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Ask HN: What has your work taught you that other people don't realize?

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Re: Ask HN: What has your work taught you that other people don't realize?

#131

Post by thdrdt »

When you are an employee at a job you don't like, but you keep staying because you think you are irreplacable, you worry about your colleagues, or for whatever reason: just leave.

The only reason you stay is a feeling of responsibility.

But you are not responsible for the company or it's employees.

You are responsible for your own life and your family.

Re: Ask HN: What has your work taught you that other people don't realize?

#132

Post by mkolodny »

When you talk about about a big company, you're really talking about thousands of individuals. Each with their own goals and values.

When a big company does something wrong, often it's just one to five of those thousands of people who did something wrong.

Hatred for a big company is very similar to racism. Some of the people who work at a big company may fit the profile you imagine. But many of them don't. Sometimes the large majority.

Re: Ask HN: What has your work taught you that other people don't realize?

#133

Post by throwaway8291 »

Antoninus wrote: post #96

I'm a developer like many people here. One thing that people who don't program don't realize is that its a laborious job. It seems like its a fun job with lots of 'hanging out' but its more like 4-5 hours a day / 5 days week looking at a text editor and a terminal trying to focus and not be distracted. At the end of the day, I'm exhausted

Related to that: On many people's mental maps, programming seems to be closeby other things like installing a driver, changing configuration and such. That it is an powerful tool for anything that you do with your mind completely escapes the bystanders.

Re: Ask HN: What has your work taught you that other people don't realize?

#134

Post by ipnon »

jeffshek wrote: post #34

If you can prevent being cynical and take that effort into doing actual work, your skillsets quickly compound. If the job sucks, take your improved skillset elsewhere. But do not sit idly and complain - it does nothing, hurts your career, your colleagues and your life.

You can think of bad jobs as an opportunity to learn how to be effective in dysfunctional environments.

Re: Ask HN: What has your work taught you that other people don't realize?

#135

Post by axegon »

That agile-let's-hold-hands-together-and-sing type of development is total and utter crap which doesn't improve the workflow in any way and simply acts as a shield from the management for everyone that loves to slack about and is scared of taking even minor decisions.

Re: Ask HN: What has your work taught you that other people don't realize?

#136

Post by daliusd »

joseph2342 wrote: post #97
timeattack wrote: post #67

Kind of obvious one, but I wish more people knew that — critical thinking. On the one side it helps to avoid bad/stupid things in life: quackery medicine, scammers, bad investments, etc. On the other side it allows to peep deeper into things and see more choices even in ordinary life. After some practice you gain nearly magical ability to peel couple of additional layers from reality and to see non-obvious things eve…

Any Book recommendations ?

"Thinking, Fast and Slow" might be good here.

Re: Ask HN: What has your work taught you that other people don't realize?

#137

Post by Waterluvian »

Life is fleeting. Most of us here are 1/3 or more of the way done. Divest yourself as much as possible from your job. Find other sources of identity. You don't need that fancy car or to buy a boat as much as you need that ejector seat savings account.

And when you realise that conditions have evolved to a point where you're not having fun anymore (and they always eventually do), eject yourself and go spend far more time with family, friends and your other sources of identity.

Everyone _wildly_ undervalues their time.

Re: Ask HN: What has your work taught you that other people don't realize?

#138

Post by arethuza »

joseph2342 wrote: post #97
timeattack wrote: post #67

Kind of obvious one, but I wish more people knew that — critical thinking. On the one side it helps to avoid bad/stupid things in life: quackery medicine, scammers, bad investments, etc. On the other side it allows to peep deeper into things and see more choices even in ordinary life. After some practice you gain nearly magical ability to peel couple of additional layers from reality and to see non-obvious things eve…

Any Book recommendations ?

Carl Sagan's excellent The Demon-Haunted World includes a "Baloney detection kit":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demon-Haunted_World

Re: Ask HN: What has your work taught you that other people don't realize?

#139

Post by demonshreder »

joseph2342 wrote: post #97
timeattack wrote: post #67

Kind of obvious one, but I wish more people knew that — critical thinking. On the one side it helps to avoid bad/stupid things in life: quackery medicine, scammers, bad investments, etc. On the other side it allows to peep deeper into things and see more choices even in ordinary life. After some practice you gain nearly magical ability to peel couple of additional layers from reality and to see non-obvious things eve…

Any Book recommendations ?

Checkout Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast & Slow - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqXVAo7dVRU

https://paulminors.com/blog/thinking-fast-slow-book-summary-...

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