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Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

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Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#641

Post by badpun »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #187
dhuyrv wrote: post #130

You remind me myself a few years ago: a talented, but bored slacker who didn't see any point in investing any energy into that project. Turns out I was right: the project didn't go anywhere after I left and investing any extra time would be a clueless thing to do. So what's changed since then? Have I found meaning in work? No! I've become a professional slacker who knows all these psychological tricks, knows what bod…

This blows my mind that in the US one can make such insane money in tech while still being a slacker and retire early with a dream house bought and paid for while in Europe devs are slaving away through SCRUM powered meat grinders burning themselves out for a 3% salary increase on a pitiful 40-80k/year, no stock options, without any hope of early retirement or owning a decent home without a 30 year loan or financial…

> The behavior of slacker Googlers described here would have gotten them instantly fired in any European company(yes, the "you can't fire people in Europe" is just a meme).

I've seen multiple people doing that or worse in London. Now that I think of it, it was in an American company though...

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#642

Post by badpun »

throwaway8291 wrote: post #319
jedberg wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This blows my mind that in the US one can make such insane money in tech while still being a slacker and retire early with a dream house bought and paid for Don't feel too bad. As far as I know, only Google and Apple lets you get away with this kind of slacking. Facebook, Amazon, and Netflix certainly don't. Also, SWE out of college definitely aren't making enough to buy much more than a condo. That being said, you…

The max I negotiated in Europe was $125000, an ok start up salary was maybe $80000 and I am currently - with lots of non-money benefits at around $70000. What makes me most sad is that fostering the web tracking industry - tech + marketing - is so lucrative. I have such a hard time understanding this world - it does not make much sense any more. This lying and scheming around collecting all your data and activity for…

> The max I negotiated in Europe was $125000, an ok start up salary was maybe $80000 and I am currently - with lots of non-money benefits at around $70000.

I'm currently at $160k (as a contractor, assuming 5 weeks of per year). Could have had more, but I'm currently in low cost of living country (former soviet block), so any move would be offset by increase in taxes and costs of living.

You can make good money in Europe, it's probably just harder here than in the US.

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#643

Post by AQuantized »

mattigames wrote: post #632
NeverFade wrote: post #586

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally moved to locations that don't have 50%+ more single men than women. That seemed to have made me a lot more, uhm, "interesting".

Any pointers to a list of those locations?

Almost anywhere that isn't a major tech hub.

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#644

Post by watwut »

olalonde wrote: post #629
mikeymz wrote: post #564

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"so-so women" Wtf dude.

I'm not a native speaker, didn't mean to be offensive. I just meant that there's a lot of couples where the male half seems to score quite a bit higher on attractiveness, career, appeal, etc. I should note that this observation was also shared by my wife. Changed the wording.

Maybe in addition to be good looking and earning money, that dude also was not looking for trophy wife and had different preferences. Dude sounds like catch.

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#645

Post by hsikka »

lowdose wrote: post #634
xenihn wrote: post #612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dating in the Bay Area as a male engineer with average (or worse) looks is extremely easy if you're a white (or white-passing) FAANG employee (or you work at any other company that is obviously paying you $300k+ in the bay) who is willing to date PRC citizens. Gold-digging isn't relevant imo given that they also have tech incomes, and generally have rich families overseas to boot. I really don't understand why most g…

For anyone else wondering what "fobs" means. Oxford dictionary plural for: A chain attached to a watch for carrying in a waistcoat or waistband pocket.

I believe it is an acronym for "Fresh Off the Boat", i.e. an immigrant. It's a slang term and I personally don't use it too much but have heard it used fairly often.

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#646

Post by dualogy »

thrwaway69 wrote: post #315
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This blows my mind that in the US one can make such insane money in tech while still being a slacker and retire early with a dream house bought and paid for while in Europe devs are slaving away through SCRUM powered meat grinders burning themselves out for a 3% salary increase on a pitiful 40-80k/year, no stock options, without any hope of early retirement or owning a decent home without a 30 year loan or financial…

This is why we have religion ;) Thou shall work hard, get equivalent reward in this life or next one. I tried to become religious before but I am too stubborn to do it. We all want some purpose in life, distractions can work temporary or forever if you want them to with cracks appearing often needing to be filled. Personal advice for myself: - Live and compare relatively with lookout for opportunities. - Focus on sel…

"I will believe that it is rational as oppose to religion therefore enabling me to put trust into it and follow it blindly."

The irony..

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#649

Post by badpun »

kungtotte wrote: post #567
m0zg wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> You mention 40/80k per year being pitiful? This kind of remuneration puts you in the top 10%/5% of France population easily. That just means the rest of the population is poor, not that you should accept less. This is called a fallacy of relative privation. So what if you have to subsist on ramen and can't afford a place to live with less than an hour and a half of commute. Think of all those starving children in…

I make $42K in Sweden (not in IT), and it's comfortably high middle class. My wife doesn't even work full time and it's still enough for us to live comfortably within our means (own a house, two cars, one kid, etc.) If I'd been making $60K my wife could stop working. At $80K she wouldn't have to work and we'd still be moving into "new BMW every three years" kind of money. $80K goes a lot further in Europe than it doe…

$80k a year in the US (assuming you live outside of a few of very high cost of living locations) will easily net you a new BMW every three years, esp. given that they're much cheaper than in Sweden.

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#650

Post by philosopher1234 »

duelingjello wrote: post #603
apatters wrote: post #569

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect most of them were told (by their mothers, continuously for the first 20 years of their lives) that this was in fact the way to land a good woman. Be a nice clean cut guy and earn $120K a year. If you know so much then what's your prescription for them?

Women make boys into women. Men need to grow a pair, throw away some conventions, gain nuanced judgement by learning from thousands of interactions. There’s no substitute for experience. Build a fun life and fun people will seek out that wavelength; build a boring life and similar will surround you as well. Do it all while you’re still young and healthy because doors will gradually close.

Why is being a competent, stable, kind adult not enough to be in a healthy relationship? Is it better to be mcjagger than mr Rogers? What I bring to my relationship isn’t primarily mystery or entertainment or coolness or “being interesting”, but an emotional connection, stability, and love. Everyone here is talking like that’s not good enough and I don’t understand why. Clearly it is enough for my girlfriend and it’s what I want from her as well.
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