<p>HarvestMoon1 </p>
<p>How so? I admit we got off on a bit of a tangent. It’s still somewhat related though. </p>
<p>But, still. You asked what else to “bring to the table”. So I answered. </p>
<p>I think I have had my entertainment for the evening.</p>
<p>What is even the point of that argument? Sure, you might fall in love with somebody rich. You might also fall in love with someone poor - so poor that all their lives they will be spending money to help out their family members, thus resulting in lower net worth than they would otherwise have. Would you reject someone you loved for that reason? If so, you’re just as bad as a fortune-hunter.</p>
<p>@ poetgrl </p>
<p>You are right. Happiness is more based off of interpersonal relationships than wealth. Even so, there is a diminishing return with excess money.</p>
<p>But that isn’t to say that having more money doesn’t allow for more fun. Having millions means going on exciting trips all the time. Maybe true happiness doesn’t increase my much. But the excitment factor of life certainly does. </p>
<p>Here’s my opinion on the matter. Women exclude very short men. Men exclude ugly women. That is considered ok because it is normal? That is far worse than deciding to go for a rich partner.</p>
<p>No, excluding short and ugly potential partners is NOT okay. Your moral code needs some help.</p>
<p>@dusty pig</p>
<p>I would never reject someone I loved if we suddenly became poor. That goes without saying.</p>
<p>But for potential dating prospects, who of which I know nothing about? Sure, I’d go for looks and wealth. </p>
<p>If don’t have much to go off of, then might as well go off the superfical things. What else can I do before a first date. I would hardly even know the person. </p>
<p>That is the cruel fact of life. </p>
<p>Dusty Pig</p>
<p>so basically in a crowd of random strangers, I’m just going to pick a random one and ask them out? </p>
<p>It’s the first date! Of course you’d base it off of superficial factors because you don’t even know the person in the first place. </p>
<p>Actually FrancisBacon, if you are going by evolution, women favor wealthy men and men favor beauty. Hence the number of intensely ugly rich guys with gorgeous wives.</p>
<p>I can’t believe I’m giving dating advice, but no, what you’re going to do is get to know someone by actually talking to them before you ask them out. What do you think dating is like, anyway?</p>
<p>Poetgrl</p>
<p>While that holds true. It isn’t a perfect correlation. </p>
<p>Many women are also into good looks. Ever seen the Twightlight movies? </p>
<p>Men can also be into women with wealth. I can already name a handful of men that married upwards. </p>
<p>Why wouldn’t that happen? They are from the same university, hence they have things in common, despite a gap in wealth. </p>
<p>It’s not like the men that are marrying upwards are garbage men with no education. In that case, the wealthier women can’t even relate to the garbage men. </p>
<p>But men from the same university, with the same education, political and social outlook, you’d bet they’d be able to relate to each other. Then they become friends. Eventually, they might date. It’s that simple. </p>
<p>dustypig</p>
<p>I was talking about situations in parties and night clubs.</p>
<p>In social situations, it’s still hard to get to know someone completely. For example, I dated someone based off their “personality” within my group of friends. </p>
<p>Boy, that was a mistake. Their real personality is very much different. </p>
<p>It’s hard to judge among friends. Yes, I do weigh their “personality”, but since it’s likely a mask, I would also consider other things like looks. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The Internet has made it easy to start a company/website/app without significant connections, wealth, capital, etc; and those creations can be quite valuable. For example, a few years ago I started a website as a hobby. Starting the site didn’t require any connections. It also didn’t require significant capital. My initial hosting fees were only ~$8 per month. I programmed it myself, so there were no initial employee expenses. I wouldn’t even say it required working hard since I worked on the site as a hobby in my free time while also holding a full time job. I also didn’t have any advertising or SEO expenses. Instead I mentioned the site on a couple related forums where I was a known poster. Many took note of it, including some well known site owners in the field who linked to it, leading to a high search engine results. Within a few months, the site had become quite popular, and I was making many times more income through the hobby website than I was making through my day job in engineering. I’m sure you’ve heard may similar stories. An unconnected kid makes a popular app or website, then the product is worth a huge amount a few years later. While connections help, there are many ways to become wealthy without connections.</p>
<p>That said, while my college connections did not have anything to do with my website. I probably would not have started the website had I not gone to Stanford and been inspired by things like hearing many similar success stories, being in a program that fostered tech entrepreneurship, getting to meet one of the founders of Yahoo and hearing about his experiences, etc.</p>
<p>To the OP:
When you get older, you’ll discover that what you earn is worth more than what you get.</p>
<p>Or maybe not, since you’re envious of some guy marrying rich. I myself would rather make my own wealth than covet that of others.</p>
<p>@ Data10</p>
<p>Interesting. Yes, that is another way to get rich. But that requires something far more special than hard work or connections. It requires pure creativity.</p>
<p>I’m not a visionary. I don’t have a magic hat to pull grand ideas out of. </p>
<p>I have to rely on tried and true methods of making it big. Methods that have been used many times, so that I can at least observe and analyze a clear pattern. </p>
<p>Making connections, learning from them, employing sound business strategies, and ultilizing resources from said connects are all tried and true; successful people have been doing this for centuries. </p>
<p>Still, didn’t you make some friends with some very valuable advice? Like that Yahoo founder? I could easily see that as an opportunity to ask questions on creative input or whatnot. </p>
<p>@ purple titan</p>
<p>What I get though my planning is what I earn.</p>
<p>Taking the initiative to make connections entitles me to say that I truly earned all benefits that are a direct result of initiating such connections.</p>
<p>After all, making the right connections is not an easy game. </p>
<p>@Data10 What type of website was it that enabled you to generate that much more income? I thought usually successful websites have entire teams developing them, not a lone programmer.</p>
<p>Did you invent anything new? Or was it a business/application idea got everyone interested? </p>
<p>
Different types of websites require different numbers of development and operating staff. For example, consider the College Confidential website. Non-forum content does not appear to be updated frequently, so I wouldn’t expect that it takes a large team of programmers to maintain the site (aside from the forum moderators). I also wouldn’t expect that a large team was required for the development of the the initial site. Nevertheless, CC is a very popular site that gets a lot of traffic. Note that I am unfamiliar with CC’s history and may be completely wrong about development/maintenance team sizes.</p>
<p>For privacy, I won’t go into a lot of specifics about the website and will instead give non-specific summaries. I started the site about a hobby that I was quite passionate about at the time. The site emphasizes mathematical and logical analysis that I had used to be successful in the hobby. Today the site has hundreds of pages including various interactive tools, as well as communication between site members. In my biased opinion, the site was the best of its type and had some new and useful content, some of which had nothing similar elsewhere on the web. Initially I did everything myself, gradually adding and improving content each week, but spending few hours per week on the site in total. As time went on, I hired others that had specialty abilities, such as graphic design or specialty types of programming. Others also contacted me to assist with the affiliate and financial side, for a commission.</p>
<p>I’m sure I could have expanded the website rapidly with a development team and investment capital, and I probably would have had a much higher income. However, I’ve never tried to maximize income through the website and instead treated it more like a hobby. Ironically I think this is one of the main reasons for the site’s initial popularity – a focus on honest, accurate, and quality information; rather than a focus on content that leads to the largest immediate advertisement or immediate commission income.</p>
<p>So…FRancisBacon…what college would YOU suggest to meet this wealthy spouse? </p>
<p>And welcome BACK to CC.</p>
<p>This thread is hilarious.</p>
<p>OP, people here “chance” others for college choices based on their stats and qualifications. Would you like us to chance you for marrying a rich girl (i.e., how best to position yourself for success) and offering advice on prenups, marital property rights, and so on? Many of us would be happy to do so.</p>