07 Nov 2024 #misc
“What companies should I buy in my brokerage account?”
That was a question that popped up in a Whatsapp group with some of my ex-coworkers and colleagues. In fact, it was not the first time that question popped up. From the same person.
Here’s what I answered:
“If you don’t want to be a full-time investor, go with a broad market index fund. If you don’t know which one, pick any that tracks the S&P500, like VOO or SPY.”
But I was wrong.
Not that my answer was wrong. I’m not a money expert. But I’ve read some money books and changed my mind about money. I realized that the question itself shows something more: not doing the homework and outsourcing thinking to somebody else.
It’s like asking: “Do you know anyone I should marry?”
You’re completely at the good intentions of the other person. He should guess the traits you’re looking for in a partner and go through all his relatives, friends, and acquaintances to see if there’s anyone with those traits. He misses lots of things to answer that question.
I’m not answering, “what companies I should buy in ?" anymore.
The right answer is:
- Don’t ask your poor friends for money advice. The most expensive advice is the one you get for free.
- If you don’t know what to invest in, start investing in yourself, so you can decide on your own where to put your money.
- Never let somebody else tell you what to do with your own money.
The only thing I can share is: “Here is what I do with my money…”
“Ask the jeweler for jewelry advice.” — The Richest Man in Babylon
That’s how I’m answering that question in the future.
06 Nov 2024 #misc
Hiring in 2024 has been slow.
I know! I was “let go” in February and tried to find a job for a couple of months until I gave up and decided to jump solo.
AI, high interest rates, or anything else have changed the job market. There aren’t as many open applications as years before. And the few ones opened get flooded with applications. Pure radio silence after you apply.
Before, you only needed the right keywords in your LinkedIn headline to get recruiters offering you “life-changing opportunities.” I cringe while typing those words and remembering all those messages.
Those days seem to be gone.
The other day the LinkedIn algorithm showed me a post of a young designer showing her profile picture around a ribbon that said “Desperate.” It was her idea to complement the “Hiring” and “Open to work” ribbons or photo frames or whatever LinkedIn called them.
(If you wrote that post, I totally understand. I did the same thing in a different way a couple of months ago.)
It’s desperate seeing a bank account going to zero and having bills to pay.
Writing “I’m desperate and need money. Please give me a job” in a LinkedIn post is the equivalent of wearing dirty clothes, growing a beer, and extend your hand in the middle of a busy street.
Nobody is going to give you a job for being desperate and looking needy. Other LinkedIn users aren’t going to take money out of their pockets to help you either.
Instead of giving companies and hiring managers homework and looking desperate and needy, turn around the equation and give away ideas.
For the young designer with the “Desperate” ribbon idea:
- Find 10 companies you’d like to work with
- Create a brand redesign for each company. Show how you’d change colors, fonts, and logo. Do it like you’re being paid for it.
- For each redesign, publish a post showing your redesign and tag the company and the head of the creative team (or a hiring manager or the head of the team that hires designers inside a company)
Even if the companies you’re redesigning don’t reply, others will see your work and skills in action. You don’t have to say “Trust me, I design.” You’re showing your work instead.
After being laid off, I sent my CV to as many places as I could find that needed a code monkey. Even I applied to a FAANG when I rejected that idea early in my career.
Eventually, I got a reply. And after the first contact and a signed agreement, the head of the company told me: “I don’t know where to put you.” I was waiting for the company to close a new client. In the meantime, I gave them homework.
I knocked at their doors and said “Please give me work. I do anything.” That was the implicit message I sent when I filled out an application from in their company page and sent my CV.
I should have knocked at their doors with 10 ideas, like I recently learned from James Altucher.
A professional never begs. And, no. LinkedIn shouldn’t have a “Desperate” ribbon.
05 Nov 2024 #misc
Writing 10 ideas every day saved James Altucher from bankruptcy and changed his life.
If you don’t know James Altucher’s story: he’s an American investor and author. He sold one of his first businesses for millions and lost everything. Not once, but a couple of times.
In his darkest moments, about to end his life so his family could claim his $4M life insurance, he bought cheap waiter’s pads and started to write ideas to change his life and make money.
In his blog posts, podcast interviews, books, and TED talks, he recommends the same habit:
Become an idea machine by writing 10 ideas a day.
You don’t need to come up with 10 brilliant ideas.
You just need to come up with 10 bad ideas every day. You need to build your idea muscles. Yes, your idea muscles atrophy like any other muscle if you don’t use them.
If you don’t know how to start, write 10 areas you want to write 10 ideas about.
Write 10 ideas to:
- Get a pay raise
- Get a promotion
- Find a better job
- Make extra income
- Expand your network
- Ease your boss’s job
- Land your next client
- Help your best client
- Grow your online presence
- Improve your team’s processes
After following this habit for weeks, out of those hundreds of ideas, one will be a decent one. Then, write 10 ideas to execute on that idea.
An idea machine writes ideas for others too and gives them away without expecting anything in return.
Months later after starting to write and give away ideas, James was flying to visit companies and discuss the ideas he gave for free.
After learning about becoming an idea machine, I gave 10 ideas on a LinkedIn comment to a coding non-profit running out of cash. I also DMed the CEO of a SaaS to give him my ideas for his landing page and product documentation. I’m still waiting for my free plane tickets to discuss my ideas though.
Want to change your life? Start writing 10 ideas every day and become an idea machine.
04 Nov 2024 #misc
Hourly billing is nuts.
I learned that from Jonathan Starks. Charging by the hour doesn’t encourage productivity. To make more money, you have to work slowly or pad your time sheet. In either case, you’re not being honest.
Even knowing that, I agreed to work as a contractor for a small software agency charging by the hour.
After every task, I couldn’t resist the temptation of looking at my tracking software to see how much I had made in that working session. “I’ve made only $75, I need to pay my bills. Arrrggg!”
But that story started months earlier, after being “let go.”
After the initial moments of relief from a layoff, the anxiety of not having a paycheck made me go into panic mode.
I sent my CV to as many places looking for coding skills as possible. Even to a FAANG, and my overconfidence and lack of preparation made failed.
Out of dozens of applications, only one got me a reply: “Thanks, but we’re not looking. Maybe later.” A polite no.
Months later, they wanted to chat with me.
I wasn’t used to charging by the hour.
As a full-time employee, you receive your monthly paycheck and don’t run those calculations. Maybe HR does, not you. I picked a rate out of thin air based on my last salary.
One ex-coworker suggested that I should go with a lower rate since hiring in 2024 has been slow. AI, high interest rates, or who knows what made the demand for software engineers decrease.
I followed that advice and lowered my rate.
The day of the interview came.
The usual questions: “what do you do?” and “tell me about yourself.” And of course, my hourly rate.
When I asked about my future project, I was told it was an app migration from an ancient tech stack to a newer one and they were looking for someone “cheap” like me to handle the repetitive part.
Ouch! That hurt. Directly in my ego. “Thanks for being honest,” I thought.
I knew I needed to set an aspirational rate (lesson from Naval Ravikant) and escape from the Matrix. That moment reinforced that decision. But my emergency fund was about to run out in a couple of months, so I had to swallow my pride and be the “cheap” one.
How I should have picked my rates
The next time you’re asked about your rates, go with the advice from “The Secrets of Consulting” by Gerald Weinberg:
Give a rate that makes you comfortable either if it’s accepted or not. Avoid the “oh no, I should have charged more” and the “damn, I charged too high.”
Or use a more practical approach:
Slap the other person in the face and say your rate. If he gets offended by the slap, you’re charging too low.
Anyway, like me, you probably need to raise your rates too.
03 Nov 2024 #misc
Question: Guys, how do I say “I love you” in Japanese?
— Japanese? Why don’t you try German? It’s easier in German
— If you want to talk about love, you should try with French
— Yeah, go with French. That’s the language of love
…Question downvoted
— Wait, isn’t Spanish the language of love?
— Guys, the thing is I have this text at work and I need to say that in Japanese
— Really? What kind of job is that? You should talk to your boss and tell him to use a real language for that
— Do you call yourself a language lover and don’t know that?
…Question closed as duplicate.