Gyroscopic Investing

europeanwizard wrote: ↑Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:47 am That's a good one, and certainly puts things in perspective.

What I always found weird, is that it may never really concern you. A couple of years ago, I quit my job and started subcontracting in IT. Before I started however, I asked experienced freelancers: "how hard were you hit in the 2009 recession".

I had to rephrase that, and ask "do you know other freelancers who didn't have a project in 2009"? People knew at most one other freelancer who didn't have a project for up to three months.

In a recession, there are whole parts of the industry that simply don't notice anything (teachers, government, semi-government), some that notice a little bit (tech freelancers) and some that get hit hard (like the hospitality sector right now). It's completely lobsided, and back then, it was a bit of a revelation to me.

europeanwizard wrote: ↑Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:47 am What I always found weird, is that it may never really concern you. A couple of years ago, I quit my job and started subcontracting in IT. Before I started however, I asked experienced freelancers: "how hard were you hit in the 2009 recession".

I had to rephrase that, and ask "do you know other freelancers who didn't have a project in 2009"? People knew at most one other freelancer who didn't have a project for up to three months.

In a recession, there are whole parts of the industry that simply don't notice anything (teachers, government, semi-government), some that notice a little bit (tech freelancers) and some that get hit hard (like the hospitality sector right now). It's completely lobsided, and back then, it was a bit of a revelation to me.