John Freeman

Software developer @citadel. Formerly @ripple, @twosigma, @tamu, @tamsunt. C++, Python, TypeScript. Social media is a pox. Views are my own.

[John Freeman @thejohnfreeman]

The most language diverse project I've ever created. https://t.co/dTymtXaZGJ

[John Freeman @thejohnfreeman]

What do you think is the functional difference between displaying and selling cakes that belong to someone else, and displaying and selling LEGO that belong to someone else? Do you think the new owners would not need to return the cakes that were in the store when it changed ownership?

[John Freeman @thejohnfreeman]

@dylanmatt - eliminate estate tax
- change step-up in basis to step-down to zero basis
- do not treat non-cash inheritance as income
- tax cash inheritance as ordinary income, but with high standard deduction
- leave capital gains taxes alone

[John Freeman @thejohnfreeman]

Maslow put it in the same tier as eating food and sleeping.

[Diane Yap @RealDianeYap]

It makes me sad for half of humanity that sex takes up this much room in their minds. It's so boring and pathetic.

Don't they have souls? Aspirations? Thoughts? Anything other than "I wanna get my dick wet"?

[John Freeman @thejohnfreeman]

@MostlyMonkey We're part of the 5% apparently. https://t.co/E3GT0w3MyP

[Mike Bird @Birdyword]

In an Economist poll by YouGov, 71% of respondents say Social Security spending should be increased, more than for any other category. Just 5% want it cut, slightly less than the share of Americans who say they believe Covid-19 vaccinations were used to microchip the population.

[John Freeman @thejohnfreeman]

@DKThomp We'll know what the right number is as soon as the government stops paying for it.

[John Freeman @thejohnfreeman]

@thee_ppd @megbasham This advice has a limit. https://t.co/F797fozmoN

[John Freeman @thejohnfreeman]

@jakozloski If you're an extreme outlier man (>99.9%), waiting for an attractive woman of similar IQ who likes you back can make you die alone. Most likely going to have to settle on one of those qualities.

[John Freeman @thejohnfreeman]

@MostlyMonkey "Americans don't know how to socialize" but also "why do Americans ask how you're doing?"

[John Freeman @thejohnfreeman]

@DanFriedman81 It's the party primaries. Need to get rid of them.

[John Freeman @thejohnfreeman]

The smarter you are, the better you are at rationalizing anything. Nothing would change.

[Atticus @redl3tters]

This is a great check on your understanding of human nature (poll below).

Let's roll with this thought experiment by the Famous Internet Whore...

If society were suddenly re-organized with all the "smartest+most rational ppl", what would you expect to see?

1. Things get at least a little better
2. Things stay about the same
3. Things get at least a little worse

Indulge me....

[John Freeman @thejohnfreeman]

Many Heritage Americans are communists, which is why the title Heritage American has no value.

[Forrest Miller 🎥🏆 @AlwaysFlacko]

Lost in the "Talarico has a lobbyist girlfriend and she's VEGAN" story is a detail that apparently Brianna Menard is descended from Michel Branamour Menard the Canadian Fur Trader who founded Galveston, Texas and signed the Texas Declaration of Independence, who Menard County is named after lol

[John Freeman @thejohnfreeman]

@salingergregor @RandomNoobYT In America, if a landlord is unwilling to install AC, then their place will be worth less and attract poorer tenants. It certainly won't be the common standard.

[John Freeman @thejohnfreeman]

This guy has at least 50 more years of life. If he wants a family, and wants to give his kids the leg up he never had (car, college, wedding, down payment), while keeping the quality of life he has now, then he's going to need much more than $4m to retire.

[SightBringer @_The_Prophet__]

⚡️This guy already bought financial optionality, but he has not emotionally accepted that the game is over.

That is the whole conflict.

$3.5M net worth at 34, $3M liquid, $100K annual spend, no dependents, single, high income.

He is not trapped financially.

He is trapped psychologically.

The job trained him to measure safety through the next bonus, the next number, the next year, the next milestone. So even after reaching escape velocity, his nervous system still thinks leaving is failure.

That is the golden cage.

Finance does this especially well. It turns ambitious people into high-performing extraction machines. The money is enormous, but the cost is time, health, relationships, emotional bandwidth, spontaneity, and sometimes the ability to know what life even feels like outside achievement pressure. By the time the person can afford freedom, he may no longer know how to inhabit it.

The obvious advice is “quit.” The deeper advice is: do not make the next decision from burnout. Burnout makes everything look like escape. He needs to downshift before he detonates the whole structure.

The best move is probably not “grind until 2027 for one more bonus.” That sounds like fear wearing a spreadsheet. One more bonus can make sense if there is a clean, short, defined exit plan and the health cost is manageable. But if work is actively damaging his ability to form a relationship, live normally, and stay emotionally intact, the marginal bonus may be stealing more than it pays.

The real question is not whether he can retire. He can.

The real question is what kind of life he is retiring into.

If he quits with no identity, no community, no partner, no mission, no body rhythm, no creative pursuit, no service, no structure, he may just move from work misery into empty freedom. That is why people with money still feel stuck. They solved the money problem but never built the life architecture.

The correct path looks like this: take a sabbatical or negotiate a major step-down, test life outside the machine, rebuild health, date seriously, find real community, and design the next chapter before nuking income permanently. At his numbers, he can afford that. He does not need permission from the job anymore.

The harsh truth: if $3.5M at 34 is not enough to stop destroying your life, then the problem is no longer money. The problem is fear, identity, and addiction to the scoreboard.

Final compression: he made it financially.

Now he has to prove he can stop.

That is often harder than getting rich.

[John Freeman @thejohnfreeman]

@CarlRigson @xwanyex What does this have to do with that? The friction here is for developers building what customers want. The friction was placed there by communists who think they can centrally plan everything. You're giving the communists what they want.

[John Freeman @thejohnfreeman]

@xwanyex Yes, I do.

[John Freeman @thejohnfreeman]

@NH_Ranger @MattMorseTV You live in a fantasy. Large insurers spend 85% of their premiums on health care. At most, insurance is responsible for 15% of costs. They have incentive to keep costs down so they can compete on price.

[John Freeman @thejohnfreeman]

@ChrisMartzWX This is outside your wheelhouse. It sounds like you haven't even begun to model changes in "non-essential" consumption that would be triggered by a massive tax hike. Much easier to evade than property tax.

[John Freeman @thejohnfreeman]

@nypost What the fuck is this?

[John Freeman @thejohnfreeman]

In ten years, people who think this is bad now will be saying "artificial intelligence is a human right".

[Vivek Sen @Vivek4real_]

SAM ALTMAN: “WE SEE A FUTURE WHERE INTELLIGENCE IS A UTILITY, LIKE ELECTRICITY OR WATER, AND PEOPLE BUY IT FROM US ON A METER.”

[John Freeman @thejohnfreeman]

@malonebarry @Marco20307855 Lazy response with no substance.