Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 1001 posts

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#101

Post by grogenaut »

compiler-guy wrote: post #93
ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Terrible advice. The FAANGs are highly competitive and people are eventually going to notice that this individual is not at the average job level they should be at relative to their years at the company. That will eventually make internal transfers very difficult (yes, hiring managers do check for duds for internal transfers) and motivate their management chain to wash this person out of the company as good attrition…

One promotion means he is L4 minimum, which is now the level which Google no longer requires you to move up. As long as he is getting "meets expectations" with the occasional "exceeds" every three cycles or so, he will be able to coast at the big G for a long time.

Sure but how do you do that without becoming depressed or very angry? I know a few people who can.

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#102

Post by not_kurt_godel »

wayoutthere wrote: post #87
booleandilemma wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Software engineering just isn't that hard. Tedious yes, but not remotely difficult. Come back and say this after you’ve had to fix concurrency bugs or had to maintain some overseas contractor’s terrible codebase with no documentation.

I have; I was a software engineer for over a decade before I moved up through architecture and laterally into product. Those problems are tedious. Not difficult.

While I agree that there are parts of software engineering that are merely 'tedious' rather than 'hard', there are definitely parts that are legitimately 'hard' too. Just because you've had a particular set of experiences that you've classified as tedious doesn't mean your perspective represents the totality of the industry.

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#103

Post by sab24 »

khamba wrote: post #40
sjg007 wrote: post #38

If I were you, before I would do anything, I would first go to therapy and work with a therapist. That or pick up a good CBT book. To me, it sounds like you have a lot of questions to resolve first. I would do that before you change anything. For example why do you think you are doing a minimal amount of work and does that actually mesh with reality? How do you define and measure work output anyway? You mention deali…

Could you recommend a good CBT book?

Feeling Good by David Burns is a truly excellent book. Although published in the 80's it is still very relevant and useful.

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#105

Post by combatentropy »

How can you keep yourself accountable? What motivates me is to focus on the other, instead of on myself.

If you're doing the minimal amount of work, does that mean that the users are suffering? If you had put in more effort, would they be able to get more out of your software with less effort? The drive to make the best experience for my users motivates me to learn everything I can about design.

What about your fellow programmers? Does anyone else have to deal with the code you wrote? If so, is your code sloppier or harder to maintain than you could have made it, had you put in more than 10%? The drive to make code a joy to work on, for others and myself, motivates me to learn.

What about Google? Are they getting their money's worth out of you? This is a bit harder to sympathize with, being that now we're talking about a rich company instead of particular people. But think of it as a test of your honesty. Did you agree to work a certain number of hours but are really working a fraction thereof? Don't get me wrong, no one that I know can code for 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year, without burning out. But I think your managers, if they understand programming, expect some reasonable fraction of your day to spent working hard, doing your best, etc.

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#106

Post by Balgair »

jboggan wrote: post #5

If you can not only survive at Google but slack along well enough to get promoted once on "10% of your mental capacity" I'd stay right where you are. You aren't going to find a better place to earn money for equivalent effort and it sounds like you've already adapted to the ecosystem. Sounds like you need an interesting side project or just a meaningful hobby. Don't go looking for the missing sense of fulfillment you…

> Crack some classic literature and take some long walks, figure out what you haven't been doing.

I'll plug a great New Years Resolution I did last year (2019) that really helped me: The Harvard Classics.

https://www.myharvardclassics.com/categories/20120612_1

It's very old stuff (pre-WW1), but a fantastic guided dive into the Western Cannon. It was SOOO worth it to me at only ~15 minutes a day of reading. You can jump in at any time, readings are not connected. Today's (Jan 5) reading on Mazzini still sticks with me a year later. I didn't pay for it, I just downloaded all the volumes and read those, but I should have paid for it, it was that worth it to me in 2019.

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#107

Post by combatentropy »

khamba wrote: post #40
sjg007 wrote: post #38

If I were you, before I would do anything, I would first go to therapy and work with a therapist. That or pick up a good CBT book. To me, it sounds like you have a lot of questions to resolve first. I would do that before you change anything. For example why do you think you are doing a minimal amount of work and does that actually mesh with reality? How do you define and measure work output anyway? You mention deali…

Could you recommend a good CBT book?

I like Chris Thurman's books, like The Lies We Believe.

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#108

Post by alamaslah »

yazaddaruvala wrote: post #74
sjg007 wrote: post #38

If I were you, before I would do anything, I would first go to therapy and work with a therapist. That or pick up a good CBT book. To me, it sounds like you have a lot of questions to resolve first. I would do that before you change anything. For example why do you think you are doing a minimal amount of work and does that actually mesh with reality? How do you define and measure work output anyway? You mention deali…

This is a great answer. I was going to say something very similar, but rather than a therapist, I’d recommend meditation! Talking to yourself about yourself and seriously debugging, can be a lot of effort but long term, it is very rewarding. I always say to people, “Emotions and intuition are just a complicated set of logic you don’t understand yet”. Emotions can be a fog in your mind, blocking you from seeing the pa…

I like how on hacker news every personal problem can be solved by three activities; Therapy, Meditation, and...Salsa!

It's probably good advice. Although, I like to combine all three by doing painting and poetry. These activities might be better suited to some hackers.

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#109

Post by [deleted] »

alamaslah wrote: post #108
yazaddaruvala wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great answer. I was going to say something very similar, but rather than a therapist, I’d recommend meditation! Talking to yourself about yourself and seriously debugging, can be a lot of effort but long term, it is very rewarding. I always say to people, “Emotions and intuition are just a complicated set of logic you don’t understand yet”. Emotions can be a fog in your mind, blocking you from seeing the pa…

I like how on hacker news every personal problem can be solved by three activities; Therapy, Meditation, and...Salsa! It's probably good advice. Although, I like to combine all three by doing painting and poetry. These activities might be better suited to some hackers.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#110

Post by sjg007 »

yazaddaruvala wrote: post #74
sjg007 wrote: post #38

If I were you, before I would do anything, I would first go to therapy and work with a therapist. That or pick up a good CBT book. To me, it sounds like you have a lot of questions to resolve first. I would do that before you change anything. For example why do you think you are doing a minimal amount of work and does that actually mesh with reality? How do you define and measure work output anyway? You mention deali…

This is a great answer. I was going to say something very similar, but rather than a therapist, I’d recommend meditation! Talking to yourself about yourself and seriously debugging, can be a lot of effort but long term, it is very rewarding. I always say to people, “Emotions and intuition are just a complicated set of logic you don’t understand yet”. Emotions can be a fog in your mind, blocking you from seeing the pa…

The root cause of your emotions are your thoughts.
Post reply on HN