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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?

#961

Post by wpietri »

0x262d wrote: post #931
wpietri wrote: post #415

Earlier 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…

The latent shallow male entitlement is gross. However, there is a valid point made that if all the single, unhappy men became cool and attractive, many would statistically still be out of luck. So my suggestion is that in addition to becoming interesting, learning about feminism, etc, they should also recognize the statistical disadvantage as the socioeconomic problem it is, and fight those broader socioeconomic cond…

Yes, absolutely. My one quibble is that I think their point is slightly less valid in that if the men in question got it together to become better humans (and therefore better partners), the imbalance wouldn't be nearly as bad. Partly on the socioeconomic level, because then their companies wouldn't be alienating or excluding so many female employees. But also on the personal level, because somebody from their past might see them as a good catch.

But yes, they should definitely be fighting the system, not getting mad at women and/or society at large. Of course, the whole of incel culture is pretty good at explaining why no woman wants to come near them.

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

#962

Post by o-__-o »

throw_this_one wrote: post #478
o-__-o wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>That intrinsic motivation isn't there it took me leaving a job that i thought i was stuck in to find my inner musician, snowboard daily, and ultimately start my first business. sometimes being an employee is just a soul-sucking adventure

Yeah just having to be at my office for 9 hours makes me sleep worse, and drains your spice for life that you would normally be able to parlay into diving into your interests. Did you just quit and spend a year or whatever with your interests and thinking of business ideas?

I took a new job in a new city. Moving to the new city made me focus on my interests, I think after realizing that I could leave work at 4pm and head straight to the mountain made me realize I have control of my life. I spent 2-3 months exploring this, then ideas just sort of came out of the woodworks. Taking control of my life was instrumental to pursuing the business idea. I wouldn't have put up $30k before then, and it took losing $30k in this venture to realize the freedom that owning your own business really provides.

I ended up quitting the new job and for the next 6 months worked on a business plan and opened up shop. Today I am back to sitting in a strict 8-5 and spend all of my free time honing the next venture.

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

#963

Post by antisthenes »

dunkelheit wrote: post #681
darkerside wrote: post #463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

You write like "what women are looking for in a man" is some absolute thing, but it is decidedly not! It is highly context-dependent. As an extreme example, there are some places on Earth where simply not being an alcoholic can make you a desirable mate.

Hey, don't talk about my home country like that! :)

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

#964

Post by aynyc »

ZuckMuckerberg wrote: post #942
aynyc wrote: post #830

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10-18 hours a week or 10AM - 6PM work schedule?

10am–6pm work schedule. That's ~7 hours of work with ~1 hour of lunch.

Thanks! Pretty cozy hours. Do you feel your work is more than you can handle?

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

#965

Post by swiley »

saagarjha wrote: post #863
swiley wrote: post #708

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Yes that’s what I meant to say.

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

#966

Post by Zanneth »

asdff wrote: post #542
jspaetzel wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Software engineering can be hard and it can be tedious, either or neither... I think it's what you make of it. That's one of the most entrancing things about it to me. It's one of the few jobs that's truly "choose your own adventure". There's a thousand ways to solve every problem and you get to decide the difficulty at every turn.

This is the sinister part to me, that the right way is so hard to find, if it even exists. Try something -> get error -> fix error -> working might be ok for most uses, but this probably isn't going to yield the best way of doing things. It's the equivalent of building a bridge, watching it fall apart, then figuring out how to artfully tie a rope around the bridge to keep it upright, rather than just designing a brid…

Humanity has built a /lot/ of bridges that have fallen apart before we were able to learn how to do it correctly. It’s sometimes easy to forget just how young the software industry is.

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

#967

Post by scottishfiction »

collyw wrote: post #960
scottishfiction wrote: post #956

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m explicitly not making any claims about the affect of parenthood on performance in saying that in the absence of any evidence, it is as likely to make you better as it is worse. The burden of proof lies with the GP, who sees it as a risk.

I highlighted the claim that you did make and asked you to respond to that.

My point is that I didn’t make a claim, I refuted GP’s by saying that either outcome is equally likely as there’s no proven link between parenthood and performance. If GP wants to claim there’s a negative causal link, the burden of proof lies with them.

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

#968

Post by read_if_gay_ »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #908
read_if_gay_ wrote: post #719

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And how about the strawman? GP didn’t argue that parenthood may make OP lose his job, but that he already is in a position where he might lose his job due to underperforming previously. And if that happens, he’s unquestionably better off without kids.

Is he really in any risk of losing his job? I do not see how either your or OP came to conclusion. I have met people who were under impression they were performing poorly, but actually they were doing great work. They just were disinterested in the job, which is a different issue.

The point is OP won't know if he it at risk, and yes Imposter Syndrome exists, so it's true that we don't know whether he really is at risk or not. But having kids still raises the stakes a lot.

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

#969

Post by read_if_gay_ »

scottishfiction wrote: post #967
collyw wrote: post #960

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I highlighted the claim that you did make and asked you to respond to that.

My point is that I didn’t make a claim, I refuted GP’s by saying that either outcome is equally likely as there’s no proven link between parenthood and performance. If GP wants to claim there’s a negative causal link, the burden of proof lies with them.

You didn't refute GP, you refuted a strawman. And snidely.

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

#970

Post by achillesheels »

thatsenough wrote: post #504
WWLink wrote: post #492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

;_; You know what sucks? I have to pay ridiculous rent for a house in an LA suburb and I make only a fraction of that lol. Dang!

If it's any consolation, most engineers here are not senior/staff engineers and they make less. Rent here is very steep (~$3500/month is the median price for an old 1-bedroom in San Francisco), but the home prices are really insane. Also, there are many companies and start-ups up here that pay much less. Lots of people scrape by, and lots of people move away. I personally really like LA (which is not something I can…

I grew up in the Bay Area, and while I miss the culture, I do not miss its homogeneity. Los Angeles is truly a world-class cosmopolis, but it can be grinding because of the entertainment buggers. San Diego to me is a better alternative, and where I would go to raise a family. In the meantime, I enjoy the abundance of world-class cultural opportunities in a late 80’s 2br with garaged parking for $2350/mo in West LA!
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