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Ask HN: Have you ever felt trapped?

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Re: Ask HN: Have you ever felt trapped?

#21

I find that having a 163 IQ generally helps -- people in this bracket generally don't have such problems because they can easily reason out of their current situation. I can empathize with people who can't, though, but it's definitely a mental state.

Clearly, because every human problem is a problem of reasoning.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever felt trapped?

#22

I find that having a 163 IQ generally helps -- people in this bracket generally don't have such problems because they can easily reason out of their current situation. I can empathize with people who can't, though, but it's definitely a mental state.

Being smart often doesn't correlate with being able to relate well to other people, and in the end, other people are what give you options, not really reasoning. You need to be valuable to other people, which requires empathy and an element of salesmanship at the very least.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever felt trapped?

#23

I find that having a 163 IQ generally helps -- people in this bracket generally don't have such problems because they can easily reason out of their current situation. I can empathize with people who can't, though, but it's definitely a mental state.

Really? The happiest man I ever knew was a plant maintanenance guy with a GED who couldn't have been more than a 90.

The most miserable guy I ever knew had a PhD and was for sure a "genius" at 160+.

Sure it's just anecdata, but sometimes "try not to think so much" seems like good advice.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever felt trapped?

#24
post #16

I find that having a 163 IQ generally helps -- people in this bracket generally don't have such problems because they can easily reason out of their current situation. I can empathize with people who can't, though, but it's definitely a mental state.

"Superior IQs are associated with mental and physical disorders, research suggests" It calls out mood and anxiety disorders, which might be a disadvantage in this situation. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bad-news-for-the-...

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever felt trapped?

#25
I used to work at a Series A funded biotech startup. I’d consulted for them for free for 2 years, then joined full time after they got the funding, then it all fell to pieces. Investor pressure led to CEO putting huge pressure on team, and (along with many others) I cracked and left.

Fallback option was to help my best friend from school to build a tech startup. We lived on opposite sides of the Atlantic but we’d talked about this during my last few months at the biotech and we figured it’d work. It was being built with Ruby on Rails which I hadn’t touched - last time I did any web development was 6 years ago with LAMP - but I was excited to get back into tech and learn.

When I started working on this new startup, it went wrong very quickly. I was working from home and quickly felt isolated and sad. I noticed that my anxiety levels were shooting through the roof. I felt I wasn’t learning RoR anywhere near quickly enough to get to grips with our core business problem (which was to build a new search engine for technical staff). And since I was working with my friend, who had literally busted his arse for a year to raise funding for us, I felt utterly trapped. My head was telling me to get the hell out and take a long long break to destress. But that would totally wreck his business opportunity - his funding was contingent on having a tech team (me) ready to go immediately.

Eventually I did quit. I found myself utterly helpless and reliant on my wife’s income for the first time. I was now relegated to stay at home dad status, which I’d done everything to avoid as my career had always been important to me. That was rock bottom. In real terms it could have been much worse, but mentally that’s about as low and trapped as I’ve ever been, and I honestly didn’t think I’d ever find a way back into any meaningful career.

Long story short - I took a year out to spend with my kid. Wife got a one year transfer to London, which was an amazing blessing in disguise because it was a tonne of fun to explore the city with my kid. Finally inched back into tech, did two boot camps, rediscovered my love of coding, got a job, and gradually got back on track. It’s taken 5 years and is in many ways an ongoing process, but I did manage to get out of that trapped situation.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever felt trapped?

#26

I find that having a 163 IQ generally helps -- people in this bracket generally don't have such problems because they can easily reason out of their current situation. I can empathize with people who can't, though, but it's definitely a mental state.

My iq has been measured at 158 and I have definitely felt trapped before. Sure I "reasoned out" of these situations eventually, but I suspect most do. Do you suppose there are people who really find themselves trapped forever?

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever felt trapped?

#27

While acknowledging the "first world problems" nature of this, post acquisition handcuffs were really difficult for me. I was bored, underleveled, and overpaid. It took me a long time to leave because I feel that taking a pay cut was doing a disservice to my children. I definitely felt trapped. I ended up leaving a chunk of money on the table for something more fulfilling. Things worked out. I'm poorer than I would b…

Do you ever wonder if you should have, instead, pursued something on the side or maybe enjoy other aspects of your life, rather than make your job your primary source of fulfillment? I'm in a similar situation.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever felt trapped?

#28
I've been trying to leave my company for the past year but 6 months ago I had a severe concussion at work. I was put on medical leave. It's been 6 months now though since I'm on medical leave I can't apply to anything. I also have been having trouble with my doctor. He doesn't do any test and just asks questions and doesn't even make eye contact with me. I have been trying to see a new doctor but I have to get approval from my works insurance but they keep going around it. I have been thinking about seeing a lawyer but I feel guilty about going because I have been with the company for a while and don't want to feel like a dick. But I'm sick of the pain and not being helped.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever felt trapped?

#29

Many years ago when I was no longer happy with my job I began to quietly search for a new one. My current job paid well but I had hit a wall and felt I was not going to make any progress on my career if I stayed there. I ended up getting an excellent offer for a job across the country that even included relocation expenses. I was thrilled and ready to put in my two weeks notice and pack it all up except when I went t…

That's pretty much the textbook definition of a shitty wife and a shitty person.

Why don't you do yourself a favor and find someone who will lift you up rather then drag you down?

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