Today I got told that I am the...

[Tupac Shakur]

As a fellow high-achiever, I approve of this thread and offer my sincere congratulations to the rock star who started it.

[KrazyHorse]

Eughhh...I think I want to be sick. The only thing you rank in a high percentile of KH is self-publicists...

Self-promotion is how you get places, son.

[KrazyHorse]

I will almost certainly never achieve the heights that you did.

I will, however, live much longer.

[Tupac Shakur]

Better to die of a gunshot wound than to fade away. - Kurt Cobain

[KrazyHorse]

Kurt's a moron who was plowing one of the ugliest famous chicks in the world when he could have been defiling some sweet, 18 year-old suburban *****.

[Tupac Shakur]

I don't disagree.

[curtis290]

I had a professor make the argument once that the reason for the long work weeks in IBanking and other Wall Street jobs has nothing to do with productivity. No one can seriously be productive for the entirety of an 80 hour work week, so why is that the common practice? It's to kill any possibility of a personal life, so that the firm basically owns you and can count on you devoting your life to your work.

I'm not sure if this is exactly true but it wouldn't surprise me. Mainly I think that the culture has gotten like this because most of these people are greedy soulless b*stards who don't do well in real life, so they'd rather spend all of it working and making extra money. Why not hire 5 people with 48 hour work weeks instead of 3 with 80 hour ones? It would be the same amount of hours but with much higher productivity, since the employees would be able to more effectively focus for shorter periods of time, not to mention it employs more people (which would be for the good of the country). It's because no one on Wall Street wants to work for 48 hours. They want to work for 80, have no personal life, but make more money. This contrasts the financial system in Europe, which employs a lot more people who simply have normal work weeks and lots of vacation days, but make a normal salary.

Well, it's no surprise that with these people running our politically powerful financial sector we've entered a financial crisis. And it certainly isn't a surprise that KH is one of them. I should've known that such an arrogant jacka** works in finance. They're definitely the worst people out of any profession. They're the most unhappy, dull, unsociable, egotistical, unethical, greedy people you'll ever meet in your life. I do have a few friends in the financial sector that are good people, but the vast majority are how I've described them (and I should know, my school churned out grads for Wall Street). Why else would they slave away at such a meaningless, dull job just to make money? At least doctors and lawyers and engineers render a useful service in their labor. And they tend to be much happier people than the miserable losers in the financial industry.

What a sorry state of affairs this country is in when its best and brightest sell themselves to such a useless, socially unproductive profession just to make a higher salary. What kind of person wants to make money off of moving around other peoples' money? Who would choose that as a profession? I always loved the fact that in ancient China, the merchants were considered one of the lowest classes of society since they didn't do anything that was socially useful.

Our society should be set up the same way. Janitors do more important work than most of the people in the financial sector. If our society and economy was run the way it should be, the way it used to be (Bretton Woods era), we'd only have a handful of bankers who did no more than manage a few checking accounts and didn't get paid exorbitant sums of money. Wall Street epitomizes everything that is wrong with America today: a bunch of unpatriotic, greedy, materialistic individuals who don't have values and are only concerned with making a quick buck without regards for the future.

As for KH, my guess is that he's some average Wall Street stiff barely making six figures a year. They're usually the most arrogant and boastful about themselves and their salaries and achievements. And as for his IQ, anyone that brags about his IQ on the internet is either a) exaggerating or b) a total loser because he brags about his IQ on the internet. KH, if you're so rich and have so little free time, why do you spend all of it here? Shouldn't you have much better things to do than spend all your time on an internet forum, one that isn't even well-trafficked anymore? You better enjoy the last few years in this profession before the impending financial meltdown within the next decade.

American finance

[Elok]

I should've known that such an arrogant jacka** works in finance. They're definitely the worst people out of any profession. They're the most unhappy, dull, unsociable, egotistical, unethical, greedy people you'll ever meet in your life.

Oh, he's hardly dull, and he doesn't seem at all unhappy. Having not met him in person, I can't say if he's unsociable, unethical, or greedy. You get full marks for "egotistical," though.

[Asher]

At least he didn't use his real name for his handle.

[KrazyHorse]

Oh, he's hardly dull, and he doesn't seem at all unhappy. Having not met him in person, I can't say if he's unsociable, unethical, or greedy. You get full marks for "egotistical," though.

I'm quite sociable and ethical. As far as "greedy", I'm happy to call myself that.

[KrazyHorse]

At least he didn't use his real name for his handle.

Unlike you or Elok.

[KrazyHorse]

Curtis is unintentionally hilarious.

Sweetheart, you have yet to have a single interesting thought as far as I'm concerned. You manage to be ignorant, stupid AND boring. A rare trifecta.

[KrazyHorse]

Why not hire 5 people with 48 hour work weeks instead of 3 with 80 hour ones? It would be the same amount of hours but with much higher productivity, since the employees would be able to more effectively focus for shorter periods of time, not to mention it employs more people (which would be for the good of the country).

Broken window fallacy AND ignoring the elasticity of supply as it relates to highly skilled and specialized labor...

Plus, I only average ~60 hours a week. Only IBD averages 80+, especially at analyst and 1st year associate. Notably, those are also the people with the least quantifiable skills, and analysts are cheap as ****...

[Tuberski]

Plus 3 people working 80 hours is cheaper than 5 working 48.

ACK!

[KrazyHorse]

3 working 80 is cheaper than hiring 5 similarly skilled working 48, true. That's basically my point about elasticities. There are only so many people with the right mix of knowledge, motivation and intelligence to do some jobs...

The other thing is that a lot of people develop incredibly focused expertise, and it might take a generalist twice as long to do what they do. 48 hours a week does not an expert make. Not in research-level physics, not in finance.