January Q&A and Catchup

That is one of the lessons I learned from "self-employment." There are challenges any way you slice it, so I guess the question is not how to eliminate all challenges but to take on the right ones. I'm still closely following GME, AMC, etc. Just gonna take a guess here and say that it's going to be difficult for it to get back to previous levels because every time it goes up, the people who bought at that level will sell to recoup their investment (now that sentiment seems to have shifted to fear rather than exuberance). For example, those who bought at, say, $11, will sell if/when it gets back to $11. And those who bought at $15 will sell when it gets back to $15. Ironically, and somewhat sadly, it is only once all those people waiting to recoup their losses sell their positions that these stocks have any chance of running upwards again. But anything could happen.

Alex G

Finally got around to watching this. First, I'm glad you've been able to make your schedule work for you rather than the other way around. Otherwise what's the point of being your own boss? And I hear you on the battle for sleep, it's real. And it looks like the bubble did burst on Gamestop, although it is still a lot higher than it was in November. Still been a super wild few weeks - the reddit frontpage was (and still is some) consistently headlined by posts about it.

jdthebud

Holy shit, I thought stuff like that only happened in movies lol. Damn, I can't imagine what it was like to move to a different state for a girl and then get dumped right when you get there. I'm currently working and going to community college part time. I am 24 so I'm definitely a late bloomer, but hoping I can pull through and get a bachelors in comp sci. The older I get, the more I just want enough money to live on my own, and that'll be enough to make me happy. I respect people like you who want to go out into different parts of the world and experience it; my ambitions have never reached quite that far.

‎

I went through stages. The full story is I dropped out of high school my junior year. I then went back to a different school and graduated HS in a total of 5 years. I then had a girlfriend who was going to university in Virginia, so I was motivated to enter college and get good grades so I could transfer to a school near her. I entered a city school in the Bronx, and got a perfect GPA, and transferred to a dorm school in Virginia (she dumped me the day I got there). My junior year, I transferred to a different city school in NY, and this time I would say I was a great student in some ways and a terrible student in others. I cared a lot less about grades and a lot more about learning. The story I told about the psychology class is related: I liked the material but I failed because I didn't do the main assignment (and also partly due to the attendance policy, which I didn't mention). The thing about the Wall Street job is that it was for a stock broker position. Ultimately, it is a sales job, and although I didn't know it at the time, they will take anyone who passes the hazing process. Have you ever seen the movie Boiler Room? That movie perfectly encapsulates my hiring process. It's a group interview, and some big shot comes in and flashes money, kicks someone out to make an example of him, and then tells you if you want the job call on Monday. That was my experience as well. I was one of the people that called. On day 1, they put me and the other people who had responded into the conference room and instructed us to cut paper lead sheets out of printouts. There were no other instructions for the rest of the day. At 5pm, people started getting confused. "Can we leave?" "How much do we have to cut." So most people left, except for me and one other fool. We were hired for the internship. It's all about loyalty and grit, not necessarily knowledge or talent.

Alex G

Great question. Well, firstly I think it's more of a guideline than a rule. Obviously real malice exists, and I think that if there's evidence of malice that's a different story. That being said, I think we are often too quick to assume conspiracy and evil, when most issues that evoke those kinds of responses are massively complicated. In my opinion, the amount of people who actively set out to harm others is far lower than the amount of people who end up harming others by not considering the consequences of their actions or by making mistakes due to poor ability. However, I think when we are at the receiving end of those consequences, our first thought is that we are being targeted, when the reality is people on the other side just aren't thinking very far. To use the recent Gamestop incident as an example, I doubt that harming the retail investor was at the forefront of Melvin Capital's goals when they shorted Gamestop. Their primary objective was making money for clients. Similarly, Robinhood's motivation for shutting down trading wasn't screwing retail investors, it was their own bottom line and worrying about capital ratios set by regulatory agencies. Similarly, the trading up and down isn't targeted "short ladder attacks" (that is not a real thing btw), but instead, individual investors selling back and forth with each other trying to eke out modest gains (which is the stock market norm). YET, in this case, the common narrative is that there are a handful of elites who hate the common man and don't want to see them succeed. But I see much more evidence for the former and very little evidence for the latter (although I guess it would be hard to prove people's thoughts). Ultimately, I think that evidence is key. If there is evidence of malice, then that should not be overlooked. But I think we underestimate the power of incompetence and ignorance in negative events, and over-attribute them to evil.

Alex G

That's great, I'm glad it was useful. And yeah I suspect that is an experience a lot of people have, and continue to have. I think there's messaging that we are all perfect the way we are, and as I said I think that's partly true but I think the value in that sense lies in potential, and the other half of that is meeting potential :) But also, that's great in a way. Because I think there's something more innately satisfying about HAVING to have that journey. If we're already born perfect, maybe that would deprive us of a challenge that brings something meaningful to life.

Alex G

You've mentioned before that you were a bad student, but surely you couldn't have been that bad if you got internship opportunities on WallStreet and a job there presumably right out of college

Jon

hey alex, you said one of your policies is to not attribute to malice what can be contributed to incompetence or accident. and i've just got to ask, why? what do you think there is to gain from assuming people's innocence? especially people with power and influence, surely it sets us up to forgive things blindly while getting exploited by those people and organisations. maybe i'm too cynical, but i'd rather be cynical and wrong than oblivious to corruption.

Bruno Thompson

Thanks for the great discussion on identity Alex. I really resonate with what you said, obviously it's a big thing for me too since I asked it lol but really great insights and helpful on a personal level. I've had the same experience, going from being a kid who thinks themselves to be the center of the universe and then coming to these huge realizations that that's not true by any stretch of the imagination. It's been an ongoing process for me, but I find myself doing exactly what you said so your answer gave me some assurance that I'm on the right path, or at the very least on a path that's already been followed to some extent by a likeminded individual. Thanks again.

Vali

is it "free" if its only for patrons?... lol

Logan Bradford

Yeah I too lean toward people taking personal responsibility. And hopefully we don't see a repeat of the job crisis with Covid. Not sure of the hiring situation right now with most stuff being virtual, but I imagine it's more bleak than recent years.

joe martin

The problem with doing that is if everyone thought like that, we would just revert back to factory farming. Factory farming only exists as a means to keep up with the demand people have for meat. Additionally, even if less people ate meat due to the rising cost to produce meat in "humane" conditions, space for livestock to roam free is limited and creating such space would be environmentally disastrous as we see in the Amazon where 90% or more land that is being created by cutting down trees is going towards raising livestock. The only solution I see is people drastically cutting down their meat consumption or eliminating it entirely. Lab grown meat sounds like a promising alternative as well. Btw I really appreciate you being open to these kind of discussions. I know that it is a sensitive subject for many people and it's cool to see you being open to new ideas about veganism :)

Sharan Chakravarthy

Yeah while I think that this doesn't absolve me of personal responsibility, it does seem to me like it's a matter of time before there are meat alternatives to meat, if that makes sense.

Alex G

Definitely not a cult. On an unrelated note, free Kool-Aid day is coming up for all Patrons so stay tuned......

Alex G

You're right, it's extremely complex, and I think it's sort of all of the above. Everything plays a role. Just the way I think, I'm always going to lean towards personal responsibility for choices, but it's sort of hard to make that argument if people aren't aware of other options, or have yet to learn that the status quo can and should be questioned. My graduating class was 09 (I graduated later because I was a delinquent, but that was when most of my friends graduated university). That was right after the financial crisis, and the promise of university=great job never materialized for a lot of my friends.

Alex G

Thanks for the detailed response. I didn't consider the amount of plants necessary to feed livestock, that's a great point. Out of curiosity, do you think an intermediary step would be to eat meat that is raised in more "humane" conditions?

Alex G

That's awesome. I think that's when it works best, when it actually becomes something that we can take away from it that is broadly useful or applicable. I think there might actually be differences between different schools and different types of schools, but when it comes to the quality of educational quality, I think it's is less about the institution itself and more about the individual's interest level, and second to that, teachers that know how best to facilitate interest and learning. When I was in university I transfered twice (3 universities total). The first was a city school and I wasn't very interested and didn't get much out of it. The second was a really expensive dorm school, and I wasn't very interested and didn't get much out of it. The third was a different city school and I WAS interested and that's when I felt I actually got the most value out of university.

Alex G

Yeah definitely, I think people should be able to do whatever they want with their money.

Alex G

You saying you’d be the cult leader makes me feel like this whole channel is secretly your cult😂😂 you’ve been brainwashing us this whole time🤭

Soren Monroe

Good news! Lab grown vegan “meat” has actually begun being made but I don’t believe it’s yet for sale. As veganism (thankfully) continues to become more popular, I believe this will eventually be less of an issue, but right now a lot of meat or animal product substitutes on the market are much more expensive than a vegan diet without those substitutes. But lab grown meat will be on its way soon so that’s definitely something to look forward to!! Also if you’re interested, cheaplazyvegan is a great YouTube channel to find vegan recipes to easily incorporate into your diet. I really like her videos where she has only spends $20 and 1hr to make meals for her whole week. And if you really don’t wanna cut out meat switching your dairy products to dairy substitutes is a good way to lessen your contribution to the harming of animals and the environment.

Soren Monroe

From what I have heard Honey Bees are also kept in quite terrible conditions much like pigs, cows, chickens etc. I have also heard that the scale at which we make honey is bad for the environment but I have to admit my knowledge is not up to par on the Bee industry specifically. Earthling Ed made a great video talking about this very issue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clMNw_VO1xo&ab_channel=EarthlingEd

Sharan Chakravarthy

I really enjoyed your points on college. On top of what you said, I feel there's also an unnecessary pressure to "get out of your house and get the 'college experience'". While I think that can valuable, it's also very expensive and people need to understand that. It's not worth taking on all that debt if your degree isn't financially valuable enough to pay it off. For example, I just graduated this past fall with a degree in political science and am going to law school this upcoming fall. If I were not going to law school, I would be so screwed right now because a political science degree alone doesn't offer much. I am about ~80k in debt bc I was stubborn and wanted to go to a 4 year university, rather than breaking it up with 2 years at a community college, then 2 years at university. The end result would've been the same (degree-wise) and I'd be in much less debt right now. Thankfully, the career I'm pursuing will hopefully enable me to pay that off sooner than later, but a lot of people aren't in the same boat. On that, when I see someone going to a large 4 year state school for something like elementary education it sort of baffles me when they complain about debt. Like, how much should I blame that person for not being financially responsible and how much should I blame society & America's culture and education system for drilling in the false notion that leaving home for an education is in everyone's best interest? Of course it's not that black and white either lol. Lots of stuff can influence someone's decision. Anyway sorry for the tangent, the blame for this problem is just an issue I've always been conflicted with. Some are quick to blame the govt for the system, others blame the individual for poor choices, and some blame society as a whole for enabling it. It's surely some complicated stuff lol.

joe martin

Are you against using Bees to make honey?

benj

In regards to your stance on veganism: 1) It is true that a lot of animals are bread for the purposes of being slaughtered and used for meat and in the case of cows their milk. Since so many animals are breed for these purposes, it takes factory farms to house these animals where they live in the most cramped and putrid conditions one can imagine. I encourage you to watch the documentaries Earthlings and Dominion if you ever have the time(it might already be part of the IMDB 250). As to your question as to whether or not it is worth living in those conditions rather than never existing at all; if someone believes that then they would also have to believe that we as humans should reproduce to our maximum capacity and pay little regard to the suffering that causes to us and our offspring rather than maximizing the utility we can provide to our current population. 2) In regards to your question about whether animals get killed anyway in the production of plants; you are absolutely right. However, it is also true that you need more plants to raise and eat animals than if you were to eat plants directly themselves so more animals still end up dying when you consume meat as opposed to eating a plant-based diet. 3) In regards to your concerns about not feeling healthy eating vegetarian or vegan, that could indicate that you have a deficiency in certain nutrient(s). The most likely is that you are not getting enough Vitamin B-12. There was a case of someone in the 1850's(I can't remember the finer details) that went vegetarian and started feeling noticeably weaker to the point where he was dying. He ended up feeling much better once he started eating meat again. It was later found that he actually had a B-12 deficiency once the nutrient was discovered years later. It is always recommended that when someone switches to a primarily plant-based diet that they supplement B-12. Other nutrients that you should consider supplementing include Vitamin D and Omega-3s. Now you may ask if eating plant-based was a sustainably healthy way of living, why do I need to supplement all these nutrients? I would be glad to tell you in more detail if your interested in finding out but I feel like I've made this comment long enough ;) Anyway, as a vegan I am very grateful that you're so open-minded about veganism and I would be absolutely happy to answer any questions you may have either in a PM or a reply to this comment. Take care :)

Sharan Chakravarthy

Well now I'm intrigued by this animal behavior class! I can totally relate to the philosophy thing though. For my Bachelor's I took a lot of science/health related courses, but it wasn't until 2 years after I graduated that I took an ethics course at a community college. That was the most pivotal class for me just because it's the only one that forced me to really think deeply in a whole new way. The prof obviously played a huge role in that because if you're just going to learn from a textbook, you won't get as much out if it. And it's funny because I only took it as part of a potential requirement for further education, but now I'm forever grateful I did because it's changed my life. And it only cost me like, 3 weeks wage and 4 months time. I also wish there wasn't such a stigma around going to community college because it's a great option for a lot of people as it can be used as a stepping stone.

Kotryna

Holy shit yes. The 2008 bailout was horrific. The main issue with the big banks and Wall Street is that they are protected by the Government (Which they also control) and can get away with doing whatever they want. I also totally agree Shorting is not "evil" and that markets need to be corrected, whether its up or down, to a more accurate price. But I also think it should be completely legal and ok for 2 million redditors to notice that bad bet that wasn't protected for potential losses and decide to heavily invest in a stock/company that is currently struggling and has been around for a long time. If hedge funds wanna bet 20 billion against a business to fail, Great! And if they end up being wrong because of a community like wsb deciding to invest in a stock, than thats also Great! Free markets work and are cut throat because they are efficient.

benj

Interesting, Living for the right cause instead of dying for the right cause. That was a very poetic response I was not expecting. Definitely agree with your sentiments there. And in my head I also thought you would be the preacher guy yelling at the Titan before getting eaten LMAO. The Titan's could not face the wrath of Goodwin philosophy and endless rambling about life.

benj

while I generally agree with that, I think people can take things too far as well. I am totally all for us peasants rising up and taking our share of stuff, but I think a lot of times people get caught up in the drama of it all. I think there certainly is an element of hypocrisy and corruption in what's going on. HOWEVER, as mass media always does, the whole thing has been somewhat sensationalized, and they capitalize on the idea of a group of salty hedge fund managers vs a group of redditors who saw a lucrative opportunity; and that's really what I get tired of. I'm not arguing that "the 1%" (I assume you mean the people in powerful positions on Wall Street and at Robinhood) is in the right. Also: only a sith deals in absolutes. "only one right answer" isn't an argument I'm a fan of personally, since right and wrong is pretty subjective. (sorry for long-ass post lol)

Aidan Pullen

@Aiden That's awesome! Pretty good deal haha. @utdbenj I appreciate the enthusiasm. I enjoy the energy coming from the retail investors right now. As I said this time I hope the net result is positive for the average person, and as I said last time, I wish you the best on your trip to the moon.

Alex G

I indirectly benefitted from this whole stock market fiasco because one of the redditors who ended up making millions decided to share the wealth and made a coupon code for a nice watch, so I got a $120 watch for $12. lol. Jokes and whatnot aside I genuinely appreciate your moderately neutral view on the whole situation. I've just been hearing more or less "screw you, you can't do that" from both "sides" of the situation, it's nice to hear some calm reason on it.

Aidan Pullen

We could all use Goodwin as a life coach. He is Young Iroh IRL.

benj

This certainly took a turn from a general interest in your opinions on the series you've been watching to suddenly striking a cord with what id like to do with my own money now that I have some saving. It'd be a hell of a turn for your content but id certainly find interesting if you went into greater detail about it. and hey, if you setup a discord i might just hire you for a life coach position ;]

Glad it was helpful! You have lots of time so as I said I think as long as you focus on building yourself up gradually, avoiding just drifting aimlessly through school, and turning yourself into a weapon (with skills, thinking abilities, etc) you'll be unstoppable.

Alex G

Yeah I've seen through episode 9 :) I'm trying to get a little ahead so I can take a vacation next week, aside from posting

Alex G

Wait. What episode are you on in AOT? I thought you were like two ahead lol but if you're at the Levi episode you're really speeding through to the best parts of the season Also thank you for what you said about college, I'm in my last HS semester and often struggle with the concept of my future. Hearing input from people who have been through it is helpful

Nick