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Ask HN: How to optimize your career for happiness?

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Re: Ask HN: How to optimize your career for happiness?

#331

Post by [deleted] »

benp84 wrote: post #194
toddm wrote: post #111

For me, the special part is truly viewing any job as just that: a job. I no longer assess my worth as a person as a function of job title, salary, or anything else. I take contracting work primarily and expect absolutely nothing more than a paycheck. Work is a transaction and I deliver what I can and am not a jerk. Almost every disposable penny goes toward physical fitness. My spouse happens to be cut from the same c…

How do you mean you spend money on physical fitness? It does sound like a great investment.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How to optimize your career for happiness?

#332

Post by benp84 »

toddm wrote: post #207
benp84 wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you mean you spend money on physical fitness? It does sound like a great investment.

We spend a lot of money on a personal trainer; and a coach specific to my poison (cycling). The personal training and coaching are the greatest expense and I will allow my lights to get turned off before I let that lapse - it's that important to me. There has been a significant investment in a rowing machine, indoor smart trainers for cycling, and quite a bit of free weights. My wife runs, and she spends a healthy am…

I think if I'd have thought of these expenses as "buying physical fitness" I would have spent more. Thanks for the perspective!

Re: Ask HN: How to optimize your career for happiness?

#333

Post by mavsman »

Wanted to add a different thought on this topic. I started working for a mental health company this year that practices what they preach and it seems like something you might look into. Everyone odds always talking about mental health and psychology which is helpful and fascinating.

Re: Ask HN: How to optimize your career for happiness?

#334

Post by hiptobecubic »

toddm wrote: post #226
beaker52 wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always thought that a job worth doing was a job worth doing well. It's put me through a lot of pain and stress because almost no-one else feels the same way. I'm coming to terms with the realisation that for most people, a job is just a job. To others, a job is a ladder to climb in the pursuit of wealth. Neither of those are me, but I need to find a way to be content in an environment full of people like that. I…

I agree with you about doing a job well. I just don't put the job at the top of my list in terms of where to focus my efforts. Mind you, I'm not FAANG material nor the entrepreneurial sort. The feeling is mutual: I'm not interested in devoting my time to reach those heights in the workplace. They are not interested in hiring people like me. I don't apply for those jobs, and they don't try to recruit me. I'm sure the…

I think you're way overestimating "FAANG material" FWIW. At least at Goog there are a huge number of people that just do what they need to do and nothing more, don't respond to anyone or anything outside of normal hours and spend their time doing stuff with their kids / family / friends etc. Obviously these are not the people you hear about from outside Google, but if you work there then you work with many of them.

Re: Ask HN: How to optimize your career for happiness?

#335

Post by hiptobecubic »

moneywoes wrote: post #330
tjr225 wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this some sort of weird gotcha or are you sincere? Joint damage is not really statistically correlated with long distance running, and anyone targeting a sub 20 minute 5k is going to have their weight and form so dialed in, it probably is barely a risk at all.

I never progressed past 30km from hearing all of these people quiting to save their knees. I wondering where that sentiment comes from if there is no correlation.

My understanding is that people destroy their knees in many ways over the course of their lives and that running makes that painfully obvious to them so they stop.

Re: Ask HN: How to optimize your career for happiness?

#336

Post by hiptobecubic »

kv12291 wrote: post #94
suriyaG wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a twenty three year old. I'm curious to know more. why take on responsibility through having children? Why not pickup any other type of responsibilty? like, community service, tutoring/helping kids from less fortunate places or in the worst case even Picking up more responsibility from work? Is it more of a genetic thing where it makes the pain of responsibility more pleasurable? I'm even more curious to know if y…

Major issue is Community service and tutoring/helping kids lack involvement. If you can be fully invested and involved then that's definitely better way to do. But most people can get much more involved easily when it's thier own children.

The last point is the one that I think gets almost zero attention. People talk constantly about how great and fulfilling it is to help bring a child into the world, see it grow, teach it all the things you know, etc. What they actually mean is that it's very gratifying to have kids that are yours and look like you and came from you, because deep down we are all narcissists.

When you start talking about how they could have done literally all of those things by adopting any one of the bajillion kids that need it, most people will openly tell you that they would never consider it and don't feel even slightly hypocritical about it.

Re: Ask HN: How to optimize your career for happiness?

#337

Post by HalcyonicStorm »

hiptobecubic wrote: post #335
moneywoes wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never progressed past 30km from hearing all of these people quiting to save their knees. I wondering where that sentiment comes from if there is no correlation.

My understanding is that people destroy their knees in many ways over the course of their lives and that running makes that painfully obvious to them so they stop.

I think its related to weight. We have to acknowledge that there is a serious obesity epidemic in the developed world. The majority of adults are overweight and obese. This is anecdata from what I've seen: you see fat runners. you see old runners. You dont tend to see many fat old runners.

The other thing is that if you dont regularly change your running shoes, you will absolutely hurt yourself. I get knee pain if I don't swap out my shoes every 250 miles or 3 months.

Re: Ask HN: How to optimize your career for happiness?

#339

Post by lucb1e »

damontal wrote: post #247
lucb1e wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heh, that sounds like a nightmare for me personally. If going to an artificial place to get tired every day works for you, that's great, but this is not generally good advice. If it's purely about physical fitness (I'm really not quite sure what your goal with this method is, perhaps you could edit to clarify), going into nature to cycle or jog is much better due to the nature-happiness correlation (e.g. https://jour…

There are some really nice gyms out there that are almost like spas. You don’t have to go and work out like an animal every day. Sometimes I’ll go and do a light workout, maybe swim, and then soak in a hot tub. Some days I’ll run in the woods near my home but that’s not so enjoyable in the winter.

That does sound very nice actually! I should look out for one of those, might actually be something :)
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