jaltucher

I've had one good manager of programmers. he basically pushed us all to finish our tasks with timelines that were reasonable and then encouraged us to come up with new ideas for the company and then he's be our political advocate throughout the company for those ideas. It gave his employees a lot of loyalty for him.

great example. thanks.

Good thing you didn't read the article then. I'm saying kids shouldn't be bored out of their minds learning in a standardized, uniform environment that ends up teaching at the lowest common denominator (not in every case but most cases).

I'm saying give kids the full intellectual terrain of life to learn from. Put them to their own devices instead of the devices of the state and you will be surprised at what they learn.

I was fortunate enough to participate in programs at an early age that emphasized this type of learning and it was amazing how quickly one could learn algebra up to calculus if just given a few weeks of passionate learning instead of rote testing. - James Altucher

why do i embody the worst of the excesses of the dot-com bubble? I try to help people as much as I can with my posts and ask nothing for it.

That every day in everyone's life is a beautiful story.

Me. And I wrote it.

I really hope they do a "whatever happened to.." 40 years from now so we can see what happened to that kid.

Thanks axiom. I felt this was a particularly important one. I don't like how the media operates in terms of scaring the population. But i guess this article had its run. Thanks again.

Actually, I don't view the article as linkbaiting. The stock market fell 20% over the Greece headlines. Now nobody discusses it. And the media just moves on. No apologies. The same thing will happen with this Japan crisis. I view this as much more serious because of the stark fear people have over the world "nuclear". the media and the pundits know this and take advantage of it.

It upsets me that the media can post all of these lies. Sell their headlines, then just move on without an apology to the millions that are currently scared out of their minds.

Just out of curiousity: why do you think that was missing from the post? I thought it was very much there by the end.

For the first person who brought up this climate change thread I have a few questions I hope you can answer honestly:

A) did it have to do with the article in question?

B) Did you see the reference to climate change on wikipedia or you have actually read the chapter on it in my book where I feel I present a very balanced view.

thats right. the challenge is to find the right balance of health, money, work, that allows you to focus on the nuances of happiness (emotional health, spiritual health, simplicity, etc) and not constantly be driven with a desire for warning More.

If the company raises money 900 work hours from now at $1 per share and they have 20 million shares then 1% of the company is worth $200,000 then. If he is granted the shares then he has to pay taxes on that (he can get away with a discount to that but he still has to pay taxes of some sort).

Right now the shares are probably worth zero. So if he's granted stock now there are no tax implications.

Vesting means that you get your shares over time. there's several things that can be happening in your deal:

1) you get your shares right away but they are restricted until you put in your 1000 hrs (this might be best because it starts the long-term cap gains clock ticking)

2) you get your shares in 1000 hrs (i dont like this. what if he raises money at a 20mm valuation. you might have a serious tax implication). This is a form of vesting.

3) the 1000 hours happen and then you get your shares over time (vesting) after that

4) all of the above, but you get options instead of shares. Not sure if I like this either but depends.

But all the other things I mention (anti-dilution rights, non-competes, change of control, change of responsibilities, etc) are all very important. you can't do a deal without everything spelled out.

- Do you vest?

- If you vest, what metrics determine if your vesting stops? Can they do it arbitrarily, etc

- what if you finish your work in less than 1000 hours?

- you should have some benefit if you finish the work and then continue with the company.

- Does the 5% already have a value? In which case, if you get your stock up front you might have a tax implication.

- whats your anti-dilution rights? You should have the opportunity to participate pro-rata in any dilutive event (eg. a fundraising)

- the other founders should have a non-compete (so they cant sell the assets to a brand new company)

- if vesting, they should vest immediately on any change of control

- what if your responsibilities change so you are not doing development but some other work (biz dev, sales, etc.

- i would do basic due diligence on founder and current investors. background checks, etc.

- what does "5%" mean? Do they have an option pool set aside already? Can they issue arbitrarily more options?

If you have any questions on these I'll check back and answer.

Love these ideas.

Well, I moved to a nice little suburb about 65 miles north of NYC.

Yeah, go buy a REIT or a housing-related stock. Then you haev all the investment benefits of owning a house EXCEPT - you don't have to pay extra taxes - no maintenance - you can sell any second you want. So go figure.

I rent, I live in a suburb, I have kids. So what else can I say? I wrote the article.

Right. The big issue is people think they are wasting money on rent. But if you factor in mortgaeg, taxes, maintenance, etc it still comes to rent or more, EVEN when the house is paid off and there is no mortgage (but taxes keep going up)

Thats why I divided the post between "financial" and "personal". The personal stuff is my own reasons, the "financial" stuff is why I think financially buying a home is a big mistake.

Although I will add that Defender was the all-time best game. Angry Birds vs Defender? I'll take Defender any day.

What I think is interesting is that these are all Type A personalities who focused for 40 straight years on one thing: Money.

So they made it. Now what? Only two more worries: A) their life ending B) the world ending

So they now focus all of their energies on those two. Its interesting how many choose Ashtanga Yoga to prolong their lives. they must've done their research. Great post!

Maybe. But I don't think thats an unusual experience in a world that pretended there was job security within the confines of a corporation.

Thats exactly what this list does, but in indirect ways that actually work. Resumes don't work.

If you want to argue about that we can. But why should we argue? its late at night. And ultimately we all die eventually. Maybe my wife is shady. Check out her blog: claudiayoga.com and you'll see how she helps people.

Travis, thats a constructive criticism. Thanks.

Haha. Maybe my wife just loves me. Notice she went through my last book and found out how each stock performed. I'm grateful she did that since I never asked her to do it. I was afraid to look at how the stocks had done.

Check out my blog: jamesaltucher.com. then you can see how shady I am

Grandalf, love both those ideas.