Title ought to have been "Endless growth is a mind cancer".
When your profits aren't up 20% for the tenth year in a row, you cut costs somewhere, and it's always the workforce that suffers most, due to layoffs. Other things suffer too, like product quality (maybe using cheaper materials maybe built-in obsolescence).
> We don’t get sentimental about the traffic cop obsolesced by the traffic light
But the traffic cop did something very mechanical meant to save lives and prevent accidents: pointing traffic batons this way and that. Of COURSE we're happy with this part of life being automated. The traffic cop didn't make art. But we also didn't like when the traffic cop made mistakes.
I know the violinist only moves their bow "this way and that" to make music, but they're making art.
OTOH, if my AI composes me a beautiful violin piece, and I'm moved by it, should I or the violinist be any angrier that it wasn't composed/performed by a human? Maybe not. But should all violinists get a royalty if an AI somewhere makes a piece of violin music because it was trained on all violin music? Maybe YES!?
It's hard to enforce this, which is why I'd like to see some of the profits and dividends from the AI companies go towards a basic universal income for all artists.
There's no damage. At least you're not leaving a gap in your CV for when you look for a new job after a failed business. It's something you gained experience from, learnt from, and can talk about in interviews. In fact, if you acquired a specialist skill whilst doing the startup, then it can get you head-hunted for certain roles.
Make your own engine, open source it, get plenty of traction, then make money off it as its premier consultant, or have a team who specialises in porting, etc.
The first bit will take time. Or you might have a "hook" which speeds up the traction part a bit (like Bevy being made with Rust, I guess).
I live in the United States and never heard of a rust proofing option either, and I live in the wet PNW. It’s a big republic separated into 50 individual states. There’s a lot of variance; some places have hustle but most don’t.
It's not about wet, it's about salt. You're on the wrong coast to have to think about rustproofing.
Rustproofing is less necessary on modern cars than it used to be, and dealer rustproofing is pretty much universally worse than third-party (RustCheck, Krown, Corrosion-Free, etc.) but if you drive on salty winter roads for 1/3 of the year it definitely helps things not rust out on you as soon as they would otherwise.
This is incorrect. Rust is a reaction of iron and oxygen. Salt accelerates the process because it is ionized, but not necessary. You can flash rust pure iron in seconds with distilled water.
Furthermore, ice alone is basically inert at the timescales that we experience. It would take eons for pure ice to react enough for visible rust to form. Even if it was cold enough for salt water to freeze, the difference would be negligible because salt and water separate from each other as the water crystallizes into ice.
Also, we salt the roads here. Our freeze/thaw cycle is more frequent allowing for rust reactions to occur throughout the season, whereas a colder climate will only see reactions in the spring. There is no shortage of rust here.
Only the higher elevations in the PNW get snow, and I don't know how much salt the highway departments use.
My wife said that when she moved from upstate New York to San Francisco, the first mechanic she took her car to asked whether she drove it to the beach a lot. He was not used to seeing the effects of road salt.
I've never bought cars in the UK, but as I understand it, the standard way to "buy" a car in the UK is not actually to buy one, but to lease it. Leasing is its own category of hustle, entirely different from purchasing.
We bought an EV with cash, and the range have almost halved since we bought it. With lease, I guess I get a fresh car (and battery) every few years. And insurance is included.
What kind of hustle can I expect with leasing? (I'll do some research when the time comes for the next car, as we're currently a 4-person 1-car family.)
1. Leasing is like a car purchase but with mandatory financing where the true underlying interest rate can legally be obfuscated behind cryptic language that you can't understand. Quick -- is a "money factor" of 0.0074 an attractive interest rate?
2. Leasing is like a car purchase but with a mandatory trade-in (you are going to be trading back the car that you are leasing, at some point in the future when you return your lease). Unlike a normal trade-in, where you have your car as-is and you can ask around for its value, in a leasing situation you have to predict what the value of your car will be in five years. The dealers do this professionally. You do not. Guess who wins?
3. Leasing means it's not really your car. This is an issue most frequently for people who drive a large number of miles. Going over your mileage limit on a lease is very expensive.
4. If your circumstances change such that you need to exit your loan obligations by selling your car before fully paying off your contract, it's easier to sell your way out of a purchase / finance situation than a leasing situation. Ending your lease early is not an option, as car leases (unlike apartment leases) typically carry a heavy early cancellation penalty.
5. In places like the US, where leasing and purchasing are both possible, this enables a unique type of scam: a "sale" where the buyer thinks he's getting a purchase but the paperwork actually says it's a lease. So you're paying full price for the car and you don't get to keep the car in the end.
It's a 2020 model, but I bought second-hand from an authorised dealer, and it was actually owned by the sales person. I'll ask about a warranty, thanks!
I've been a contractor since 2014 (and started work in 2002) so have to apply for new jobs every 3 to 6 months. A trend I've spotted is that companies sometimes start hiring in the new financial year, so I'm crossing fingers that you'll see some movement in April.
I saw this earlier this week: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7174198...
The sad state of affairs is that folks are now taking a shotgun approach using scripts, and completely overwhelming recruiters and hiring managers. Sure, they have ATSs in place that does the filtering, but once a job is posted, they almost instantaneously get 50+ CVs and chances are they find a good few matches they can bubble up the chain, then forget about the rest (i.e. you and me, who lovingly hand-craft cover letters, and then become applicant number 404) I mean, how often have you heard "sorry, this role's been filled now", when they do bother to reply.
During the quiet times, I continue working on my side projects. Search the web for "indie hackers". I'm slowly but surely working on a few things which will generate enough MRR to sustain me. There's nothing worse (as you now know) than walking into the desert, and your only flask of water is slowly depleting. I used to have a desktop wallpaper showing a digital nomad working on the beach, as an aspiration to what to work towards (kids and family life has since happened), but a more powerful motivation is avoiding poverty and being in control of your time. Contracting only earns when you work. Product can earn while you sleep.
(Another thing I saw earlier this week was a video on YT about this school teacher who now makes £50 PER DAY in dividend income, after starting investing into dividend-yielding stocks since 2009. Similar vibe, I guess. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2m5x-vGqcE)
So, those are the 3 take-aways:
- April might be better
- maybe start using tools for your job search
- during the good times, maybe look into working on a product in your spare time
Yes, timing is critical, especially post-2020 when remote jobs have increased, and a single job posting that would typically receive 500+ applications now receives 1000+ applications in a day! As a writer specializing in different content forms, including resume writing, I can tell you that there is a "science meets art" approach to resumes, but it is mostly science now. I speak with job applicants every day: if you are not getting interviews, it's not your fault; it's your resume. Most people will spend hours updating their resume to look eye-catching, adding their impressive accomplishments (rightfully so), etc. Unfortunately, it still does not meet the criteria needed to pass through the ATS to get to the top of the pile and on the recruiter's desk. Most people are used to constructing resumes the way they were done when recruiters reviewed them manually (that's when the artistic-looking resume caught their attention before they read it) - it's an entirely different game now with a machine.
What a lovely crafted response. Thanks Opyate. I can now be a bit more hopeful during April.
I also saw that same LinkedIn post, and looks like I might have to do the same, because at this rate it’s feeling like life or death, and if you can’t beat em, join em. Right?
I do have a side project I’ve been considering monetizing, but it still requires a few months of work which I simply can’t afford right now. But you’re right, should definitely work on it in the good times.
When your profits aren't up 20% for the tenth year in a row, you cut costs somewhere, and it's always the workforce that suffers most, due to layoffs. Other things suffer too, like product quality (maybe using cheaper materials maybe built-in obsolescence).