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Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
31–40 of 104 posts
Re: Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
#32All these "NO" answers haha... makes sense why there are record layoffs and zombie/dead startups. I think Claude Code will save many small businesses.
What do you mean? The layoffs have nothing to do with people loving their jobs or being loyal to their employers.
Re: Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
#33Unfortunately my wife has a terminal illness, and while $10m would be quite a lot, when facing the bills of ALS without proper health insurance, that could run out very quickly. With $10m, I'd work, but do all of the things that I don't have the guts to ask for now: Go fully remote all the time (something that I'll likely have to do within the next few years to be a partial caretaker). When the bad times come, which they will, if I had $10m in the bank I'd walk away from the job and focus entirely on being the most present father that I can be.
Over the last couple years of her illness, I've become the sole caretaker of our young kids, and it's changed me dramatically. Being a parent can be exhausting, and I've always loved it, but I also loved logging into work and doing productive things, contributing to (what I thought were) important software projects, and working with my colleagues. I always loved the camaraderie of the work place and my colleagues. That's shifted entirely in the last 2 years. Other than the paycheck to maintain my kids' quality of life, other than the health insurance that we're now inextricably tethered to (something that I never had an appreciation for as a young, relatively healthy single or married-but-no-kids person), I just don't care about anything at work other than doing what I have to do to maintain those things.
Re: Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
#34All these "NO" answers haha... makes sense why there are record layoffs and zombie/dead startups. I think Claude Code will save many small businesses.
Is it really that surprising that a vast majority of people don't work a job that is not better than doing whatever they want whenever they want?
Re: Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
#35If you live in a modern 1st world country and have a family, at least 1 child or some old relatives and at least minimal ambition to eat good food and have okay level of life - 10M is not much at all. It’ll get you okayish to allright property (depending on the region), will cover all basic expenses and (if you don’t have anyone with serious illness or financial problems) some non basic ones. For up to 10 years max.…
This makes no sense. By this logic, anyone spending less than 1M per year only has an "okayish" lifestyle.
Re: Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
#36Would I keep showing up to the job I had in 2015? Yes, not forever, but at least for a time. It was enjoyable socially and practicing the craft is enjoyable. At jobs like that, the ability to enjoy the craft outweighed the downsides of having to manage a job/career.
Would I keep showing up to the most recent job I had? Or seek out a job in what the market has become, or take a job in what the field has become? And what has become of the craft? Absolutely not. I retired with much less money than $10m, my living expenses are low.
Re: Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
#37I would quit my job and start my own freelance consulting business. No doubt my employer would hire me and I could escape the internal bureaucracy I have to deal with. Probably do part time as well.
Re: Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
#38If you live in a modern 1st world country and have a family, at least 1 child or some old relatives and at least minimal ambition to eat good food and have okay level of life - 10M is not much at all. It’ll get you okayish to allright property (depending on the region), will cover all basic expenses and (if you don’t have anyone with serious illness or financial problems) some non basic ones. For up to 10 years max.…
10 million earning 4% is 400k per year. That's a good bay area salary.
Re: Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
#39All these "NO" answers haha... makes sense why there are record layoffs and zombie/dead startups. I think Claude Code will save many small businesses.
What do you mean? The layoffs have nothing to do with people loving their jobs or being loyal to their employers.
I just mean people are just not excited about tech as they used to be.
I would expect, out of all the sites on the Internet, that people would say something like trying to lead some initiative that they never had the courage to do so before leaving the company if given no opportunity for the love of the industry.
Most of my neighbors who have well more than $10M in the bank (Tesla stock, houses, cash, etc.) and they all work because they enjoy it. The younger neighbors quit and just sit around doing nothing but collecting rent money from houses.
But of course, the only constant in life is that things will change. It isn't that surprising I suppose.
Re: Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
#40Not an easy question to answer.
On one hand I really like my job and get treated well and like being part of something bigger than myself. On the other hand it would be attractive to spend more time working on some ideas I have.