of a standardization: does your audience often complain about the problem your product solves, did your audience tell you to make it, does it save the company money, does it make the company money, does it beat the competitors, does your company have good reviews, etc. If you're at a loss, a good place to start is to emulate the top-5 companies in your niche, iterating slight ways your thing is different until one of your iterations is superior enough to win.

Stahlmann
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Re: Fox's Journey: And Onto the Sunlight!

Post by Stahlmann »

Grats on car maintenance skills. I assume tools were not the most expensive things and they last... but how did you solve parts problem? Maybe no major breakup?

zbigi
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Re: Fox's Journey: And Onto the Sunlight!

Post by zbigi »

@TopHatFox that sounds more interesting and exciting than a full-time job for sure. With enough luck, it may even work out.

Ultimately, it depends on what your goals are. If you just want the (lowercase fu) FU money, in the past decade the fastest and most reliable way to obtain it in the US was joining a FAANG as a junior, getting promoted and/or jop-hopping a couple of times and exiting the system with $1m-$3m 5-10 years later. If you want want self-determination and excitement along the way too, then possibly entrepreneurship will give you that, with the caveat that there's significant chance that you'll end up with nothing to show for it and will have to do the FAANG thing in your thirties anyway. However, it seems that you're downplaying that risk.

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mountainFrugal
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Re: Fox's Journey: And Onto the Sunlight!

Post by mountainFrugal »

TopHatFox wrote:
Fri Jan 27, 2023 3:14 am
My guess is that it would become apparent and you should pivot to the next idea. It's not uncommon to have to go through 20 ideas to find a winner.
Before writing any software you could come up with some design mock-ups and features of your mining software app (or whatever it is) and use that to talk to your former bosses for whether or not they would buy such a thing or pay you to develop it. If you can get that in writing such as a LOI (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/letterofintent.asp) then you will have a more concrete direction on what to build. This would be a relatively small time investment before building something first and then seeing if someone wants it.

TopHatFox
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Re: Fox's Journey: And Onto the Sunlight!

Post by TopHatFox »

@Stahlmann, I spent $5,750 on the car, and maybe $3,000 total on tools from Harbor Freight + Amazon & parts or tools from eBay, the dealership/online dealer wholesaler for little plastic trim pieces, and Amazon for accessories like seat covers and a dash mat.

I did almost all the work myself (can't align or put on tires): replacing all liquids (transmission, engine, brakes, coolant, water), cleaning out engine bay engine sensors, re-greasing suspension (with a needle since no zerks), new sway bar end links, new front brake rotors + pads, replacing front air bag + SRS module + front sensor, replaced TPMS sensos, fixing chipped paint, installing some missing/worn undercarriage liners, detailing the interior + exterior, etc. I watched every one of Chris Fix's videos and then just did whatever was relevant to my car. I do think the tools will last forever, but I am concerned that newer cars are gonna get harder/impossible to work on. I unfortunately bought it when car prices were high, but I did OK considering. I'm hoping to keep it at least 10-15 years, by then all its rubber seals will probably be dead.


Interestingly I realized that if a car's very max lifespan is, say, 30 years or 250K miles:


1. If you buy a 10 yr old car with 80K miles, and you drive 5K miles/yr:
  • you'll be at 180k miles when the car is 30 years old

2. If you buy a 0 yr car with 0 miles, and drive it for 5k miles/yr
  • you'll be at 150K when the car is 30 years old

3.IOW, you get a steep discount because:
  • the first few 10K miles are way pricier than the remaining miles

4. What helps makes this even sweeter is:
  • Getting a reliable brand/model, having a garage, and living in a good state
  • Knowing every repair/maintenance item & haggling the individual seller hard
  • Doing all the repairs/maintenance yourself and logging it on your notes app
  • Driving safely and in cities without aggressive traffic or during low-peak times

--------

I wanna learn all about home maintenance and repair next, but it's not as clear who's the "Chris Fix" of the home DIY world. Any leads appreciated.

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@Zbigi, yeah that's the very real risk. Tbh I haven't had much luck in the conventional working world, so maybe this will be better. I am hoping I can get a remote coding job at a non-FAANG, as those tend to work you less and have less friction of commuting, random cooler talk, etc. That way I can do both work and a startup. I've pretty much relegated myself to working indefinitely in my mind, so I think this is acceptable. When I was like "OMG, I want to retire tomorrow" I would just feel bad cause nothing was ever good enough. What I realized is it kinda doesn't matter cause no one will retire with you and you end up bored out of your freaking mind learning this or that. I don't think work is bad, but I think corporate work is; corporate work makes you want to quit immediately.

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@mountainFrugal, I'm gonna ask the mine managers I worked with if they need any tech services to start and see what they say, then based on that I'll see if my actual product idea is any good based on what they tend to ask for. Usually a minimum-viable-product that your audience can improve with you is way better than a polished thing that nobody asked for.

zbigi
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Re: Fox's Journey: And Onto the Sunlight!

Post by zbigi »

TopHatFox wrote:
Fri Jan 27, 2023 12:49 pm
What I realized is it kinda doesn't matter cause no one will retire with you and you end up bored out of your freaking mind learning this or that.
Hah, those were my experiences when I "retired" in the past. For heavy introverts, this is likely a minimal problem, but the rest of us will need human contact beyond immedite family an friends, and, in current society, there are few avenues to that other than work. One big difference FU money introduces is the ability to go into some poorly paying, but satisfying/worthwhile field.
I don't think work is bad, but I think corporate work is; corporate work makes you want to quit immediately.
Interestingly, software engineering doesn't differ that much between corporate and startups. Corporate is slower, more organized, but has more meetings, constraining/pointless rules and office politics. Startups can be hectic, chaotic and very poorly organized. I actually prefer corporate, unless I cand land a job at a rare startup that is not a cowboy show.

TopHatFox
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Re: Fox's Journey: And Onto the Sunlight!

Post by TopHatFox »

@zbigi, I'd say I am a heavy introvert. Like usually it's just me learning languages, mechanics, code, or some other INTJ hobby at my house, and then hanging out with the gf on weekends. This was so different than when I had a large group of friends and acquaintances in HS and college. Admiteddly, it's WAY better than when I had friends at work. I think the problem is that at work, the relationships made there are inherently friends of convenience, evident by how they almost always end as soon as the job ends. IOW, socializing at work isn't really a solution, either (it can often bite you in the ass too).

The main solution is just getting used to being alone and doing something else with your time, which brings us back to the hobbies. Alternatively, you could dedicate a time to go to spots to cold approach friends or love interests, such as at coffee shops, climbing gyms, hiking trails, book stores, and so on. That's basically sales too, and you have to be indirect about it. People also go in and out of your funnel over the years, so you have to keep doing it if you want to have a consistent flow of friends over the decades. Interestingly, you'll eventually get too old to cold approach friends or romance interests, so then I guess you just stay alone with your hobbies 'till you die, or maybe cold approach people at the old folks home/golf club or, uh, pay for company. ;)

The big appeal with having money is that you can take on more external hobbies. Road trips, mountain biking, skiing, mountaineering, international travel, marksmanship, canoeing, diving/snorkeling, and so on.

take2
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Re: Fox's Journey: And Onto the Sunlight!

Post by take2 »

TopHatFox wrote:
Fri Jan 27, 2023 12:49 pm
I wanna learn all about home maintenance and repair next, but it's not as clear who's the "Chris Fix" of the home DIY world. Any leads appreciated.
When I renovated a property 4 years ago I learned a lot from this guy:

https://youtube.com/@HomeRenoVisionDIY

He has a lot of videos (drywall, tiling, carpentry, plumbing, electrical, etc); originally I think he just put them out as a byproduct of his construction business but after a while he started doing this full time. He now has some kind of service where he can assist DIY renovation for a fee, but if you dont need that you can just watch all of the videos. He explains it all clearly.

TopHatFox
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Re: Fox's Journey: And Onto the Sunlight!

Post by TopHatFox »

@take2, that one is pretty good, it's been brought up a couple times when I googled "best DIY home repair" channels on reddit. I think I'll go through his videography this year. Thus far, I've been slowly walking through all the isles at Home Depot every now & again to get accustomed to raw materials, tools, fasteners, and the different fields/skills of the trades. That's what I did with car repair at a local auto parts store, to the point the desk clerk was like "maybe you should work here, you probably know the stuff better than I do! :lol: "

-------------------------

It seems most cities/stores these days are separated into the following, with the vast majority of space taken up by farms, roads/parking, & residential areas:

1. Residential areas
2. Retail commercial areas
  • 1. IRL Amazon (e.g., Walmart, Target)
    2. Construction Stores (e.g., Lowes, Home Depot)
    3. Furniture Stores (e.g., Ikea, Ashley)
    4. Home Goods (e.g., TJ Maxx, Marshalls, BestBuy)
    5. Auto Stores (e.g., Advance Auto Parts, AutoZone)
    5. Clothing stores (e.g., Sears, Ross)
    6. Craft stores (e.g., Michaels, Joann Fabrics)
    7. Hobby stores (e.g., Dick's Sporting Goods)
    6. Large grocers (e.g., Costco, BJs)
    7. Small grocers (e.g., Whole Foods, etc.)
    8. Restaurants & Cafes (e.g., all types)
    9. Gyms & Spas (e.g., Planet Fitness, etc.)
    10. Shipping store fronts (e.g., USPS, FedEx)
3. Office Commercial/Government areas
4. Industrial/Dock/Warehouse areas
5. Commercial tradesmen shops
6. Hospital areas
7. University/college/school areas
8. Gas stations
9. Roads & highways
10. Parks & Museums
11. Farm areas
12. Mining areas
13. Wilderness areas
14. Airports
15. Military bases
16. Golf courses

Most of the retail stores seem dedicated to clothing or food. The stores that are worth spending time for a DIYer are usually the construction stores, auto stores, craft stores, and hobby stores. All the other ones are kinda useless from a learning stand point.

IOW, entire industries can be avoided personally. You can easily get rid of gyms & spas, restaurants & cafes, the inside of gas stations, and small grocers. You also don't really need clothing stores, home goods stores, furniture stores, and home goods after you have your base supply of stuff. So, construction stores, auto stores, craft stores, and hobby stores are where you end up, because there's still "plot" to dig into -- a.k.a., learning what the stuff in the stores is and how it works.

--------------------------

Finally finished e-mailing the hundreds of CS alums for roles. Gonna reply to the 10% that said they may have something today and see what I can get.

sky
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Re: Fox's Journey: And Onto the Sunlight!

Post by sky »

Do you have any advice on how to get a remote GIS job?

TopHatFox
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Re: Fox's Journey: And Onto the Sunlight!

Post by TopHatFox »

@sky, I’d say probably don’t bother. The pay in GIS is low and the jobs are kinda sparse. Much better off learning to code and getting one of those jobs. The way I got my temp gis job @$20hr was to Google GIS recruiters and email as many as I could find while changing all my resume job titles to be GIS or data related. Then just bluff your way confidently through the interviews and learn everything on the job

TopHatFox
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Re: Fox's Journey: And Onto the Sunlight!

Post by TopHatFox »

Today I learned that one of my friends only has $1000 left to their name. They quit their job with only 1-2 years of savings and the money ran out. It's crazy how quickly savings deplete. Not sure what they're gonna do, as getting a job takes months; the only real recourse is joining the army. It made me realize:

1. Working for someone sucks
2. Life generally sucks
3. You must work until you die to make it suck less
4. Contract work or work while you're building something is required, not optional
5. Life sucks even less if you have lots of money & skills
6. Working for yourself is way better than for another, but making money almost always unclear
7. Every single thing you spend money on brings you closer to homelessness
8. Almost all people's lives are a house of cards, given a few months or a year w/o an income and they're homeless
9. Even if people own a house, that's a house of cards too, because it gets taken if you don't pay the taxes or mortgage
10. Even if people own a car, that's a house of cards, because most people lease or have a loan out for their car or can't buy parts/repairs
11. Almost all people feigning success on social media are full of crap, or just scamming ppl into making them rich
12. The US military is one of only ways for young people to break out of a bad situation, from broke --> employed --> free education --> better job
13. There's no time machine once you fuck up (aside from suicide I suppose). You just have to start from scratch at your now more advanced age
Last edited by TopHatFox on Fri Feb 03, 2023 1:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

theanimal
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Re: Fox's Journey: And Onto the Sunlight!

Post by theanimal »

Stories are very powerful in that they influence how we see the world and if we repeat them enough, who we are. I may be off base, so if that's the case ignore the following. It may be more worthwhile to spend time figuring out why you are displeased with life than sending out a few hundred more emails. It's odd to see this attitude for someone who is young, in good health, with plenty of money and living in the US. It might be time to tell yourself a different story.

TopHatFox
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Re: Fox's Journey: And Onto the Sunlight!

Post by TopHatFox »

@theanimal, I don't think I am displeased. Maybe I used to be cause I was denying a lot of the stuff above. Now I just kinda accept it, and that makes things clearer/nicer. I think it's essentially learning and accepting the rules of the real world by living in it for a few years, rather than wanting to live in a different reality. I'd say I need to send those hundreds of e-mails, as the funnel for securing a job just requires large volume. I'm thinking coding/entrepreneurship is the last stop as far as career switching, finally.

theanimal
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Re: Fox's Journey: And Onto the Sunlight!

Post by theanimal »

Glad to hear it. While I don't necessarily disagree with some of your points made above, my point is as you said that none of what your neighbors/coworkers/friends do in those points should significantly influence your mental state. Sounds like you are on the right path.
The secret is there are almost no rules, you can do whatever you want. Just requires some creativity and imagination. I say this all as a recovering cynic. Someone who was bitter and lonely for a number of years before changing my mindset and genuinely enjoying life immensely.

jacob
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Re: Fox's Journey: And Onto the Sunlight!

Post by jacob »

14. The average modern human has become pretty bad at adulting101.
15. Therefore most humans now require scaffolding.
16. Markets provide structure with quick and simple guides. Show up and repeat a process.

And so on.

The question is how to break this cycle? Proactively? Reactively?

I suppose another question is whether to even break this cycle, but that seems rather evil.

TopHatFox
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Re: Fox's Journey: And Onto the Sunlight!

Post by TopHatFox »

@jacob, I think it's because the list I just made isn't shared or talked about until you figure it out yourself in your mid to late-20's. Instead we get a lot of bullshit and when we meet the real world the bullshit and the rules don't align. Proactively makes more sense: share the rules of life from the outset--school--that way when kids get into the real world, they don't have to feel like shit cause reality isn't adhering to what they were told it was going to be. Definitely break the cycle, as it causes A LOT of suffering. Unless you find it entertaining to watch, kinda like an enjoy the decline sort of vibe?

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17. Once you're homeless, nobody really cares, and you're at higher risk for disease, physical danger, drugs, etc.
18. Drugs don't help a situation at all, even common stuff like alcohol. They just make it harder to dig yourself out of the hole
19. Health and safety is super important, cause at least then you can get a job and you don't have huge medical expenses
20. Not having dependents or sick family members is huge too, cause you can move and get work or spend time on work
21. Travel is cool and stuff, but ultimately no one cares and it doesn't really help work-wise (they may even be envious lol)
22. Languages kinda help, but not really in the US -- no one cares, not even employers almost all of the time. More of a fun hobby.
23. No one really cares if you're depressed or anxious (aside maybe your parents), and they're likely to bail if you mention it too much
24. If you're not in a western nation and you're from there, life is much worse, as your opportunities are less and you work for less

---------

Interestingly, I find that women in particular adhere to reality less than men. For example, I've heard way more women say things like "I'm going to start a coffee shop," or "I'm going to work as an activist full-time," or "I'm going to manifest wealth," or "I'm going to major in the humanities," or "being a single mom or being obese is not a problem." Like, those are not in-demand skills and those strategies are almost guaranteed to fail. So I'd say choosing a girlfriend that's aligned with reality is pretty important, as you spend a lot of time together for them to have values that are counter-productive to reality/success.

Scott 2
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Re: Fox's Journey: And Onto the Sunlight!

Post by Scott 2 »

These rules don't apply for most of the students you went to university with. Class privilege dramatically changes the dynamic. They spent ages 3-22 trained to enter their family's class upon graduation. They automatically class signal and are immediately accepted. They have access to a network. They have family resources to fall back on. It's a different game. They can enter a new city and rapidly connect with opportunities of their class.

My wife pointed out you were back on the forum the other day. My response was - "I cannot wait to see where he finally lands. He's extremely intelligent. When he sets his mind to something, he's determined and calculated. It's going to be good." I also remember where you started from and am evaluating accordingly.

For what it's worth - my guess is you have residual signaling from jumping multiple class levels between childhood and university. You didn't have the family training or network from ages 3-22. This raises barriers for you, which becomes the rules above. Almost nobody from a privileged background realistically considers military service, for instance. You have more ground to cover and far less support. You have to build the network and safety net, which many of your university peers launched with.

Once the network and safety net are established, life is far less dire than ruled out above. It's possible to come full circle, where the bullshit university rules look wise. When you effectively class signal, mentors and peers sponsor your ascension. There's no shortage of opportunity.

mathiverse
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Re: Fox's Journey: And Onto the Sunlight!

Post by mathiverse »

TopHatFox wrote:
Thu Feb 02, 2023 8:17 pm
@sky, I’d say probably don’t bother. The pay in GIS is low and the jobs are kinda sparse. Much better off learning to code and getting one of those jobs. The way I got my temp gis job @$20hr was to Google GIS recruiters and email as many as I could find while changing all my resume job titles to be GIS or data related. Then just bluff your way confidently through the interviews and learn everything on the job
THF, why did you decide to email alumni for a software gig instead of recruiters like you did in the successful case of your GIS job search?

When I was in your spot, alumni -> recruiter -> interview -> gig is what happens when I reach out to alumni/friends/etc. Versus recruiter -> interview -> gig if I reach out directly to recruiters (IOW, one less step). If it's a random person who doesn't know me, then I would have erred on the side of reaching out to recruiters since their response seems more likely given how much a hire would be worth to them versus alumni who are rank and file at their company.

TopHatFox
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Re: Fox's Journey: And Onto the Sunlight!

Post by TopHatFox »

@mathiverse, while the Google --> Recruiter --> Interview --> Offer strategy worked for GIS, it only secured me a $20/hr GIS contract for a few months. My hope is that since the alumni from my school come from fancy backgrounds, their connections will lead to fancier job offers. That's the idea, will let you know in a few weeks.

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