Just get out.
Six years at the same place with only one promotion means that you're not really advancing.
Fake it 'til you make it.
If you do stay in place, get yourself promoted again and complete a graduate degree.
Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?
781–790 of 1001 posts
Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?
#782Earlier quoted context omitted.
In both countries, there is an employer contribution and an employee contribution. In both countries, “gross” income excludes the employer contribution. In the US, it also excludes employer-paid health insurance premiums. In France, it excludes the employer-paid health insurance tax. As to the precise mix, I don’t think it’s accurate to say that more will be paid by the employer in Europe. In both countries, medical…
You are mistaken, because you do not take into account the whole contributions that are deducted between gross and super-gross. Medical care is just one of them and it adds up to WAY more than 8%. Here is a break down of what that would look like for a French employee: (1) Starting with a super gross of 130k EUR / year ($145k): - Deduct retirement contribution - Deduct health care contribution - Deduct family contrib…
The same thing is true of the United States as well. The $150k salary is going to be after:
1) Retirement contribution 2) Medicare/health insurance contribution 3) Unemployment insurance contribution
At the $150k salary level, the following will also be provided as benefits before the $150k:
4) Short and long term disability insurance 5) Family leave
A gross salary of $150k is going to be more like $175k including those taxes and costs.
In California, on a salary of $150k, the net paycheck will be like $90-95k, or $80-85k if you max out your 401k contribution. (If you do that, your retirement benefits will be much more than you would receive in France.)
Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?
#783You 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…
I second this as well. If you're really the type who's talented and motivated, then don't waste that talent and motivation on making someone else richer. Start your own thing. If you don't know how, then learn how. And if you're too afraid to do it, then spend your spare time on a hobby. Become a proficient pianist, learn to cook, run a marathon, anything other than making someone else richer.
What if you're poor and basically homeless without a salary?
Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?
#784Earlier quoted context omitted.
E.g.: I'm a jeans & t-shirt kinda guy. However, I now dress a little more formally (business casual) because it leads to better outcomes. I've not gotten around to wearing suits even though that would be even better. A little more strategic: I usually wear at least one item of clothing with my employer's logo visible on it. (Gives off a "corporate citizen" vibe.) A far cry from the recent past when I'd carry a laptop…
Anything more substantial than dressing up? That seems obvious to me and not something I'd need a book to tell me.
In general, being charming helps. Charm/charisma is just being fully engaged in a conversation with a person - no looking around the room scanning for someone you'd rather talk with, don't interrupt them and actually listen to what they're saying, and offer geniune compliments (infrequently).
Don't be an insecure people pleaser who needs lots of external validation. It's ironic, but a lot of people-pleaser behaviors come across as needy and annoying. If you're at a happy hour with coworkers struggling to get a word in, instead mentally take a step back and try to listen. I've found when I do this it makes my words more impactful when I do speak.
There's a youtube channel called "Charisma on Command" that has a lot of good advice, but I would take it with a grain of salt. Personally, I started with working through my low self-esteem before I found that channel, learning how to be more proactive, how to set boundaries and not be a pushover, etc, so the confidence is real and the social/charisma changes came naturally.
Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?
#785Earlier quoted context omitted.
> But the typical clean cut, well-spoken, hard working, respectful, male SWE in the Bay Area making $120K+ a year in his 20s or 30s, who should be a magnet for women, turns out to be living in one of worst places because of male-female ratios among singles (and some other cultural factors). Yes, it's quite simple: there are many more men in the Bay than women, so women have their pick, and they can afford to raise th…
> it's quite simple: there are many more men in the Bay than women I’m in Manhattan. The single sex ratio is reversed. (More single women than men.) Male FAANG employee rants about how they should be magnets for women, but can’t find a date because something is wrong with all women, are equally prevalent here. They’re all (a) the same rant and (b) as boring as the last one. There’s a selection effect among well-paid…
It's interesting how co-occurrent some genetic/behavioral traits are. I read an article about a study of domesticating foxes. After many generations selecting for propensity to come forward when a human puts out food, the semi-domesticated offspring showed a wide array of physical traits associated with dogs in addition to the behavior that was selected for.
Yet... as computing becomes more popular, I expect this stereotype to become obsolete. It roughly applies to myself and many of my friends. My wife calls me a robot. But hey, somehow most of us managed to find a spouse.
Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?
#786Earlier quoted context omitted.
Europe is big and very diverse place. Uber driver in midwest (US) makes more than a senior dev in Spain, Italy or Greece.
An Uber driver in the midwest US can die from a simple treatable disease (or ruin himself financially) because he might not have health insurance. Europe is big and very diverse place. Uber driver in midwest (US) makes more than a senior dev in Spain, Italy or Greece. You can't just do a simple currency conversion to compare them, because the costs of living are very different. A senior dev in these countries will ha…
OK, broken US healthcare aside, even in above mentioned countries - uber/taxi drivers income is quite comparable to devs salaries.
Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?
#787Earlier 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…
Facebook hires tons of zero passion 10am-4pm engineers. It might not be deliberate slacking but it’s definitely not hard working.
What does 10-4 have to do with anything? If you don't have significant equity, putting in more hours on a daily basis just makes you a tool in my opinion. There is more to life..
Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?
#788......I don't know what to say. I know a few people are like this too. On the other hand, I think I do a lot of things for my employer and constantly learn/challenge myself, but don't make anywhere near FAANG SWE. I am trying hard to pass onsite FAANG interviews, and still failing. So I'm still Leetcoding now. But hearing stories like this just kinda demotivates me and confuses me more. Most non FAANG companies have…
Ex-Amazon employee here. I started at Amazon right out of college so I definitely learned a lot, but the work itself wasn't really challenging. Most of what I worked on were basic CRUD services and web UI's.
Once the newness of the job wore off, I started getting really depressed because it felt like my work was meaningless, but there were also really high expectations. 90% of the work at FAANG companies is boring, and the really interesting, cutting-edge stuff is only done by a handful of teams.
Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?
#789Earlier quoted context omitted.
> P.S. -- there would be no need to 'keep yourself accountable' if you were genuinely interested in what you were doing. Unless the dullness burns you out / demotivates you.
'Burnout' tends to imply overwork, but that doesn't sound like the case here; OP states they are doing the minimum amount of work to get by. IME, boredom at a particular job coupled with a genuine interest in programming in general tends to result in finding a more interesting job or more time spent on side/personal projects. But that's not what I'm getting from OP's description. Sometimes people are very reluctant t…
True, although btw you can be burned out outside of work as well.
Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?
#790Earlier quoted context omitted.
I guess I've only lived in the bay area 20 years, but this strikes me as quite dramatic. I know literally dozens of men in tech happily raising families in the Bay Area. It's true the male/female ratios are worse (although we should certainly adjust for the large gay male population). But when I talk to friends who are dating, it's the women who seem to be struggling to find anybody decent, not the men. Perhaps the p…
> (although we should certainly adjust for the large gay male population) Just curious, why wouldn't there be an equivalently large lesbian female population?
There's a greater concentration of lesbians and other queer (not cis gay) people in the East Bay — especially those in families, raising kids and so on.