Yup, a restatement of "going into debt for luxuries is bad." I think I was less impacted by the article because I've run into this concept a lot before... I can think of basic economics, conversations with parents, and the book Nickeled and Dimed.

Which makes the question interesting: why did the essay resonate so much with you? Have you not run into the concepts much? Have you been in situations where you could have put this into practice, or have you not really?

I prefer the simple heuristic: keep your standard of living a raise behind you.

I would note that Brandyn also made a name for himself by publishing the details of an impressively simple algorithm on his website that made a ~4-5% improvement in the NetflixPrize, which contributed to hooking\bootstrapping a lot of amateurs into that contest.

I spent an afternoon reading essentially the entirety of his old blog posts after discovering the above, and it was rewarding for me. He could be a centroid in the LW cluster.

It's intriguing, but I'd like a general principle for what a person needs to give up in order to be more effective.

I think this one is great too. Also check this video.