Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't have to work? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't have to work?

#141

Post by newsoundwave » Tue, Jan 17, 2023, 1:07 PM UTC

ar_lan wrote: post #24

newsoundwave wrote: post #17

Me personally: I hiked the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mexico-California border to the Washington-Canada border in 2022. While I missed work on trail, it definitely made me realize that once I'm financially independent, I'm mostly going to be living a life outdoors, with occasional indoor time to play music. Your situation is a bit different from my goals, but honestly if I had that opportunity, I'd be doing my best…

I've always wanted to do this trail! How was it - honestly? I delved deep into one bagging a few years ago which brought me to ultralight groups/blogs, and this is the one trail that always just seems so... hard, but freaking cool.

I'm not going to say everything was perfect - sometimes it was miserable (mosquitoes, wildfires, close encounters with irresponsible hunters, etc). With that said, it's been more than 3 months since I've finished and not a day goes by when I don't think about it.

The people you meet out there are fantastic too. I'm fortunate enough to live in Colorado, where a bunch of us came from, and we hang out fairly frequently. We actually went for a hike yesterday that I wouldn't feel comfortable inviting just anybody on.

Re: Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't have to work?

#142

Post by newsoundwave » Tue, Jan 17, 2023, 1:07 PM UTC

trvrsalom wrote: post #55

newsoundwave wrote: post #17

Me personally: I hiked the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mexico-California border to the Washington-Canada border in 2022. While I missed work on trail, it definitely made me realize that once I'm financially independent, I'm mostly going to be living a life outdoors, with occasional indoor time to play music. Your situation is a bit different from my goals, but honestly if I had that opportunity, I'd be doing my best…

Hiking the PCT is absolutely a bucket list item. Sadly, the on-call part means I have to remain local. I'm definitely planing to explore though.

Yeah, I'm extremely lucky to work at a company where I could take an unpaid leave of absence and also I work with a great team that was happy to make sure my oncall shifts were covered until I got back.

Re: Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't have to work?

#143

Post by aynyc » Tue, Jan 17, 2023, 1:45 PM UTC

st4lz wrote: post #35

aynyc wrote: post #5

Besides getting myself into good shape. I would get a whole bunch of certifications that are related to your industry. HN doesn't like certifications, but boy, defense industry loves that stuff.

Which specific certifications would you recommend?

I'm out of defense for more than 2 decades now. Back then, MSCE, Java and Oracle were the rage. Just look up some job descriptions. They love the soft stuff like scrum master, agile, etc.. They need that check boxes for contracts.

Re: Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't have to work?

#144

Post by undopamine » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 4:45 AM UTC

Pretty much all the things I've scheduled otherwise, but at a much faster pace:

- Read textbooks cover-to-cover, which is difficult to prioritize otherwise.

- Catch up on my videogame backlog, do re-runs on my favorite games + aim for 100% completion

- Finish my reading list

- Clean my browser bookmarks + make a plan of action for those worth keeping

- Start my own content pipelines: Youtube, Twitter, blog, etc

- Brush-up my coding skills - solve problems, revisit theory

- Dig up the project ideas I jotted down casually - build one

- Practice silence, calm down the chaos in my mind

- Reduce my internet footprint: delete past data, update privacy settings

- Reduce cloud data - either consume+delete, or self-host on a home server

- Make conscious efforts to socialize - move out often, talk to strangers

- Setup a fitness regime, build the momentum at home followed by a gym schedule