Poor in Tech
&quot;Three paychecks is a month and a half of income (rent and two car payments by my fevered calculations, which never stop)&quot;<p>Pay attention to those last three words. This is very important. I&#x27;ve been on both sides too, and to me those words are like a slap in the face: stark reality.<p>If you&#x27;re poor enough (relative to the costs of your life) you are at a constant exhausting deficit because you CANNOT stop calculating and recalculating the mechanisms of your basic survival. Even if you&#x27;re not juggling bills and having to gauge what will blow up worst, you&#x27;re projecting worst-case scenarios and trying to plan against adverse situations, which will come up more often for you (example: old car problems)<p>&quot;which never stop&quot;<p>Consider those words seriously. You can improve the quality and performance of a person a great deal by allowing them to function as they &#x27;normally&#x27; would, rather than in constant emergency mode.