Interview with gwern

(www.dwarkeshpatel.com)

308 points synthmeat | 1 comments | 14 Nov 24 08:56 UTC | HN request time: 0.38s | source

Show context

resiros ◴[14 Nov 24 10:15 UTC] No.42134728[source]▶

>Wait if you’re doing $900-1000/month and you’re sustaining yourself on that, that must mean you’re sustaining yourself on less than $12,000 a year. What is your lifestyle like at $12K?"

>I live in the middle of nowhere. I don't travel much, or eat out, or have health insurance, or anything like that. I cook my own food. I use a free gym. There was this time when the floor of my bedroom began collapsing. It was so old that the humidity had decayed the wood. We just got a bunch of scrap wood and a joist and propped it up. If it lets in some bugs, oh well! I live like a grad student, but with better ramen. I don't mind it much since I spend all my time reading anyway.

Not sure what to think of that. On one hand, it's so impressive that gwern cares only about the intellectual pursuit. On the other hand, it's sad that society does not reward it as much as excel sheet work.

replies(7): >>42134748 #>>42135045 #>>42135063 #>>42135088 #>>42135384 #>>42135461 #>>42135571 #

bondarchuk ◴[14 Nov 24 11:10 UTC] No.42135088[source]▶

>>42134728 #

Many many people in the US live on that kind of money, it's not uncommon at all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States

"Among individuals living alone: 19.1% lived in poverty."

Poverty line (max yearly income) for single households: $14,580

replies(3): >>42135257 #>>42136038 #>>42137454 #

1. walthamstow ◴[14 Nov 24 11:42 UTC] No.42135257[source]▶

>>42135088 #

There's a bit in The West Wing where one of the characters finds out the US poverty thresholds are calculated based on work done in the 1950s by a woman named Mollie Orshansky, and that they can't be updated because then US would then have millions more poor people, and that's bad politics. According to your link that's still mostly true 25 years later.

↑