Money & Wealth
Quoting Lu Xun, via ‘China in Ten Words’ by Yu Hua
“Money is an unseemly topic that may well be deplored by gentlemen of lofty principle. But I tend to think that people’s views differ not only between one day and the next but also before and after meals. When people admit that money is necessary to feed oneself but still insist on its vulgarity, then one can safely predict that they still have some undigested fish or meat in their systems. They’d sing a different tune, I’m sure, if you made them go hungry for a day.”
And from redpill rag RibbonFarm -
“About the only path to wealth-building available to the average premium mediocre young person in the developed world today, absent any special technical skills or entrepreneurial bent, is cryptocurrencies.
The traditional wealth-building strategy in the US, home ownership, has turned into a mix of a mug’s game and unassailable NIMBY rentierism.
The public markets are no longer reliable wealth builders, while the private markets exclude almost everybody who isn’t already wealthy.
And the tech-startup options lottery and media-celebrity games are not open to those who can’t program at world-eating levels or shitpost at election-winning levels.”
Like all good redpill literature, it’s energizing (and painful) to read such a clear, unusual description of reality.
Based on the archetypes Venkatesh outlines, I’m clearly premium mediocre — with a dash of hipster from my upbringing and social group in Australia.
A few years ago, I moved to a big, coastal city, learning skills as I needed them, in the (not completely clueless) hope for some sort of success that my parents, and their parents have found in their lives.
(I was) “optimistically prepared for success by at least being in the right place at the right time, at least for a little while, even if you have no idea how to make anything happen during your window of opportunity.”
He continues…
“In a world where actual mobility is both difficult and strongly dependent on luck, but there is a widely performed (but not widely believed) false narrative of pure meritocracy, it pays to signal apparent control over your destiny, while actually playing by the speculation rules of a casino economy.”
He explains that the reason why millenials act this crazy way, is because of this ‘new economy’ that is emerging. The fact is, it’s not emerging as quick as we’d like, and we’re just trying to save face in the meantime (especially to our parents). The world-builders (the facebooks, apples etc), need us to keep this dream alive, so they can continue building it.
In many ways, I’m in this mainstream group, looking for a landing — and very much aware that I might run out of fuel before I make it.
But I also work in tech, I’m close to the metal. I can code, build interfaces, and sell stuff.
I work with a group of coders and designers that “believe sincerely and strongly in their theories of how the world they are creating works.“
I believe “a new prosperity is taking root and I “genuinely want prosperity for all.” I believe software can do that.
This position I’m in, makes reading about ‘premium mediocre’ all the more uncomfortable, but necessary.