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

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

#671

Post by bitL » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 10:28 AM UTC

NeverFade wrote: post #417

whack wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been away from the bay for a while, but it's amazing how bad the dating scene is, for exactly the reasons you described. I'm currently engaged to an amazing woman who has only ever lived in working-class suburbs and smaller cities. Her exes and her friends' husbands are shockingly anti-intellectual, didn't attend college, have some substance abuse issues, and/or make well under 6 figures. She keeps telling me ho…

> Engineers in places like SFBA severely underestimate how attractive they would be anywhere else in the country/world. I agree completely. > Her exes and her friends' husbands are shockingly anti-intellectual, didn't attend college, have some substance abuse issues, and/or make well under 6 figures. Here's what happened: Guys who are intellectual, attended college, have good discipline, and stayed away from substanc…

> The few women who moved to the Bay can have their pick.

I don't think so. It's only when males are desperate to settle; living alone and spending their money on their hobbies/travel might be a much more attractive option to them than to bind to an unattractive female that went to SFBA specifically to capture a high-value male.

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

#672

Post by tommit » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 10:33 AM UTC

joelbluminator wrote: post #610

throwaway8291 wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany.

You are looking at the elite of the elites. How many developers work for google in silicon valley? I am sure there are developers in Ohaio that get paid non stellar salaries, also have a mortgage and by the time they are 45 they worry about the future a lot. On Average yes the German developer makes less but probably has better job security , work life balance etc. You make it out as if American developers live a str…

I agree. Clearly, not every dev in the US works for Apple or Google. Plus, simply comparing the raw income is flawed as well. I agree with your assumption that overall, German developers have better job security and most definitely the work life balance aspect. I'm a developer myself and I don't know anyone around me who regularly does more than a 40h week. This is excluding those that have started their own company and the occasional deadline of course. Not to mention that our cost of living is definitely not as inflated as it is in SV.

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

#673

Post by pioneerpass » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 10:36 AM UTC

thrownaway954 wrote: post #613

md5wasp wrote: post #162

Hi there, I did the exact same thing as you (at Google Sydney), before eventually deciding that I must strike out into the wilderness. In the few years since I left; I worked as a solutions architect managing a team, a team lead, a remote dev, and now in a startup. Front-end, back-end, flip-side, all the ends. So I've been deliberately trying different angles of my career to see what suits. I'd describe this process…

"If you stay at Google, make the most of it by progressing deliberately in your social life. If I'd've stayed, I could have comfortably raised some kids with my wife by now - but that's still on the todo list." THIS all the way. When we are young, we think that we will be remembered by the company that we worked for and the people that we worked with. The sad truth is that in 99.9999% none of those people will rememb…

A man's job, socially, civilizationally, is to toil and die. You're now effectively dead. Congrats! You can now get on with telling this shit-insane resource-hoarding monkey planet to fuck itself in the praxis of not doing any goddamned thing at all. And if you're so fucking programmed that you can't abide yourself outside the workplace or a relationship with a rat dog, you might be better off literally dead.

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

#674

Post by pete762 » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 10:37 AM UTC

badpun wrote: post #642

throwaway8291 wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Eur…

Can I ask what you do (and where)? That's absolutely insane money for former soviet states, probably equivalent of >>1 mil in the bay area.

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

#675

Post by xenihn » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 10:38 AM UTC

hsikka wrote: post #645

lowdose wrote: post #634

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'd argue that the modern definition has nothing to do with immigrant status, and is entirely about whether or not you can pass as a native English speaker. It just so happens that most people who have accents are immigrants, and you can reasonably assume that anyone who didn't grow up speaking English as a native language is going to have an accent.

You are not a fob if you moved here from China at 9 years old, didn't read or speak your first word of English until then, and have no discernible accent as an adult.

No one would call a Hong Konger with a HK English accent a fob either.

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

#676

Post by lvturner » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 10:41 AM UTC

istorical wrote: post #585

ahs1 wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My advice would be work hard, save your money, travel when you can to better locales to improve your social life, but with the eventual goal of permanently moving out when you've saved enough. If you pick your destination within the USA well, dating prospects will improve greatly, and if you look worldwide (and can overcome the language and immigration issues), it could improve dramatically. The Bay Area will seem…

Don't move anywhere without visiting several places for at least 1-2 weeks each. Trust me on this. You may have a picture of a place but being there can be very different.

Not so sure I agree, I moved to Beijing, China having never spent a second there, probably the best decision I made ever. (Though, I had no pre-conception on how it would be like prior to landing...)

While no longer living in mainland China, I still haven't left Asia (nearly seven years on)

Sometimes pushing yourself right out of your norm/comfort-zone can really help you find yourself.

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

#677

Post by dx034 » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 10:41 AM UTC

shantly wrote: post #476

bgdkbtv wrote: post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you expand on this?

Leadership positions like that mean doing a whole other set of stuff that feels like "not-work" if work has always meant personally, directly moving a product forward. Those meetings you always hated because they killed your productivity? Now they are your productivity. Sitting at your desk and can't think of a single thing to do that anyone's likely to care about? Try not to look like you're relaxing, but relax. You…

> And then the Google pedigree thing is obvious. Youngish startups with a little money just starting to build their team past "a co-founder and these two recent grads" are hungry to get FAANG alums into leadership. I don't know whether that's a good thing for them to care about—maybe it is—but they do seem to show a very strong preference for them.

It generally isn't a bad idea for inexperienced founders to have some insight into how larger tech companies operate. Especially when it comes to scaling, knowing how companies typically handle this can be quite valuable.

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

#678

Post by itsmefaz » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 10:42 AM UTC

wayoutthere wrote: post #65

dash2 wrote: post #13

It's sad and revealing to see the other comments here. Many of them say, don't seek fulfillment in your job, just keep on cruising. What a change from the exciting atmosphere of the 2000s. Seems like software engineering has become a safe, dull career nowadays. Don't listen to them. Your 20s are the time to learn, push yourself and discover who you are. Autopilot is for middle age.

Software engineering just isn't that hard. Tedious yes, but not remotely difficult. We've been fed the narrative of economic success that many folks have forgotten what personal success looks like. You can be successful in your career and still feel like a failure. Therapy is the answer here. You have to un-brainwash yourself from the notion that your job is your life and figure out what really matters to you. Then f…

> That your job is not your life and figure out what really matters to you. Then focus on that, and use your job to fill the boring hours in between

This hit me very hard.

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

#679

Post by joelbluminator » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 10:45 AM UTC

adversaldoman wrote: post #616

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…

For what it's worth, these jobs do exist in Europe as well (I'm slacking off at a 100k+ € swe job in central europe right now!). I had high paying offers from the US in the past, but in my opinion the higher overall living standards, smaller wage gaps, and better social/political structures more than outweigh potential earning benefits. In any case: If you're willing to move, consider eg Zurich, where a lot of big, h…

I do feel London is somewhat underrated in this discussion, for a senior Rails position I find quite a few startups willing to pay 80-85 GBP, that's not that far off from the U.S if you factor in cost of living. But yes - Belgium, France and Germany don't offer this type of money.

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

#680

Post by joelbluminator » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 10:50 AM UTC

tommit wrote: post #672

joelbluminator wrote: post #610

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are looking at the elite of the elites. How many developers work for google in silicon valley? I am sure there are developers in Ohaio that get paid non stellar salaries, also have a mortgage and by the time they are 45 they worry about the future a lot. On Average yes the German developer makes less but probably has better job security , work life balance etc. You make it out as if American developers live a str…

I agree. Clearly, not every dev in the US works for Apple or Google. Plus, simply comparing the raw income is flawed as well. I agree with your assumption that overall, German developers have better job security and most definitely the work life balance aspect. I'm a developer myself and I don't know anyone around me who regularly does more than a 40h week. This is excluding those that have started their own company…

These things can't be underestimated. Coming from a much more capitalistic country to the Netherlands (allow me to assume it's similar to Germany) - the prospects of leading a relaxed life and raising a family here are very good. Yes, it's less competitive. Yes compensation is worse than SV. but if I had to gamble where developers are leading happier lives I wouldn't go with SV (despite the superior weather).