Nemesis Posted February 22, 2018 Posted February 22, 2018 I am in my 2nd year in university. Not that far into the future, I am going to need to start making money so I can live on my own and pay for my basic living costs. (My parents do that currently but I strongly desire to become financially independent). What I care most about is knowledge and philosophy. In other terms, I am a bit of a polymath with a special interest in philosophy and self-knowledge. However, this is going to be a long life pursuit and I think I am quite far away from being able to make a living out of this and thus until and if I will ever get to that point I will need to make a compromise. From what I have seen most people seem to offer this dichotomy. You either get a job or you become a successful entrepreneur doing what you love. I am really curious what you think about this 3rd option: you become an entrepreneur doing something you do not necessarily care that much about with the main purpose of making money and after you accumulated enough capital in order to be able to sustain yourself and then transition to what you actually find the most meaningful to you. Thank you in advance.
eschiedler Posted February 22, 2018 Posted February 22, 2018 I don't recommend trying to be an entrepreneur doing something you don't care about to make a large amount of capital, like $800K to live off of it about $30K a year... the requirements to focus your entire mind with a lot of energy to being successful will highly compromise your ability to be a philosopher. To put it poetically, it will cost you your soul. If by entrepreneur you mean that you will find a way to make a small amount of money working 10 hours a week, that is more feasible. You need to have time to become wise or else your mind will be absorbed with work, then exhausted when you are resting to prepare to return to work. Most wise philosophers either do not work at all, and receive a stipend depending on the country they live, or have a modest job they can work 10 to 20 hours a week. For example, one very wise philosopher I met online does a little bit of computer programming and gets a few donations in exchange for downloads for his wisdom collection- he probably works about 10 hours a week and lives frugally. Besides, making money itself is not a very wise endeavor as it requires submitting to the deluded values of the society in order to find the arbitrage for a large profit.
RichardY Posted February 24, 2018 Posted February 24, 2018 @Nemesis What I care most about is knowledge and philosophy. In other terms, I am a bit of a polymath with a special interest in philosophy and self-knowledge. However, this is going to be a long life pursuit and I think I am quite far away from being able to make a living out of this and thus until and if I will ever get to that point I will need to make a compromise. Be careful about valuing knowledge, your life being limited and knowledge not. Also I think Stefan and Aristotle would consider philosophy to be empirical(polymath implies an interest in abstractions), i.e what are you actually doing in the world to make people and your life better. I don't actually consider myself to be doing philosophy, more playing around with abstract ideas. From what I have seen most people seem to offer this dichotomy. You either get a job or you become a successful entrepreneur doing what you love. Might be best to think instead of being more integrated into a community. I am really curious what you think about this 3rd option: you become an entrepreneur doing something you do not necessarily care that much about with the main purpose of making money and after you accumulated enough capital in order to be able to sustain yourself and then transition to what you actually find the most meaningful to you. Yeah be careful about that, as Eschiedler said "To put it poetically, it will cost you your soul." Maybe though you could do something in accordance with a few key principles, that even if you don't have skills in the moment you could develop to the point you enjoy what you do. Listening to a book at the moment "So Good they can't ignore you" talks about developing a "Craftsman mindset" over passion. Although at the end of the day, to thine ownself be true...... @eschiedler Who's the Philosopher you met online?
meetjoeblack Posted February 26, 2018 Posted February 26, 2018 I have a day job and a startup. Ideally, I want to scale up gradually but, its not something I would bank on. It maybe ideally your best bet to find employment in a field you have interest in. Get experience. Learn the business through a internship or job. Learn how it works. Once you have that "fuck you money," you are free to do whatever. Most people never get there. Worst off, most cannot even retire and the way things are going, its not getting any better. Ideally, I would like to position myself in such a way, I can travel, I run my business, and remain a casual employee somewhere. @ TS, if you can enter a field whereby, you learn the sort of skill that will make you marketable in your own endeavors, you are ahead of the schedule. A fool works a dead end job. Someone intelligent will take the opportunities internally to progress their career, make contacts, and learn the skills to pivot in their own endeavors. Like, I wont ever take another job unless of course, it will better my skills, make me more marketable, and aid me in my future endeavors. I am currently looking to pivot. With respect to education, subjects like philosophy, you can learn at your public library. Do not go study this. The same goes for social sciences in most campuses. You can learn Marxist indoctrination anywhere. Studies like, women studies, feminism, etc are comedic relief. Also, I think "specializing" these days is retarded. Unless you want to be a doctor, yes, specialize, and go to med school. I think double majoring in a variety of subjects that are polar opposite is a more intelligent move and a better bang for your buck. As a student, I attempted to sell my books, and in general electives, it just moved immediately. In the more precise subjects, it literally did not move, and even if I lowered the price for the books, I was lucky to catch anything.
Mole Posted June 4, 2018 Posted June 4, 2018 If you really want the money, then you will enjoy being an entrepreneur. If you won't enjoy it, you didn't really want the money. Do what you feel like doing. Learn the facts, and remember nobody can tell you what to do with these facts. Nobody can tell you how happy or sad you will be or whether it is worth it or not. If you are worrying about whether to do it, you will probably keep worrying and hesitate and end up not doing it, so you may as well try doing what ever feels good. Trust your emotions, they reflect your deepest beliefs.
mgggb Posted July 19, 2018 Posted July 19, 2018 On 2/22/2018 at 11:26 AM, Nemesis said: I am in my 2nd year in university. Not that far into the future, I am going to need to start making money so I can live on my own and pay for my basic living costs. (My parents do that currently but I strongly desire to become financially independent). What I care most about is knowledge and philosophy. In other terms, I am a bit of a polymath with a special interest in philosophy and self-knowledge. However, this is going to be a long life pursuit and I think I am quite far away from being able to make a living out of this and thus until and if I will ever get to that point I will need to make a compromise. From what I have seen most people seem to offer this dichotomy. You either get a job or you become a successful entrepreneur doing what you love. I am really curious what you think about this 3rd option: you become an entrepreneur doing something you do not necessarily care that much about with the main purpose of making money and after you accumulated enough capital in order to be able to sustain yourself and then transition to what you actually find the most meaningful to you. Thank you in advance. I'm probably not the best person to ask about pragmatism because the amount of potential money I've given up for the sake of virtue is astronomical. That said, the way I look at things is that you and your money are a distinction without a difference because you trade your time--ie life--for money. So if you dislike what makes you money, then it has to follow that you dislike yourself. I'm sure you're a smart guy and can make some good coin doing whatever you choose to do. So I'd caution you from selling your soul for the sake of a slightly higher number in you bank account. What are you in college for?
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