Ask HN: Has anyone here ever tried throwing everything away? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone here ever tried throwing everything away?

#51

Post by mysterypie » Sat, Feb 17, 2024, 12:11 PM UTC

throwaway1633 wrote: post #14

I quit my job around four months ago, voluntarily leaving behind a cushy $560k yearly comp. Nothing lined up, just decided I needed a break. It's been a good decision so far. The stock market has been performing well lately, which has been good for my savings during this time of unemployment. It has yet to be seen whether I "threw it all away". Everyone close to me seems to think it was a rash decision and a big step…

For how many years had you been earning the $560k ballpark? Had you kept it up for 10 years total, another option would have been to retire permanently, move someplace cheap, and live happily ever after.

To flesh out some numbers: $560k minus $100k in taxes, minus another $100k for living comfortably per year, leaves $360k that you can save each year. If you earned 4% on that savings, you have about $5M in 10 years. If you moved somewhere cheap worldwide, you could live lavishly spending $100,000 a year for 50 years. I say lavishly because you are living someplace cheap and this is $100k after tax.

(Assuming no extreme inflation or hyperinflation, and that your funds remain invested.)

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone here ever tried throwing everything away?

#52

Post by underlogic » Sat, Feb 17, 2024, 8:16 PM UTC

smeej wrote: post #50

underlogic wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure there's some degree of truth there but it has worked out for me every time. It's not that I'm running from hard work or failure so much as the perception that success in the original location would still not be enough to satisfy me. I wanted new experiences and more potential. It's complex. When you stay in a place too long it can become a dead end not because the location has nothing left to offer but rathe…

Hmm. When it comes to "a terrible waste," I seem to have ended up at exactly the opposite conclusion for myself, that I would feel like it had been so much more of a waste to die having only done the work and built the relationships that accompany short stays in a variety of places, and never having done the deep work of belonging anywhere.

But what does belonging translate to in material terms? I genuinely don't understand this it's foreign to me. It seems like one of those fantasy concepts indoctrinated to encourage people "to take one for the team" and accept a lesser deal and status in the tribe. Some locations have less to offer than others and those that choose to stay get a lower quality of life, often for more effort. In a way they're exploited, that's how I see it. Those communities manipulate their populations into staying put at the expense of the individuals, because they need them

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone here ever tried throwing everything away?

#53

Post by svilen_dobrev » Sat, Feb 17, 2024, 11:29 PM UTC

see Sacrifice by Tarkovsky

i have done similar but smaller thing a few times, always kept some links to past - those which matter - e.g. family, friends, some belongings. The rest - job, geography, society.. don't care.

there is a saying going like: "when cart turn wheels up, roads are aplenty" -- usualy taken negatively/precautionary -- but it is bipolar, i.e. if u want plenty of roads, then... turn the cart bottom up..

The other useful advice i have is: think driving on ice.. Leave the car to go as it wants to, and only then study that and start reacting

and... have fun. Or at least have that as further target.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone here ever tried throwing everything away?

#54

Post by smeej » Mon, Feb 19, 2024, 6:51 PM UTC

underlogic wrote: post #52

smeej wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm. When it comes to "a terrible waste," I seem to have ended up at exactly the opposite conclusion for myself, that I would feel like it had been so much more of a waste to die having only done the work and built the relationships that accompany short stays in a variety of places, and never having done the deep work of belonging anywhere.

But what does belonging translate to in material terms? I genuinely don't understand this it's foreign to me. It seems like one of those fantasy concepts indoctrinated to encourage people "to take one for the team" and accept a lesser deal and status in the tribe. Some locations have less to offer than others and those that choose to stay get a lower quality of life, often for more effort. In a way they're exploited,…

Does the only value of something come from what it "translates to in material terms"? What material terms are you trying to measure?

Knowing that when something goes awry in your life, or you want some advice from someone who's done something you hope to do, or believing that you can get enough people together to solve a problem--I don't know how you measure those in "material terms," but knowing you aren't going through life alone, but with people who have your back, and whose backs you have--that's worth vastly more to me than any material thing I can think of.