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Scale AI co-founder says the FIRE movement inspired her to live ‘very cheaply’ on McDonald’s and free flights until she made $10 million
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- Published
- Jul 11 2023
- Word count
- 2093 words
God I hate stuff like this. In high school she just randomly had $5,000 to buy bitcoin?? Come on, what high schooler has that cash laying around?!?
She used a buddy pass to fly, and to get free meals by scamming the airport lounge stuff. This isn't the kind of financial advice anyone should be listening to. This is a fluke, a lucky person who had TONS of help (self-made. psh).
Do I sound bitter enough? Because this article makes me bitter.
Yea, I have no doubt she's savvy. And maybe she does just have one-in-a-million drive and dedication to make all that happen. But like you said, possible, just incredibly unlikely. Getting into AI in 2016 was probably the best possible time to get on that bandwagon. Like most (all?) success stories, equal parts luck, timing, and generally some good work-ethic.
I just hate this notion that these sorts need to be pointed out as savvy at all. It's irrelevant.
It's like saying "Well, they're talented" when explaining the success of an artist. There's millions of talented people that never see success so why is it a factor worth pointing out? It takes more than that. Being good at something is merely the baseline, so what are the real factors that led to their success?
Some people are truly one-in-a-million. I knew someone from high school who was in charge of our robotics team, went on to the (very difficult and selective) ECE program at our university, then left to work at Google while living frugally in a van and completed the remainder of his undergrad program remotely while working. Eventually he founded a successful tech startup.
The guy was literally a robot.
In my high school, most people came from upper-middle class backgrounds and enjoyed the benefits of such. But a few were hyper functioning, superhuman outliers with tremendous cognitive abilities. They were like... the mentats of Dune. They thought faster and at higher levels. Their minds effortlessly sifted through oceans of thoughts and had immense clarity.
I mean...
It sounds like the entire reason for this to exist is to be aspirational to people who are already rich, or come from rich families.
I highly doubt the "creatives" they are talking about are the legions of artists selling commissioned art on deviantArt.
I'm particularly annoyed because they "lived on McDonalds". Eating McDonalds every day gets expensive fast.
That probably says more about whether they've made their first million.
Does it? With the app (Well now you need a smartphone and a bank account) it doesn't cost much at all.
For $3 you can get like 1,000 calories. You might still be hungry, but you won't starve if you're desperate.
The last time I was at McDonald’s the value meals were about $10, with some going even higher.
To be honest I am tempted to not believe that statement simply because she doesn’t appear to be fat. McDonalds food is extremely dense in calories and hyper-palatable which makes it hard to be satisfied without overeating.
And upon re-reading it, it turns out she never made that statement. She just says that she loves McDonald’s. The headline is a flat-out lie.
Every time I see something from Yahoo News it contains false or extremely misleading statements. I am going to keep in mind the next time I see one of their stories what garbage they publish.
No, they've made the app the default way to order. If you're just ordering off the menu at the restaurant its pretty much like paying sticker price for a car. A tax on anyone that doesn't use the app.
Color me surprised that the headline is BS anyway.
Oh god, we are living in the worst timeline then. The McDonald app is spyware with all the data on you that it collects.
I mean as far as I can tell with what permissions I've given the app, which is only 'location when I'm using it', all they're getting from me is what McDonald's locations I go to...which seems fair for a hefty discount on the food if you ask me. If you like the food anyway.
I'll admit to being a tiny bit dramatic.
Ok… off-topic (and so I hesitate since this reply will bump this thread to the top of FP) but…
… what? Standing inside the store and using the McDonalds app is cheaper than ordering at the kiosk or in-person?
They have a daily set of deals with some rotation, free fries with purchase, free fries and drinks when you get a Big Mac, get a 10 piece nuggets and get a second one or a QPC for 0.39 cents, etc.
So you can’t get like whatever you want but they also often have a deal for 20% off your order too so you can get whatever. Stuff like that.
Then there’s a rewards system so with every purchase your get points and you can redeem them for free items. So yeah, it’s not a smart move to just buy off the menu and ignore the app.
The Governator made a speech about that very thing.
"Aone who says they are a self made millionaire is probably lying. They all had help along the way. Some more than others, certainly. But also certainly, they had help along the way."
Any "Self-made" talk is utter trash.
I'd say the culture war flash point flared over time as the wealthy somehow managed to perpetually pay less and less in taxes. Seeing the puff pieces on millionaires talking about how much better they are while downplaying the role of having free assets to start with. Oh and perpetual dismantling of social safety nets to 'blance the budget.'
Take those together, throw in a dash of "lazy millenial" rhetoric and general tone-deafness towards the working class, and you've got all the fixings for resentment for the self-described self-made man (they're mostly men).
I think the pushback is in the other direction, where folks like Arnold emigrated to the US with little to nothing and like you said made something with hard work and determination. He definitely had support, but he didn't come from generational wealth and familial connections. The ire towards the "self-made" concept of today comes from folks like Elon Musk, who come from exceedingly wealthy backgrounds and get touted as bootstrappers. It's the idea that the wealthy are using it to justifying their place within our false "meritocracy". It doesn't exist, we live in a system where it is explicitly called out that it serves those with capital.
I also appreciate people who do call out the folks, institutions, and programs that get them where they are today, particularly in business. The government subsidies, federal grant programs (like SBIR), and subsidized infrastructure are a really big part of most companies rise to prominence. And often, it's the folks that rely on these program, again such as Elon Musk (with state and federal support such as EV refund/low income EV subsidy/special use of the carpool lanes/employee retention programs/DOE grants for R&D/ and on and on) often decry taxation as theft and the government as inept. The "lone wolf" libertarian. And that is bollocks. Calling out the things that helped you educates others about the existence, so they may also gain access, and highlights really beneficial programs/institutions/groups that otherwise go unappreciated.
I agree that there’s no “lone wolf,” but the framing of this debate seems rather cartoonish. Anyone who has thought about how industry works at all should realize there are many thousands of workers who deserve the credit for most of what gets done. Getting paid to do it doesn’t take away from that at all.
Musk ends up taking credit for a lot of hard work by other people at his companies because all the media attention is on him rather than on all those other people whose names we don’t know. This is a structural problem. Good leaders will thank everyone for all their hard work, but that’s boring and the crowd doesn’t remember it. It’s not what people like to talk about online or write about in the news.
(He also seems to be a bit of an asshole and does a lot of stunts specifically designed to get people’s attention, but a similar effect happens at many other companies with leaders who don’t do that. The CEO ends up standing in for the company.)
Also, I’m sure Musk had a lot of advantages including already being rich when he started SpaceX and funded Tesla. But he was still an unusual billionaire who funded unusual businesses. They were risky ventures that used government money for its intended purpose. It doesn’t seem like much of a criticism?
Tax credits for electric vehicles were intended to subsidize electric vehicles, because that’s what the government was trying to do. Special treatment for electric car owners was intended to boost electric car ownership. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to start a new car company or to build a car that people want.
Governments contract with private industry to build rockets because they want companies to build rockets. Getting paid to do it doesn’t mean they didn’t do it. Also, it’s not easy to build a rocket. A lot of attempts failed.
There’s very little that happens that government doesn’t have a hand in these days. Governments can both help and hinder. The work a company is supposed to be doing won’t get done by the government, though.
So I don’t think this sort of “calling out” helps much in understanding the history of what happened. It’s just another spin on things. To find good history you need to look for writers who care enough to do research into how companies get built and try to understand what it means.
It's cartoonish because it's hyperbolic. I'm using Elon as a foil for a great number of the founders who like to step themselves in the working class everyman milieu when they come from generational wealth. That is my own personal axe to grind.
As for people calling out the support they received. I'm not saying it's a prerequisite of being a self made person, but personally I really appreciate it. Take this with a grain of salt because I'm making narrative in my head, but think you're coming from a place where you understand the existence and benefit of governmental innovation programs. I would say the majority of the general public doesn't and often times there is a disconnect between capitalistic progress and federal spending. You spent time in an industry that thrives on federal grants and contracts, most folks don't knows about that. I'm optimistic that visibility for programs like this can act as a political bridge as folks who hold science and innovation in high esteem (more progressive) have an interface with those that value commerce and capital highly (more traditional).
I'm not saying that companies don't take an incredible amount of work, luck, and skill to get a company off the ground; but I think the "self made" title has been diluted to the point where it just don't hold much water for me.
I'd blame the Ayn Rand BS, personally. It's surprisingly common for people to think they are literally self-made.
I love how honest Arnold is for someone whose image is so important.
I don’t think this is intended to be financial advice? It’s not like her 10m FIRE ended up being all that useful considering she has 400m now, although obviously she couldn’t have known that at the time. With hindsight she could have saved $0 and be at the same spot, roughly. Seemed just like an interview.
Heh, well not advice in the "Follow these steps!" type of advice. Because you'd have to time travel.
Nearly every sELfMaDe story is like this. Sometimes they don't even hide it, embarrassingly, because they don't even understand their own privilege and luck.
"After a small loan from a family member..." Never trust a successful person who says they made it all on their own. They are most certainly lying or don't even understand the support network they have that others don't.
She's preaching FIRE when she got rich from bitcoin she bought in high school??
Must be fuckin' nice to be set for life before your adult life even begins.
...no, if you read the article, she bought $5k of bitcoin and then lost it.
Not sure how applicable this is to most people but I liked the idea of asking a private equity firm about their investments that are growing the fastest. Have others had experience in approaching wealth building this way?
I'm pretty sure if I asked a private equity firm these questions they'd tell me to leave.
Revealing your secrets seems a quick way to lose your edge.
Oh you know Greg's dad is a manager at a16z let's just ask him.
I stopped eating avocado toast and now I'm a multimillionaire!
/s
I've cut back dramatically on expenses several times and I'm still the same financially because some unexpected expense always swoops in to pick up that slack.