hootener

The greed is baked into capitalism, though, because it’s fundamentally baked into humanity. This is what happens with the unregulated pursuit self interest, and that’s what capitalism encourages.

Because markets inherently aren’t “free”. Real competition is an illusion because capitalism doesn’t account for all the non-capitalist levers (e.g regulatory capture, cronyism, collusion, political lobbying, etc) that businesses will pull to serve their own interests.

Capitalism is an incredibly naive approach to economics because its ability to account for human behavior – the fundamental driver of economic systems – is rudimentary at best. And that’s just one of its problems, really.

My advice is just pick a broad direction and try to optimize for not limiting your options.

When I was 18 I liked math and science so I went to school for engineering. Did I want to be an engineer? I had no idea at the time. But I figured the first couple years were mostly math and science courses anyway so if something else caught my attention (computer science, chemistry, etc) I could narrow my focus when the time came.

If you don’t plan to go to college, that’s cool too. My advice in that case would still be not to limit yourself. Pick something in your broad interest area that challenges you and has a clear path of advancement (certifications, etc). If you don’t like it after a few years find something else. Just make sure with whatever you pick the growth path is pretty clear and at least somewhat in your control.

There’s a lot of advice here to work for money and that it’s a fool’s errand to “follow your dreams”. This is the same advice I got twenty years ago when I was 18. I followed it. That path led to money but I’m not sure it precisely led to a life of fulfillment or contentment. I often wish I’d spent more of my early twenties taking more risks and chasing more dreams. You’re only young once, and age accumulates life baggage (e.g., bills , mortgage , life partner, maybe kids) that discourages risk taking. Don’t forget to take a risk every now and then, you might end up surprising yourself.

Portugal also has a pretty great “digital nomad” visa program. At least they did the last time I checked. Worth checking out if you’re s remote worker with aspirations of staying in the eu long term.

I think Cool People who did Cool Stuff is pretty leftist/anarchist.

I was good at math and science in high school and went to college for Engineering Physics because the school I got a scholarship to didn’t offer more conventional engineering degrees at the time. I ended up not liking it very much, but I finished.

Graduated in the late 2000s into an uncertain economy so I applied for and won a graduate school fellowship. I decided to study computer science. Got a PhD but all it taught me was I didn’t want to be an academic.

So I decided to start a business with a friend while I figured out what to do next with my life. Ended up growing that business for several years and sold it.

I Still didn’t know what to do with my life, but still had to work for a living so I took a co founder position from a hacker news “who’s hiring” thread. Figured I could give that a couple years while I figured out what to do next.

Lo and behold I worked there for a few years and we sold it. The purchasing company offered me a full time job so I took it until I can figure out what to do next.

I feel like eventually I’ll find my career, but I keep putting it off and stuff keeps happening so I guess I’m not in any real hurry 🤷‍♂️.