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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?

#861

Post by cryptica »

badpun wrote: post #658
cryptica wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked as a software developer for companies all over the world: Brisbane, Sydney, San Francisco (working remotely from Moscow), The Hague (Netherlands), London then Berlin. The markets are very different in each country. Moscow is the worst for developers but at least cost of living is low. I feel that Australia is similar to the US in terms of income but it's a less liquid market; low supply, low demand. But the…

Regarding London, the 600+ GBP per day contracts are definitely not only for insiders. You probably didn't have the right experience in their eyes. Regarding finance specifically, the industry has its quirks so they like to get people who worked in finance before - otherwise, it can be a bit of a culture shock.

>> Regarding finance specifically, the industry has its quirks so they like to get people who worked in finance before

I had almost 8 years of experience as a software developer at the time and I did have some experience in the finance sector (but a small startup). My resume looks pretty great, one of my open source projects is quite popular (over 5K stars on GitHub) yet I did not even get asked to an interview.

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

#862

Post by no_flags »

NeverFade wrote: post #614
vidarh wrote: post #611

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had shares worth millions on paper that later turned out to be worthless many times... It really need to be a later stage startup with real traction for that to really mean anything.

You and me both, man. However, it's a different path for top executives versus the rest of us. If you follow folks at that level, you'll notice that even when their startup fizzles, they tend to come out on top. There are ways to get paid well at an exit even when your stock are nominally worthless. If you're an executive. Not to mention that if their startup was worth $100m+ at one point, they would likely get a cha…

What are the ways they get paid at exit with worthless stock?

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

#863

Post by saagarjha »

swiley wrote: post #708
NeverFade wrote: post #595

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, if you move to an area that's known to have dating demographics badly skewed against you, don't be surprised when your dating life there is disappointing. However, when we have a discussion about Bay Area dating, and most comments blame men for "not being interesting" and completely ignore, deny, or fail to even mention the gender imbalance, I don't think it helps men to make informed choices.

The fact is that either because of infanticide or nature there are fewer younger men in the world so you’ll have this problem in most places.

> fewer younger men

I'd expect fewer young women?

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

#864

Post by christophilus »

tstrimple wrote: post #848
christophilus wrote: post #843

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Ah. Yeah. I left right around then. :) That explains it. Still, everywhere I've worked since MS has given me 100% coverage, albeit sometimes indirectly (e.g. via a company funded HSA plan, etc).

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

#865

Post by 52-6F-62 »

bdowling wrote: post #831
lame88 wrote: post #502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...are probably working in a particle acceleration lab or something. I know the quote.

> I know the quote. The quote is from “Howl” by Allen Ginsburg, a poem about burnout (among other things). That’s applicable to a report of people working a 9-9-6 schedule, a recipe for burnout.

Especially when it's burning out on something like ad-tech

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

#866

Post by wmil »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #617
NeverFade wrote: post #366

Earlier 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…

> That or these jobs turn interesting people into those who believe they should be magnets for the opposite sex, which tends to be a turn-off for most people.

Tech selects for people who are object focussed as opposed to people focussed.

Most women prefer to date men who are good at wooing and entertaining them. Which means more people focussed than object focussed.

The tech men are frustrated because they are basically their best selves -- financially and professionally successful, able and willing to support a family. Traditionally that would be enough to make them a catch.

But dating women with careers limits the value of their financial support. And they don't have the skills to wow the women socially.

Realistically they can't develop those skills easily.

This is probably going to sound incredibly cynical, but the best advice I've heard for NYC techies is to try to date ballerinas.

They're beautiful and disciplined. But they retire before 30 and have to decide to either start a family or open a studio to start teaching. At that point most of the men they know are married or gay.

So likely to be more willing to overlook the social weaknesses of tech men.

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

#867

Post by redisman »

Galanwe wrote: post #338
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…

> 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 There is so much wrong in this sentence. First, there is no more “meat grinders” in the US than in Europe. I worked at Microsoft and Criteo in Europe, and the slacking there seems to be on par with what OP describes. You mention 40/80k per year being pitiful? This kind of remu…

This guy (parent) took two data-points and extrapolated like he had just figured out how two continents work.

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

#868

Post by [deleted] »

jspaetzel wrote: post #507
shantly wrote: post #178

I am not kidding: you are all set to be CTO or dev lead (mind: only if there’s actually a team so you don’t have to do much development) at some late-early stage funded startup, that wants a long-time Google alum on their staff, in leadership. Without even a change in your work ethic. Not even slightly a joke.

Hahahaha. There's absolutely nothing in the OPs post that suggests they would be a good CTO or dev lead. That's exactly the counter to the question made by OP.

[deleted]

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

#869

Post by redisman »

JohnBooty wrote: post #753
notJim wrote: post #532

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen one "10x" developer in my career. The way he worked was basically to leave a massive wake of data corruption, technical debt and bugs that other people would spend months fixing. Management will never notice, because everyone just accepts these things as part of doing business, and doesn't ask any questions about where it comes from or whether it was the right tradeoff. The tech debt itself doesn't bother m…

I've seen one "10x" developer in my career. The way he worked was basically to leave a massive wake of data corruption, technical debt and bugs that other people would spend months fixing. Amen. I've known one real "10x" developer in several decades. He was truly something of a savant. I also worked with another alleged 10x developer. He was quite good, but was also given the bulk of the greenfield work and left a ma…

I've also worked with only one truly "10x" developer and dozens of "10x through technical debt" ones. I've very often had to finalize the famous "last 20%" of their projects which is a fun place to be in. "I thought it was almost done?"

There was one guy who worked extremely hard and extremely thoughtfully who was a master at low-level and high-level languages. Kind of a John Carmack type. But these people are like unicorns who you meet once in a career.

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

#870

Post by justincredible »

thedaemon wrote: post #839
selimthegrim wrote: post #732

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who on earth (in USA I should say) actually listens to their parents in this matter?

These tech guys who's only relationship is with their mother? I'm pretty sickened by reading all the comments on this post. So many incels it's not even funny.

If they are celibate because of their bad attitudes, can you still can it involuntary?
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