My experience as an Australian work-holiday maker
I read Optimal Employment and decided to try a work-holiday in Australia. Several people have asked me how it's going, so here's my first take. I haven’t finished my work-holiday yet, but I want to provide this information now so that potential travelers can make a decision before the hiring season peaks next summer.
Alice Springs
I came to Alice Springs in late April, and secured a job at a fast-food immediately. They offered me $26/hr after super and penalties. I didn’t get many hours, but it was enough to cover expenses. I took the job so that I wouldn’t lose money while I was looking for a better job.
Finding better job proved tough. I quickly applied to all of the sit-down restaurants and bars in town, and they all said they preferred locals. I signed up for a couple of employment agencies, but they were concerned that I had didn’t have any experience serving alcohol. I borrowed a phonebook and called random business on the Plenty Highway and that didn’t work.
This continued for five weeks. I found this period stressful because I get anxious asking businesses if they’re hiring, and then I feel humiliated when they say they’re not. There were fun times: I toured Uluru and met cool people in the hostel. But in the back of my mind I was always stressed about finding a better job. After five weeks I was about to head south in search of fruit picking work. But then I saw a flyer.
Remote Australia
A gas-station/convenience store was looking for staff. It was a full-time job, with meals and accommodation costing $40/week. This was exactly what I was looking for! I called immediately and got the job because I was American and nobody else had called before me.
This job was pretty much everything Louie described in Optimal Employment. I had practically no expenses, no responsibilities, and free entertainment after hours. At any given time there were three backpackers (including myself) working there, and one would be switched out about every month. We played a lot of video games and ate a lot of barbeques. We also attended a concert and a rodeo. I saved a lot of money and had a lot of fun, but I was anxious to leave after six months.
Adelaide
Australia prohibits backpackers from working the same job for more than six months, so I had to leave. Around this time I discovered that I had distant relatives living in Victoria, and they wanted me over for Christmas. This left me only three weeks to work. I decided to look for fruit picking work, since I heard they’re more willing to employ backpackers for short periods.
I flew to Adelaide, but I cannot find any fruit picking work. And I hear there's very little in Victoria. I could go to West Australia, but even if I found a job over there, it hardly seems worth it to fly there, work for two weeks, and fly back to Victoria on Christmas Eve. So now I’ve got to fill up two weeks in South Australia or Victoria.
What’s next?
I had originally planned to work 88 days of fruit picking work, so that I could get a second working holiday visa next year. (Most Americans are NOT eligible to do this. I can because I’m half British.) But I’ve heard a lot of bad things about fruit picking, that it’s miserable work and that you make little money (or even negative money). And I’m 70% sure I don’t want to come back to Australia next year anyway. (I want to teach English in Shanghai). So the new plan is to spend Christmas in Victoria while applying to TEFL jobs, and then tour the east coast for a month. Then I’ll fly back to the states and hopefully start teaching English in March. In the meantime I will have to entertain myself Adelaide/Melbourne.
Is Optimal Employment accurate?
Pretty much. You’ll probably earn more money on the job than Louie estimates, because of penalty rates and an increasing minimum wage. And there’s a chance to hit jackpot: I met a LW lurker in Alice Springs who said she was banking $1000/wk after expenses working at Lasseters. Mining and fishing jobs are also lucrative if you can get them.
But there’s also a risk of not finding a job. It took me five weeks to find my remote area job, and I’ve met some backpackers who ran out of money and while looking for work. Immigration requires you to save up $5000 before you start your work-holiday; skirt that law at your peril.
Overall I’m pleased with my visit to Australia. Even if I though I’ll be bleeding money the next couple of months, I’ll still come back with a nice profit and wicked memories. If you’re young with a sense of adventure, you should definitely consider it. A lot of people want to visit Australia “someday”, but it gets more difficult when you’re older and have more commitments.
I’m planning to write another post with tips for working in Australia. Requests welcome!
Mitt Romney's $10,000 bet
For those who don't follow politics, Mitt Romney offered to bet Rick Perry $10,000 that Perry had misquoted Romney. (video)
Most political commenters see the move as a gaffe. They claim the bet made Romney look out of touch, because it reminded voters that Romney is rich enough to afford $10,000.
As a believer in prediction markets, I am disappointed in the public's reaction. Romney made a bold move by making his beliefs pay rent. Critics point out that $10,000 is "chump change" for Romney, but Romney still but himself at risk. If he had lost the bet, Perry could have made a production about cashing a $10,000 check from a disgraced Romney. Besides, if money were the issue, Perry could have countered with a non-monetary bet. "Loser has to attend the next debate in a clown suit" or something.
If politicians had to face real consequences every time they made a false statement, they would have a larger incentive to tell the truth. It's a shame Romney's bet probably won't catch on.
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This post is not an endorsement of Mitt Romney or his politics. All I am endorsing is political betting.
Are multiple uploads equivilant to extra life?
Suppose I have choice between the following:
A) One simulation of me is run for me 100 years, before being deleted.
B) Two identical simulations of me are run for 100 years, before being deleted.
Is the second choice preferable to the first? Should I be willing to pay more to have multiple copies of me simulated, even if those copies will have the exact same experiences?
Forgive me if this question has been answered before. I have Googled to no avail.
[Link] Dilbert author tries to try
Scott Adams, author of Dilbert, believes that trying to try is more effective than trying:
...my system is that I attempt to exercise five times a week around lunchtime. And I always allow myself the option of driving to the gym then turning around and going home. What I've discovered is that the routine of preparing to exercise usually inspires me to go through with it even if I didn't start out in the mood.[...]
If I had a goal instead of a system, I would have failed [when I didn't exercise]. And I would have felt like a loser. That can't be good for motivation. That failure might be enough to prevent me from going to the gym the next time I don't feel 100%, just to avoid the risk of another failure.
Regular Less Wrong readers will remember
But when we deal with humans, being satisfied with having a plan is not at all like being satisfied with success. The part where the plan has to maximize your probability of succeeding, gets lost along the way. It's far easier to convince ourselves that we are "maximizing our probability of succeeding", than it is to convince ourselves that we will succeed.
Almost any effort will serve to convince us that we have "tried our hardest", if trying our hardest is all we are trying to do.
Adams says the danger of trying is that you will fail in trying, which will bruise your self-esteem and cripple your motivation to try again. Yudkowsky says the danger of trying to try is that you will succeed in trying to try, leaving you too easily satisfied and unmotivated to actually do the thing you were trying to try to do.
Have any readers had success in trying to try?
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