151–160 of 292 posts
At the end of the day, it's just a fucking job. If you need the money I understand the envy, and I've been there. But ultimately most of us are working really hard to make other people rich. Being really good at that game (and it's a pretty bitter game) isn't something to be envious of. I have never seen a high paying job in tech that wasn't ALSO higher stress and generally more hours. I'm sure exceptions exist, but…
I'm not envious of people like that - they are still corporate slaves, working on other people's ideas, trading all their time for a little bit of extra money. The praise/acclaim they are getting is so bosses/society can exploit them better. The difference between $80k or $200k salary makes almost no difference in quality of life. The $200k dev is often more stressed and not as happy as they look on the outside. Most…
I don’t think the journey is more important than the end here. “The end” is being happy. If you can simply exist and be happy, that’s going to be more satisfying than aggressively pursuing the path you believe leads to happiness.
Looking at happy people and telling yourself it’s a facade is a really bad idea.
In most cases, you probably have no real idea what is involved in their so-called success. Sometimes it's mostly hype and hot air. Theranos was valued at $10 billion. It dropped to basically zero overnight. Now the founder is set to be prosecuted on criminal charges. Other times, sure, their success is real -- and comes at the cost of divorce, chronic drug use to manage consequent health issues etc. Rich and famous p…
Yeah, they can run marathons and got into a DL team at Google and got 2350s on their SATs and made a million in crypto, what of it? I’m very skeptical that the people better than me aren’t better than me for a darn good reason.
As a late professional bloomer in corporate America/megacorp tech and someone without a traditional CS education background I struggle with this a lot. But in the moment of envy it comes down to what your personal goals are and if you are reaching them. Personally, when I see others flying high I wonder how many long hours and weekends they have put in for that 10-20% extra they might be making. When others get more…
We’re talking about the difference between an engineer approaching forty at an ordinary company earning a little over $100k versus someone ten years younger at a FAANGMI earning $250k+. There are a lot of people in the former group who would happily give up a few weekends and put up with more stress to be a part of the latter group.
I experience 0 professional envy. If I see someone who happens to be younger and more successful, it only inspires me. It makes me me want to be friends with that person so that maybe the qualities that made them succeed will rub off on me.
Doing well is the best revenge. When you find yourself seething take ten minutes and do some career development, pick something to study that you're weak in and funnel that non productive time into your future success
Jordan B. Peterson writes in “12 Rules for Life - an antidote to chaos” that you should “compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today”
The same Jordan B Peterson who asked "Is it possible that young women are so outraged because they are craving infant contact in a society that makes that very difficult?" -Jordan Peterson, infant craver Who denies women have been systematically oppressed: "The idea that women were oppressed throughout history is an appalling theory." -Jordan Peterson, history understander Who claims to be a champion free speech, yet…
sure. I'm no big fan, but don't color good advice bad when it comes from the wrong person.
All his quote is advocating for is self-reference and relativity with regards to self improvement.
It's sort of like quoting Mark Twain. 4/5 people will enjoy the quote, that last person will bring up what a tyrannical bigoted racist he was. (opinion theirs)
The reality is that people who aren't necessarily great themselves can bring wisdom to our attention. Just because it was THEM that had the idea, or at least the ability to bring that idea to words, doesn't invalidate the idea.
I learned a few really good things from this, like, said friend is completely open about the things that he doesn't know. He doesn't hide or bluff his lack of knowledge, he went 'so far' as to google something in front of me that he didn't know. I realised this was a factor to some degree of attitude, upbringing, and socialization. I adopted it and I honestly have learned much more than I would have otherwise.
The other aspect of it is of course, I've taken a different career path than him. We have different sets of knowledge (even though I think if he took the time in about six months he could probably be up to my level in my path).
It's a manner of attitude, rather than anything else
At the end of the day, it's just a fucking job. If you need the money I understand the envy, and I've been there. But ultimately most of us are working really hard to make other people rich. Being really good at that game (and it's a pretty bitter game) isn't something to be envious of. I have never seen a high paying job in tech that wasn't ALSO higher stress and generally more hours. I'm sure exceptions exist, but…
Strangely while Facebook, Amazon, Netflix Google haven't been invented, Apple is here. Also strangely me too, but with long dark brown hair instead grey.
Like today Apple and a bunch of other high status companies are highly sought after employers of note. And just like today overwork and burnout their highly skilled workers and then toss them out like yesterdays trash.
Work for Apple, Microsoft, IBM and Intel they said. Make a name for yourself. Work on stuff other people think is exciting they said. Nope I said. And I've been happy enough over the last 35 years doing stuff no one else really cares about for companies and clients no one's ever heard of.
End of the day, No Name Corps money is just as good as Googles and Apples. Sure there is less of it. But the difference you paying for with lack of control and stress.
Edit: There's always someone faster, slower, richer, poorer, healthier, and sicker than you.
If there is one thing growing up in the bay area has taught me it's this.
I've yet to meet someone I would trade places with. If they're smarter than me, maybe they make less money. If they're richer than me, and smarter, maybe I don't care for their spouse. Or they're in bad physical shape, or they're neurotic and difficult to be around. If all else fails, you can consider how many people have it worse than you, and how, even if you had it worse, it would still be ok. Until a man is twent…
That’s an interesting thought that I’ve never personally had. I know dozens of people whose lives I’d rather have.