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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?

#841

Post by thedaemon »

Bahamut wrote: post #217
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…

Slacking in Apple? From what I've seen, Apple engineers probably amongst the hardest of the FAANG - probably less so than Amazon if I had to guess, but I know my Google, FB, and Netflix friends do not work nearly as hard.

https://www.faang.org/

Acronyms really need to be phased out, as I highly doubt you mean Functional Annotation of Animal Genomes. I'm guessing it's the 2nd result?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook,_Apple,_Amazon,_Netfl...

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

#842

Post by jimbokun »

rayiner wrote: post #475
brulard wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't believe this is the case. In central Europe (Poland, Czech, Slovakia, Hungary) you can have EDIT: (using the most tax-effective form of employment, which most of the time is working as a contractor. Being a full-time employee comes with so much higher taxes in EU)

> AFAIK in US just the health insurance is very expensive. In the US, someone like a programmer would get their health insurance paid for by their employer as additional compensation on top of their already much higher salary. The vast majority of Americans either get health insurance through their employer or are retired and are eligible for Medicare. Employers on average pay 82% of premiums for a single person, lea…

I believe the deductibles on that insurance will also be much, much higher, though, than most systems in Europe.

So out of pocket expenses for the Amercian are going to be much, much higher.

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

#843

Post by christophilus »

tstrimple wrote: post #809
christophilus wrote: post #742

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your 80k€ gross in e.g. France should be the equivalent of $150k for a US worker I hear this a lot, but if you're earning $150K in the US, you almost certainly have 100% medical coverage. At least, I do, and everyone I know does. The US medical system is broken, but it's OK for high-income earners. It's the low-to-middle income folks who are really hurt by it. > retirement savings Again, if you're earning $150K in…

> I hear this a lot, but if you're earning $150K in the US, you almost certainly have 100% medical coverage. I'm not sure how true this is anymore. I made a bit more than this at Microsoft, and my medical benefits were "100% covered" by Microsoft. But that still amounts to thousands of dollars in deductibles and copays per year out of pocket.

I worked at Microsoft, and didn't have that experience. Maybe it changed? When were you there?

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

#844

Post by asdkhadsj »

darkerside wrote: post #463
NeverFade wrote: post #429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's true the male/female ratios are worse The fact that there are way more men than women in the Bay is a statistical reality, which you admit yourself. Then you bring an opinion blog-post by a single woman as counter-evidence. Ironically, all these complaints about "guys there that have a disgusting sense of entitlement" just go to show how picky she is, and can afford to be, in San Francisco. Nothing in GP's pos…

> guys who would be considered attractive and desirable in most other locations Your conception of what women are looking for in a man might not hew as closely to reality as you think.

I think you missed Ps point completely. It was that if the ratios are off, the lower side has more of a supply.

What specifically each individual is looking for doesn't matter. It's supply and demand.

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

#846

Post by docspace »

joatmon-snoo wrote: post #306
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…

Current Googler here; my solution to staving off complacency has been constantly asking myself if there are other problems I can and will work on - and they don't have to be problems on your team. (Although, I will say that at a certain point, if you're growing, I think your responsibilities should be shifting from solving problems to identifying/prioritizing the problems.) Every team has a looonnngggggg list of thin…

Current Google-ish company person here, and this can be just as dangerous as it is beneficial. I was on this team, more than once, where I’m complacent and no one is asking for more from me... so I started helping. I thought I was moving towards leadership because I was identifying and solving the right problems for others. I felt successful.

None of this work contributed to my career path, although it was development work. I felt like a hero, but the people who respected my new work didn’t complete the feedback loop and/or my current leadership didn’t care.

It actually stole time from work that would have gotten me promoted/provided more challenges.

I felt like I lost my role as SME and instead became a jack-of-all-trades.

It was good experience and luckily did not get me fired. When I look back I realize that the problem was the team/leadership’s lack of growth-focus and support. If I had transferred teams or left the company I may have been better off. I say may have, because other than feeling like I wasted a few years learning this, I’ve ended up in roughly the same place I would have been.

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

#847

Post by [deleted] »

dualogy wrote: post #646
thrwaway69 wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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..

[deleted]

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

#848

Post by tstrimple »

christophilus wrote: post #843
tstrimple wrote: post #809

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I hear this a lot, but if you're earning $150K in the US, you almost certainly have 100% medical coverage. I'm not sure how true this is anymore. I made a bit more than this at Microsoft, and my medical benefits were "100% covered" by Microsoft. But that still amounts to thousands of dollars in deductibles and copays per year out of pocket.

I worked at Microsoft, and didn't have that experience. Maybe it changed? When were you there?

I was there from 2013 to 2019. I remember right after I joined in 2013 they stopped offering their PPO plan and moved everyone into an HDHP.

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

#849

Post by jimbokun »

prfwue wrote: post #783
kradroy wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Then you are definitely not contributing too much to making someone else wealthy!

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

#850

Post by jimbokun »

DrJokepu wrote: post #381
vbtemp wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started to agree with you, but this took a different direction. In general, it's smart, informed work that matters. Not grinding yourself down hard work. I feel Ive developed enough good intuition and judgment over the years that I'm capable of making well informed, strategic input to my organization that is infinitely more valuable than grinding away in PRs or tickets all day. I feel successful, it benefits my com…

My dude, I hope you realize that you're only one crappy and traitless newly hired manager or technical leader away from being extremely miserable at your job.

With a bad manager being miserable at your job isn't really avoidable.
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