Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Dylan's avatar

I went to college on a National Merit Scholarship. MY SAT scores were much higher than your cutoff (and this was before the changes to scoring in 1994) My high school grades were not valedictorian level, but something like a 3.8 at one of the best public schools in the state. And I almost flunked out of my mid-tier state school in the first year.

Know thyself is good advice, but the problem is that 1) who you are at 18 is not a very predictable guide to who you will be at 48 and 2) looking at external sources to do self-assessment like SAT scores is great on average, but you are not an average, you're just you.

Should I have gone to university? By your measure, absolutely. But, I would probably have been better off if I had taken a gap year or two to work or travel and come back better. As it was, it took me almost 10 years to get my degree from when I first started. I eventually got into a career path that needed that degree, but I was almost 30 by then.

Expand full comment
forumposter123@protonmail.com's avatar

The national average for a Panda Express Manager is 55k. It pays so well at the one near Rufo because it's in a posh Seattle suburb with a median home price of $800k. In other words, they have to pay more to attract talent but all the extra income going straight back into the cost of living, leaving you no better off.

If you run the math the $100k manager job will never afford a home anywhere near it.

So basically Rufo can't do math and his sentiment is pure resentment.

If I were to be generous to Rufo, I would say he's in the same blind spot that everyone who owned a home before 2022 has. They don't understand that housing doubled in price or more since 2020 (prices + rates) and that this completely changes what is and isn't a living wage. There really are two Americas based on home ownership, and young men don't own homes.

Expand full comment
46 more comments...