This Is Your Life in the Midwest • Hacker News Board

Re: This Is Your Life in the Midwest

#11

Post by atombath » Thu, Aug 18, 2016, 2:57 PM UTC

jrjarrett wrote: post #10

atombath wrote: post #2

> ...you dream about what your life would have been like if you left the Midwest after college and moved to Silicon Valley or Seattle. You think about how much money they make out there. Then you remember that money doesn’t buy happiness and you’re content with settling down and having a family... You try out cost of living calculations and they say you'd need to make 250% your current salary on the west coast. Annoy…

Having read the inspiration article, I chuckled at the seemingly satiristic tone. Then I read this one and cried. There's a lot of truth here (I live in WI). >You try out cost of living calculations and they say you'd need to make 250% your current salary on the west coast. Annoyed at the seemingly impossible move, you tell yourself they'll be rioting over water shortages soon anyways. After all, do you even want to…

I didn't feel that the author was really from the Midwest. The inspiration article felt like a self-mockery which is what made it special... but the Burger King stuff was where this really started to sound like the outside looking in. I felt the need to apply some actual midwestern(Detroit, MI) thoughts/barbs. =)

Re: This Is Your Life in the Midwest

#12

Post by typedef_struct » Thu, Aug 18, 2016, 3:07 PM UTC

Damn, this is even more depressing than the other one.

Apparently the secret to happiness is not having kids. And not spending more than you make. Actually that last one is true.

Re: This Is Your Life in the Midwest

#13

Post by ArkyBeagle » Thu, Aug 18, 2016, 3:28 PM UTC

So get rid of the camper and ATVs, take 1500 sq feet off the house, REALLY evaluate if your wife's job covers the costs of it, drive an old car, at least buy frozen food at Sam's/Costco rather than Burger King and it's quite different, isn't it?

Kids' college? They'll have to do it themselves. Hopefully, there's one near enough to work out, or they can qualify for scholarships.

But, of course, drinking beer at work outweighs all that...

Re: This Is Your Life in the Midwest

#14

Post by ArkyBeagle » Thu, Aug 18, 2016, 3:32 PM UTC

QuarterReptile wrote: post #6

oldbuzzard wrote: post #3

Wow! My life in the Minneapolis strongly resembles my former life in Seattle. I have walkable/bikeable neighborhods, good local restaraunts and food coops/farmers markets, etc etc The problem isn't the Midwest, it is suburbia. I've know contractrs at MS like in the article. Plenty of folks in Boston or Northern Virginia or RTP are living in the far suburbs and working in unsatisfying jobs they aren't good at... nothi…

To take this a step further, you don't even have to be in a substantial city to get the walkable atmosphere. Granted you'll suffer a smaller variety of restaurants, but there are towns of just 10k or 20k that manage to get things right, and some of them are really cool places. It's really all about suburbia. It's isolating, expensive, and unproductive. The places that come to grips with this fact soon (or already) wi…

Suburbia is all about cost per square foot. It's not going anywhere. It'll just be apartments rather than single family detatched.

At least in the US, we're not exactly constrained by land availability. And as you may notice, the sustainability of NYC and SF style property prices isn't guaranteed.

Re: This Is Your Life in the Midwest

#15

Post by blast20 » Thu, Aug 18, 2016, 3:43 PM UTC

People are taking these articles too seriously. Obviously, this is very tongue in cheek.

Re: This Is Your Life in the Midwest

#16

Post by AlwaysRock » Thu, Aug 18, 2016, 3:56 PM UTC

I'm confused because the article is written by Max Ehnert who from looking at his linkedin has only been working as a software dev for roughly two years. He's painting the picture of a life he hasnt lived?

Re: This Is Your Life in the Midwest

#17

Post by swalsh » Thu, Aug 18, 2016, 4:33 PM UTC

Delmania wrote: post #8

Having felt the way the author expresses in this article, I can honestly say the sentiment expressed here has nothing to do with the suburbs, the Midwest, or having a corporate job. It has everything to do with settling and accepting the status quo. I could list a number of things the person here could do, but seriously, this reads like someone who is not happy with his current situation but does not want to put the…

Sometimes changing your life doesn't mean putting in extra effort, but taking extra risks. If you have a family and a mortgage taking those risks might not be palatable.

Re: This Is Your Life in the Midwest

#18

Post by ArkyBeagle » Thu, Aug 18, 2016, 4:41 PM UTC

Delmania wrote: post #8

Having felt the way the author expresses in this article, I can honestly say the sentiment expressed here has nothing to do with the suburbs, the Midwest, or having a corporate job. It has everything to do with settling and accepting the status quo. I could list a number of things the person here could do, but seriously, this reads like someone who is not happy with his current situation but does not want to put the…

It's easy to get in a rut. It's especially easy when you have a lot of distractions.

Kids are a big distraction. One of the magical things about my wife is that she handles a lot of distractions for me. Most women just won't. It's slightly unfair to her, but she's a Professional Mom and extremely good at it. As has been noted in literature, it's all but impossible to price this.

The downside is - one stream of income. And it's been pretty scary when I've gotten laid off.

Re: This Is Your Life in the Midwest

#19

Post by ArkyBeagle » Thu, Aug 18, 2016, 4:47 PM UTC

QuarterReptile wrote: post #4

I think I must miss the point of articles like this. Is this author trying to warn us of downward spirals he's seen? Impart his priorities upon us? There are a lot of articles here that try to isolate and analyze pivotal traits or habits. This is the opposite, throwing everything you can imagine into one big, confused soup of "what caused what?". It could also be that this is a common mindset, but I just haven't met…

I really read the article like a "Trouble Brewing" "Far Side" cartoon. Guy thinks "going into management" will mean the skies will open up; guy is overleveraged and one layoff away from bankruptcy, maybe divorce, who knows? Guy is clearly not "management material" in the eyes of his employer, which is a dwindling enterprise with probably an end date.

The main thing he: he depends on credit vendors for establishing limits on spending.

I've lived in 'burbs all my life, and most people are pretty happy with it. I mean it's nice to have a forced exercise program with "walkability" but it's hardly critical and hard to substitute for.

Re: This Is Your Life in the Midwest

#20

Post by Delmania » Thu, Aug 18, 2016, 4:57 PM UTC

swalsh wrote: post #17

Delmania wrote: post #8

Having felt the way the author expresses in this article, I can honestly say the sentiment expressed here has nothing to do with the suburbs, the Midwest, or having a corporate job. It has everything to do with settling and accepting the status quo. I could list a number of things the person here could do, but seriously, this reads like someone who is not happy with his current situation but does not want to put the…

Sometimes changing your life doesn't mean putting in extra effort, but taking extra risks. If you have a family and a mortgage taking those risks might not be palatable.

You can still find risks that are palatable. The person described in this article mentions a desire to work for a Silicon Valley startup. That's not possible, but why not look for local startups? Or ones that offer remote positions? I did just that.