The best decision in your life that changed your life's trajectory, i.e that made your life more secure or financially independent or brought lots of happiness etc etc.
Ask HN: What is the single most important decision you took in your life
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Re: Ask HN: What is the single most important decision you took in your life
#2Leaving college and joining the US. Navy. I was able to travel the world,get paid,& learned how to be a functioning adult. Im now a lead for a Alphabet X project with decent pay.
Re: Ask HN: What is the single most important decision you took in your life
#3College -- I recently did the math and figured the tuition alone for my in-state education in Ohio was something like $22k. Doing software engineering consulting in the valley, it's not hard to bill that in a _month_ -- granted I've been out of college for 15 years and I have a ton of relevant experience, but overall, for me, an education has had huge financial upside that continues to pay off.
Re: Ask HN: What is the single most important decision you took in your life
#4I hit my singularity when I realized that you can take as much time off as you want if you are prepared to take it unpaid.
1996: 3 weeks
1998: 10 weeks
1999: 4 weeks
2000/1: 20 weeks
2002: 6 weeks
2003: 36 weeks
2004: 32 weeks
2005-2010: ~36 weeks (9 months)/year
2011-2015: 12 weeks
I recently went heads down for a few years, when kid #1 was born, working as close to a full-time gig as I can bear to sock away college savings, pay off houses, and get my product businesses to the point where they support the family full time. But now you can stick a little Infinity symbol at the end of that chart.
Software is one of the few professions where you can effortlessly switch back and forth between High Paid Professional and Dirtbag On The Beach. For months at a time, for years on end, without harming your career or affecting your retirement savings.
Re: Ask HN: What is the single most important decision you took in your life
#5Building up the energy to go to a party when I had one of the worst hangovers I've ever had in my life. Met a girl at the party and 4 months later, decided to leave my life in England to travel for 10 months, and then moved to Australia to be with her.
Nearly 6 years later, and I am 2 months away from having an Australia passport and pretty much every facet of my life is better.
Re: Ask HN: What is the single most important decision you took in your life
#6Moving country.
Re: Ask HN: What is the single most important decision you took in your life
#7I hit my singularity when I realized that you can take as much time off as you want if you are prepared to take it unpaid. 1996: 3 weeks 1998: 10 weeks 1999: 4 weeks 2000/1: 20 weeks 2002: 6 weeks 2003: 36 weeks 2004: 32 weeks 2005-2010: ~36 weeks (9 months)/year 2011-2015: 12 weeks The work equation changed to: (how much do I need to travel for another 9 months) / (hourly rate) = (hours I need to work on this next c…
How do you get to the point where you can easily switch between "High Paid Professional and Dirtbag On The Beach"?
As someone just starting his career this concept is slightly foreign to me.
Any general tips?
Re: Ask HN: What is the single most important decision you took in your life
#8I hit my singularity when I realized that you can take as much time off as you want if you are prepared to take it unpaid. 1996: 3 weeks 1998: 10 weeks 1999: 4 weeks 2000/1: 20 weeks 2002: 6 weeks 2003: 36 weeks 2004: 32 weeks 2005-2010: ~36 weeks (9 months)/year 2011-2015: 12 weeks The work equation changed to: (how much do I need to travel for another 9 months) / (hourly rate) = (hours I need to work on this next c…
How do you get to the point where you can easily switch between "High Paid Professional and Dirtbag On The Beach"? As someone just starting his career this concept is slightly foreign to me. Any general tips?
Contracting was how I did it initially. That's just about getting provably good at something so that you know you can always pick up an onsite gig with an email or two before flying back to the 'states.
Recently, a lot more shops have opened up to remote work, so it's much easier. You can plant yourself on that beach while still working mostly full time. And you don't need to have built up the leverage and reputation to quickly find work when you need it. All you need do is impress the folks you're working for enough for them to put up with your occasional timezone switches.
I've worked with guys doing that as part of their first job out of school.
Re: Ask HN: What is the single most important decision you took in your life
#9Leaving college and joining the US. Navy. I was able to travel the world,get paid,& learned how to be a functioning adult. Im now a lead for a Alphabet X project with decent pay.
'decent pay'
Re: Ask HN: What is the single most important decision you took in your life
#10Getting away from everything that I know.
I was born and raised in the States so it was all I knew about the world. Now that I've lived abroad for several years, in different countries, I don't know when or if I'll ever return. It's too interesting to be confronted with new/different experiences, on a regular basis, to want to go back to something I know so well.
There's a world map on my wall currently, with all the flags and countries listed underneath it. The other day I counted how many of those countries I know now (13) vs how many more there are to get to know (183), I feel like I've barely seen anything. Now if I could only earn more, that world map would look a lot smaller.