Tag: envy

Eating alone while sitting at a bar while traveling presents so many ways to eavesdrop.

Last week it was a couple of bros, seemingly doctors-residents, one Korean American the other South Asian, first talking about their work, then about women, or, rather, about cheating on their wives. Overhearing all that was uncomfortable and awkward. Also, nobody should be talking like that about women.

Today, it’s a guy in his 40s (or so it seems) talking to the bartender about mountains. The bartender has gone to Mt Washington this past weekend. His 6th time. His uncle has climbed it once for every year of his life (54 times).

The guy sitting next to me is going to Mexico, its highest point, for the thanksgiving. And in January he’s going to Ecuador.

Ran into a neighbor in the lobby. She told me she’s leaving, and moving to California. She will work for XPrize ! Her (and mine) dream job. She is understandably super excited. She is also excited for me and R, but for a completely different reason (I’m excited about that too). Lots of excitement to go around.

I asked her how she got it. Her longtime friend called her up and asked to come and join them. And she wanted to do it for a long time, and said yes, and so that was that.

I want her for a friend. But it’s too late now. Anyway, how does one befriend a former neighbor who is moving across the country? Why do my friends work for stupid hedge funds, architecture firms or software companies? Anyway, my calculus, linear algebra, statistics and physics are at the level quite a bit below what they were in college, or even high school. I was a much better coder two years out of school than I am now. I know quite a bit about relational databases, and about derivatives and collateral management, some things about brokerage accounting and how to manage global teams and build good products, but these are dead skills that I couldn’t give a f.ck about, as it would never help me get a job like that. I should also note the lack of sufficient grit, which is something XPrize founder whom I follow on here wrote about extensively. How does one learn grit?

 Anyway, that 3 minute conversation was not enough. I know she’s busy, but I will call her up and see if she will have time for at least a phone conversation. I just want to know how she got there.