This is great. As a newbie to coding, I really learned a lot from Codecademy and I can't wait until my little girl is old enough to start learning. She's already watching me and figuring out the concept of i/o (she's 5) and seems to be generally interested in CS. It just goes to show that sometimes exposure is all that's required to generate interest.
This seems like something directly out of Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People," and it plays into what Dr. John Dewey referred to as human's basic desire to be important. Any time a person takes responsibility for someone else's actions, they feel a sense of power over that person. Whether this is good or bad depends on how they intend to use that power. In this case, it's being used in a way that affects a positive outcome for both the author and the people around him. In other cases, this increased sense of power can lead people to believe they have power over others which can lead to corruption (you know, 'absolute power corrupts absolutely').
In general, this seems like something that should be done in moderation. A willingness to accept responsibility for some things and be proud that you aren't blaming someone for an outcome you created is healthy. At the same time, feeling as if you have the power to affect everything is not healthy. Some things are just outside of your control.
I've been trying to get our QA team to switch over from Bugzilla to GitHub for months and their only hold-out was that you couldn't add images. FINALLY! This is awesome!
I find the lack of ticket features in github has been the biggest blocker. Doing any reporting, or saved searches on github issues requires custom tooling.
I think you're correct, that internal happiness is incredibly important but being recognized by others is a basic human need. In fact, it's listed in the Esteem portion of Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. Esteem is one of the primary layers, and within it are both self-esteem and respect from external parties. It's a basic human desire to be accepted and valued by others. If you've gotten over the need to have acceptance by others, that's awesome. However, that doesn't mean it isn't a basic desire.
I agree with you completely. The simplicity required for a peaceful life is really difficult to find in today's world.
Additionally, it's a common misconception that primordial man was a poor wretch that scrounged for food, fought larger predators and generally lived a life in constant fear and hunger.
From the article, the paleolithic man, "...leads a life of relative peace, consistent rhythm, adequate sleep, and little stress. There are times of scarcity, to be sure, but his body is adapted to generally weather their strain."
As an entrepreneur, my goal is to earn enough to allow me live more simply and get back into the proper rhythm of life. How much money is that? I don't know yet, but the primary goal isn't to get rich, it's to get free.
I have the same reasoning as you. The number will be whatever amount that generates the income to support your desired lifestyle. This could be in investments or low involvement business income. Thus the number for me is 2.5 million based off of 4% dividend for a 100k income (about single engineer middle class Bay Area only because dividends are taxed lower). Or a number of side businesses that add up to that income.
I love the idea of "a number of side businesses that add up to that income". Small, simple businesses that generate enough to make the ideal lifestyle possible. That's a strong goal. It's especially good considering your dividend-based alternative. I'm sure you've noticed that dividend stocks are getting hammered right now. :)
Yeah, both fortunately and unfortunately I expect myself to be able to sooner build small business income to 100k than amass 2.5 million. Not that either is easy of course. Or even a reasonable expectation.
I wouldn't worry about stock price as you hopefully never have to sell a good income payer. But if you are buying, at some point a good dividend payer will fall until it's cheap enough for a good return, ie wait for the next crash. I think the dividend stocks are being sold off now because of uncertainty over tax rules in 2013 for dividends, and also since money has been chasing yield and made those stocks overbought.
Why is this advice so damn hard to follow? I guess it's our ego that stops us from launching before we have something that's fully polished. Or worse, our ego that stops us from ever putting something out in the wild just because it isn't perfect. I guess it's best just to follow the advice of Reid Hoffman, "If your not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late." It certainly worked for him...
If it's our ego that stops us, maybe we just need a little assurance that a failure isn't the end of the world. So, has anyone ever been really burned by putting out something that wasn't ready-for primetime?
