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Ask HN: Why do software engineers always focus on salary and early retirement?

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11–20 of 39 posts

Re: Ask HN: Why do software engineers always focus on salary and early retirement?

#11

Post by renholder »

Principally, for me, it's not the principal of not enjoying the work. The issue is better aptly stated as: Is this what I want to be doing when I'm 70?

I knew a guy in his 50's, worked at the same place for thirty years. Died at work (of a heart attack). There's so many other things in life than just work.

...but the beautiful thing about our profession is that we can keep coding, whether we're employed or not (FOSS). So, why would't you want to race to retirement, to be able to do the other things that you love (say, surfing every morning or painting or hiking or what-have-you) and still code? That's the best of both worlds, really.

Re: Ask HN: Why do software engineers always focus on salary and early retirement?

#12

Post by paulcole »

> I can see this be the case at blue collar types of jobs. But across many professions (medical doctors, researchers, professors, ...), people are actually interested in their work!

TBH this reads as pretty patronizing and shows a fundamental disrespect/misunderstanding of blue collar workers.

Re: Ask HN: Why do software engineers always focus on salary and early retirement?

#13

Post by brett40324 »

Because you don't regularly see published hype from the ones NOT in the camp of get rich, retire. You're own perception based on 'software engineers' and 'always' is wrong, and is based on the last 10 years tech startup culture mirage. Everyone wants to be a rockstar, then producer, then record label owner, but not everyone wants to play in the band everyday just cause they love it.

Re: Ask HN: Why do software engineers always focus on salary and early retirement?

#16

Post by umlautae »

It’s a cultural thing too. People in the US generally tend to have a certain idea of a life timeline: before the retirement and after. Not so in many other places. This book has a great discussion on this topic and more https://www.crossculture.com/product/when-cultures-collide/

Re: Ask HN: Why do software engineers always focus on salary and early retirement?

#17

Post by muzani »

jansan wrote: post #2

I am in my mid-fourties and I can tell you one thing: When you get older, your brain gets slower. And that it not helpful for writing code. There are very bright yong people, and they want a pice of the cake, too. Therefore, it is getting harder, and often frustrating, to keep up with all the changes, and if you do not keep up, your knowledge may be obsolete soon. Therefore I STRONGLY recommend to focus on high salar…

I'm a way better programmer than I used to be 10 years ago. In fact, it's a career choice that seems to age well. A lot of the "programming" skill set is technique, avoiding mistakes, knowing what things to do. These all improve in time.

You don't even have to think faster; things like loops, algorithms, and testing mostly remain the same across languages, but are already burned into your brain as muscle memory.

Re: Ask HN: Why do software engineers always focus on salary and early retirement?

#18

Post by hacknat »

You’re getting a sampling bias in your data, because you’re taking it from this community, which is (duh) focused on getting rich with risky ventures.

There are definitely those of us here who are in it for the technology and are passionate about what we do (i.e. software engineering). I love computer programming. I hope to be doing it until I physically can’t anymore.

Re: Ask HN: Why do software engineers always focus on salary and early retirement?

#20

Post by IpV8 »

Finding work that you love and will continue to love for 40 years is really really really hard

They focus on high salary because they can. In other careers there are no high salary options so they can't,

They focus on early retirement because they can. Others would do if they could pull it off. Also as a result of high income and great job security have nothing else to worry about. Gotta worry about something, right?

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