On: An Average Guy Who Spent 6,000 Hours Trying to Be ...

[yakult]

You need access to expertise, equipment, grounds, peer competition. These all require money and/or connections.

[SamReidHughes → yakult]

Golf is cheap. You could spend $1000 on equipment, get a yearly pass for $2300 right outside Google HQ. Spend $50 or is it $100 to join the men's club -- they'd love for you to join -- and get your NCGA handicap. Done.

Read the greatest kung fu manual ever written, "Five Lessons" by Ben Hogan, or use some other book. I met one kid that modeled his swing off of YouTube videos and with that got himself to a scratch handicap.

The real cost is time.

[PhasmaFelis → SamReidHughes]

> Golf is cheap. You could spend $1000 on equipment, get a yearly pass for $2300 right outside Google HQ.

$3300 is not in any way "cheap" for the majority of Americans.

I like HN, but it's disheartening how many of my peers in tech seem to think that a West Coast programmer's salary is normal.

[SamReidHughes → PhasmaFelis]

It's cheaper than smoking. Edit: Well, depends on the accounting. The median U.S. income is $51K so by all means it's affordable. The main cost is time.

[randomdata → SamReidHughes]

Median household income is $50k. Median individual income is $30k, leaving the aforementioned year of golf taking about 10% of ones (median) income. That is a fairly large expense.

[SamReidHughes → randomdata]

If you're trying to go pro, 10% of income is nothing compared to the time investment. Like, it's an amount. But plenty of people get by on $27K.

[randomdata → SamReidHughes]

That's pre-tax income though. There will be some variation by location and situation, but if we say post-tax is $24k that does not even leave $21k.

That is not a lot to live on. And, since we're talking about the median, 50% of the earning population are going to be left with even less than that.

[SamReidHughes → randomdata]

Even then you're talking a cost for something you'd be devoting most of your free time to doing. You don't have to do it in California.

[akvadrako → PhasmaFelis]

It's cheap compared to 6000 hours, unless you make under 10 dollars per day.

[et-al → PhasmaFelis]

West Coast programmer who feels adequately compensated here and $3300 ain't cheap for me, either. At $275/month, that's more than my current grocery budget for a single person.

[pja → SamReidHughes]

Golf is cheap.

Hmm. You could say much the same about tennis, surely?

I suspect the biggest cost at the top level is coaching time: Is it possible to get good enough to match the elite players without access to a coach who is good enough to train players at that level?

[SamReidHughes → pja]

It's possible. Bubba Watson did it.