What are your cleverest moves in life?
Do you have any moments in life where you managed to "hack" the system like receiving things for free, getting opportunities which definitely weren't for you, saving a ton of money by coming with something creative, moving to a place because you saw something which others didn't saw, etc.?
it can be in business, relationships, university, daily life situations, etc. anything which fits "clever".
There are no such "hacks". If you're referring to something illegal, you'll sooner or later get busted.
Not sure if you can call this a hack, but I have heard of a few target school kids, none of whom I know personally, moving to secondary locations of their firms for their first job after graduation, where the recruitment process might not be as competitive or they might have some edge, and then later transferring to a primary location (NY/London etc.) a couple of years later. I should also add they moved there because they knew their grades wouldn't cut them out for the likes of London/NY.
Go to Dubai / some European regional office for a couple of years and then transfer to London. (common move).
Not illegal. Just to give an easy example is when you buy a subscription, for example Audible. They ask you 15$ for a monthly subscription but if you want it cheaper you can cancel it and then they will offer you the same subscription for 10$, so you just remain subscribed as you wanted but with a cheaper price.
Great points over here. Personally know a MD in a front-office buyside role (will not specify as I'm pretty sure he has a unique story and is in a fairly unique group) at a top BB who went this route. Now a MD at their NY office.
Goldman's SLC office used to have a kinda similar program that was almost explicitly this - they recruited top tier students from non target schools and routed them to Salt Lake City and paid them $75k all-in as IB analysts supporting teams on the coasts. After the first year, the strong performers had their pick of moving to NYC or SF (including transitioning to a standard comp plan). Basically a low-cost option on the fact that there are top-tier students at every school (much lower percentage, naturally) who go there because they're in-state or got scholarships or played sports or whatever. Although they ended up shutting the program down a couple years ago...
I couldn’t get into my college of choice and the application period was over and I had a terrible HS GPA.
However, my mom played tennis with the dean’s wife and asked for a favor. Wouldn’t you know it, the dean called and left a message that “he found me a spot.”
I went on to get multiple scholarships and grants, finished top 10% with two majors and a minor and was accepted to the honors program.
Very clever how you chose your mom.
when NFTs were just surfacing last summer, it was extremely easy to make money by tracking "smart money wallets". Unlike today where the NFT market is getting oversaturated with a lot of projects, back then there was 50x the demand than the supply of NFT projects, so as long as you weren't minting a scam, you'd make money. The risk/reward was so broken to the upside i couldnt believe it. The strategy was to track smart money and influencer wallets, mint whatever they did, and then flip it on the secondary market for 3-6x. During a period of ~2 months i made a couple hundred thousand dollars doing this
Prove it, post your wallet address here.
Is this still possible to do? You think reselling NFTs could still be profitable?
Just be nice to servers and cashiers in general. Occasionally, a minor good things will happen. Ex: one time I got an extra boba tea since the store messed up a previous guy’s order and needed to get rid of the messed up order. Another time, I got an extra slice of pizza from the local pizzeria for free.
Never underestimate the power of being polite/nice to others. It also never hurts to be nice to others.
Really sad that "treat service staff with a modicum of kindness and human dignity" is considered a "hack" in this day and age.
Biggest life hack is marrying “up”.
My wife is better than me in any life criteria you want to use.
Probably the biggest decision you can make, so don’t settle when it comes to marriage.
my greatest nemesis, smoke frog... it has been a while since I've seen you comment, welcome back
I thought it was commonly agreed that women marry up, what made your wife do the opposite?
It’s common women marry up? I’ve heard young pretty women typically marry rich, but never heard the refrain they marry up more than men.
My theory is that my wife was getting older and most guys are either successful and arrogant or suck at life and humble. And most are not good looking.
So when she met me she was like well, this guy is better than average at everything, not really amazing at anything, he will do.
I just got very lucky. It’s rare the hot chick actually has money right?
Also, many of the divorces I saw in real life centered around money so it was a pleasant surprise that in my case she’s wealthier, so I knew she wasn’t marrying me for my money or my dads.
didn't feel clever at the time, but buying my house in 2018 when rates were rising but prices weren't falling. my house gone up 15% per year since then and my mortgage is less than the cost of a 1br apartment in my city. I was a curmudgeon with buying real estate and this experience taught me to stfu and realize that a fixed cost when your income is going up will eventually be an asset, even if it feels like you're tying yourself down. don't overpay (I think we went 2x income at the time?) and you'll be fine
2x income??? That's ridiculously reasonable. Mentally I'm prepared to do 2x for a starter home and 3x for the next home if I live in Chicago but if I'm living in the east coast city I'm in now (Tier 1), realistically it needs to be 3x for a starter home for 4x for the next home. The place would also be much worse than the place in Chicago from a quality / sqft / yard standpoint. You're living in LA, no? How did you snag a place for 2x?
No, tier 2 city in the southeast usa
I married someone who became very good at what they do and has high compensation as a result.
It's like playing with house money.
I locked in close to a low point towards the end of Q1 in 2021 and it was really fantastic, I'd be fucked if I have to do that now.
Taking gap years before going to university to work and travel. Made it possible for me to get declared independent from my parents for financial aid. I am basically getting paid by the government to attend uni now.
Can’t stress this one enough. My situation was never this severe, but through high school and college I was never “cut” or “jacked” like I am today. A serious focus on getting in really good shape reaps so many dividends. And genuine compliments really stick with you. Last week I had a very attractive woman tell me that my jaw line and facial structure was beautiful- I’ve never had that compliment before. Putting in the work to get to sub 10% body fat and looking as good as you can really improves every aspect of your life.
100% agree with [Arroz con Pollo] and lumber_cruncher. It's crazy how much of a difference getting in shape can have.
I got quite heavy during university (unlimited food plan) and my first year at work (worked a little too hard for no reason) but I grinded so damn hard to lose 65 pounds my second year into my career and it was the best decision I ever made in my entire life. The self confidence you obtain realizing that you can drastically change your entire facial structure and body composition is extremely empowering. I think many people understand the latter but underestimate the former. You can literally go from a double chin to an amazing jaw line if you get to a low enough body fat percentage.
Beyond simply looking good (which has its benefits with dating over course), you also just demand a certain level of respect everywhere you go when you are in crazy good shape. From the check-out line in the grocery store, to walking into board meetings, to getting picked earlier on the basketball court - it helps literally everywhere.
I recommend getting into amazing shape to everyone over everything else I have ever done in my life! I truly believe career should come second to your bodily health.
I'm 6'4 and have been ~12% for the past few years, which I've felt like is not quite good enough. You just gave me the motivation to really push to get <10% by this summer. Godspeed.
I'm desparately trying to get back to that after surgery and some mental issues, the one thing I miss the most is just physiologically feeling good, like waking up and feeling refreshed and not having annoying muscle tension or aches. The other benefits are great too.
yeah as a chubby dude its unbelievable the impact this has.
I've cycled through twice - was super lean first 2 years of high school, was treated like a god and built a lot of confidence. put on weight in a relationship, broke up first year of college and it was really hard, till i lost 30-40 lbs freshman summer and it was amazing again. same pattern w/ a college gf and been overweight since graduating, and its honestly super gross how differently people treat you.
wish it didn't require such extreme diet focus to stay lean for me, but back on the horse and im 20/90 pounds down rn, so hopefully will see the good times again soon
Before starting my business I took dozens of consultations from different spheres to make as few mistakes as possible. It worked pretty well in my case. One of the most considerable changes I made was shifting to Priceva service to optimize my pricing policy.
What's the business about?
Italian perfumes (Nasomatto, Orto Parisi and the likes).
I think dating my current GF is THE clever move.
Do you also talk out of your same-sex attracted and intellectually disadvantaged behind? Yes.
Your behavior will come back to bite you. People can suss out dishonest behavior, and no one will want to work with you.
I convinced my wife to marry me.
Does she regret it now?
Too scared to ask.
Most of the posts here seem to revolve around finding a successful SO.
Yeah finding the right partner (or none if that's what you determine) will determine around 80% of your happiness.
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