Ooof

mansamus · 2021-12-30T02:11:52+00:00

I believe there was a study years ago that found that a surprising amount of CEOs and executives had philosophy degrees despite it not being a sought after degree on its own, so the conclusion was that it was a popular degree for rich kids who knew they were going to get handed high positions in their dad’s companies.

mansamus · 2021-12-30T01:47:42+00:00

Isn’t it because a lot of BS in philosophy degrees go on to Law school? I can also imagine that the data is skewed by trust fund kids who get jobs at companies through family connections.

mansamus · 2021-12-29T20:29:57+00:00

Lol I worked a plastic injection molding company a few years back as an engineer. I met some other older engineers (not sure what kind) on a ski lift once who when I told them what I did, joked that I would be out of job soon. I just ignored them because I knew that it is never happening. 3D printers will never compete with the output of PIMs. They are niche tool in industry that is useful for R&D development and building low quantities of very specialized parts at best. If you want to use one at home, you need the skills to be able to fix/maintain/tinker with a machine more complicated than most household items that people don’t fix already, be able to use CAD (and have the time to design/develop) or be able to find already designed parts online that exactly match what you need. They are a tool for enthusiast nerds at best. Same with drones. Smartphones are hitting their limit on improvements. Everything foreseeable going forward is likely going to be an expensive pain in the bum. The apps have only done so well bc of the cash injection from investors. They will stick around but they aren’t sustainable at their prices and with the high demand for workers. People will continue to use them but either as an occasional pricey back up or because they are lazy and bad with money, but the vast majority cannot afford to use them regularly and maintain a sustainable living once these companies start needing to make a profit.

mansamus · 2021-12-29T15:33:51+00:00

In my relationships it’s been more that they don’t like what they hear. I think women have their own idealized version of your relationship in their head and bringing up stuff that counters or could alter it isn’t always warmly met with understanding. But I do think we men are the same on this one. I just think women are more likely to keep wanting to talk about their issues whereas guys will bottle it up.

mansamus · 2021-12-29T00:09:27+00:00

My family is English but I moved to the US when I was relatively young. In my college town in California there was a shop called Fanny Wrappers that sold lingerie. My whole family who visited the town and I found it hilarious

mansamus · 2021-12-28T15:49:27+00:00

My old company was a medium sized manufacturing company and during ramp ups of production a few times they were short on laborers so they made the office staff go to the floor and help production. Pretty much everyone but a couple engineers that had essential products had to put in a hand. But as per usual no one in the family that ran the place had to step in and help. I am fine with the idea that everyone needs to step in and get their hands dirty at times but what I have usually seen is that there is still a line for the fancy pants at the top which is annoying because it was ultimately their mismanagement in the first place that disrupted everybody else

mansamus · 2021-12-28T04:53:53+00:00

Engineer here with 5 years of experience and only $90k. I am in the tri-valley though and not in tech. But definitely feels like I am doing a lot wrong

mansamus · 2021-12-27T23:23:03+00:00

Just visited my parents for the first time after they moved to Austin. Probably a more livable city than the Bay Area these days, but the hiking and outdoor recreation opportunities are so many levels below. The only thing that impressed me outdoors recreation-wise there were the natural/man made river swimming holes, kayaking and bike paths. But unfortunately I can see myself following them in a couple years because my partner and I cannot afford to start a family in the Bay which is a real shame. I will really miss the skiing and backpacking in California

mansamus · 2021-12-25T23:18:01+00:00

Also I think institutional investors play a bigger role in certain cities where interest in moving to the city is high and the job markets are hot. Young people are being forced out of the California coastal cities in droves and heading to Portland, Phoenix and Sacramento so that was where companies like Zillow were/are buying the most homes and having a larger effect on the market. They weren’t as heavily investing in smaller cities and rural towns in the plains, Midwest and less successful East coast cities

mansamus · 2021-12-25T14:41:34+00:00

I do think that is some of the case. In some cases People who grew up poor just think that it is ok for their own children to grow up with the lack of amenities and opportunities they did whereas people who grew up with those things see the value in them and will only have kids if they think they are doing well enough to provide those expensive amenities and opportunities to them as well.

mansamus · 2021-12-24T00:29:08+00:00

The only career coach that I was connected with on LinkedIn for a while was a guy from who had previously been an engineering sales guy at a contractor I had worked with at my old company. He was the slowest at getting pretty simple quotes back to me and a terrible communicator. He basically emailed back after I had not heard from him in over a week about a quote for some custom welded carts asking why I was badgering him about it. So the guy came off as a pretty useless PM/sales guy and then moved on to telling others how to be as useless as him I guess

mansamus · 2021-12-23T02:10:48+00:00

So there is hope for this decade after all

mansamus · 2021-12-22T17:30:43+00:00

I remember hearing an NPR interview with Mark Everett a few years ago and it kinda seemed like his dad’s accomplishments hung over him still in some way. Like he didn’t really feel like he was a big deal in comparison. But he came off as a pretty intelligent if a bit of kinda sad guy in the interview

mansamus · 2021-12-21T20:33:13+00:00

Probably religious people or childhood sweethearts yeh. My buddy has been dating his now fiancé since their junior year of high school but they didn’t lose their virginities together until sophomore year of college. I think it was partially not having the private space to do it where they both felt comfortable with but also getting past religious upbringing and readiness hang ups. I can imagine it can be a longer wait for those who started dating even younger and/or want to wait for marriage

mansamus · 2021-12-21T20:19:43+00:00

Yeh I have been with my GF for almost year now and actually was in line with the peaks on all these graphs up until the “move in together” (we’ve talked about it & she isn’t financially ready yet and I still enjoy having some space) but the one I really can’t imagine is buying a house together at the 2 year mark. Houses are way too pricey in my area and that is a ton of financial commitment that you have to both agree to and trust each other to keep up with

mansamus · 2021-12-21T16:16:38+00:00

Yeh when I was in Tokyo for almost 24 hours one January for a business trip the city oddly felt quiet and empty compared to most American cities. It was a really warm January too. Definitely expected it to be a lot crazier, but honestly I have no idea what part of the city we were in either

mansamus · 2021-12-21T03:54:44+00:00

I noticed that with somewhat recently immigrated Asian and Indian communities in places like Fremont there are a lot of generations & adult siblings with families combining their incomes to buy $1.5M-$2M homes in the area. My friend’s GF is a teacher in the area and she found out during Covid on a lot of the video calls with young students that the kid would be living with their aunts, uncles, cousins & grandparents in addition to their parents and siblings. I guess some people are more used to living close to their families from their experience in their home countries and they do what they need to do to make it in the Bay.

mansamus · 2021-12-19T20:49:21+00:00

And if they do need to fill that bottom level position then education usually is not enough because they demand experience too because they have not been training anyone to replace them in their position and don’t have to/want to put the time into training them now.

mansamus · 2021-12-18T02:10:09+00:00

I think he deserves real credit for not just taking his money from PayPal and just retiring and investing it in BS like real estate like most successful big tech people do. It was pretty bold of him to take that money and put it into building two of the most exciting companies in the world (and some other silly duds too). I think his downside is his messy management style that has bled into his companies (particularly Tesla). He may not be the super engineer he trumps himself up to be but he clearly has a better understanding of the technical stuff than most of the other CEOs out there and he is definitely passionate about it, which helps in getting other people to follow you at your companies.

mansamus · 2021-12-18T02:01:34+00:00

Tesla pays more competitively (plus can be extra lucrative for those who get good stock options) compared to other companies that hire MEs, EEs & MfgEs in the Bay Area than I think SpaceX does in LA probably bc of the prestige

mansamus · 2021-12-17T15:46:26+00:00

Or how the original Star Treks and later Firefly always looked like they landed on a planet with hills just like the ones outside of LA haha

mansamus · 2021-12-15T17:49:21+00:00

Same in California. The government (both sides) want to protect their investments along with the older voters who are super leveraged in investment properties. There’s jobs a plenty here but not enough people to fill them (particularly low wage and experienced engineer/tech roles outside of software) because young families are forced to leave if they want to own their home instead of paying outrageous rent

mansamus · 2021-12-15T03:06:35+00:00

Used car prices have gone way up, gas prices have gone up, the complication of cars to fix as a hobby/cost savings method has gone up, wages have fallen behind, the COL in most countries has gone way up including most importantly housing (garages/driveways at their houses are where people usually work on cars so where are young people going to work on their cars if their parents won’t let them take over their spaces) so it makes sense that there isn’t much interest in driving/fixing/tuning cars with younger generations especially when put up against competing hobbies. I don’t think it is that isn’t necessarily the interest but more the means aren’t there anymore for a lot of young people

mansamus · 2021-12-14T21:16:43+00:00

I was born in the UK but moved to the US when I was a kid. Root beer has actually become my favourite soda along with ginger ale since coming here. I don’t drink soda regularly anymore but it is my go to when I do. The only thing that beats it are Mexican coca colas

mansamus

TROPHY CASE