11–20 of 241 posts
I’m going all in on independence, and I’m going to try to make a living with my own bare hands starting from nothing. 500k/year in your last year is "nothing", huh? It really undercuts the entire thrust of the post, because you're starting with a nice big war chest and a hell of a safety net, not "nothing".
Now, as warped as this all seems, this pales in comparison to what some tech people make in finance.
I’m going all in on independence, and I’m going to try to make a living with my own bare hands starting from nothing. 500k/year in your last year is "nothing", huh? It really undercuts the entire thrust of the post, because you're starting with a nice big war chest and a hell of a safety net, not "nothing".
Wow, I'm envious of this rate of internal raises. Is this consistent within Amazon's culture, or other SV companies?
I've found (in the small-town Midwestern shops I frequent, not in the FAANG bubble) that I have to change employers to do better than a token 3-5% annual raise, even if my value to the company is increasing much more quickly.
I've even been heartily congratulated and thanked at my annual review for completing successful, profitable projects in my first year at one job, and offered a reward of a $1/hour raise. I was a bit shocked, as that represented a pay cut when you factored in inflation. They 'capitulated' to an increase of $1.50/hour, which was just about keeping up...had to go look elsewhere to do better.
I’m going all in on independence, and I’m going to try to make a living with my own bare hands starting from nothing. 500k/year in your last year is "nothing", huh? It really undercuts the entire thrust of the post, because you're starting with a nice big war chest and a hell of a safety net, not "nothing".
I've seen the same attitude a lot of times. "I was an investment banker for 10 years but then I moved to Colorado and became a ski bum and I couldn't be happier!" Like alright man live your life but stop acting like you discovered some dark secret that anyone can reproduce. You know you ain't out here paying student loans.
The tl;dr is that when someone is paying you $500k a year then the work itself might not be all that motivating. However, within time, the money isn't enough to motivate you either. You gotta wonder, though, what the rest of the world would think if they stumbled across this kind of blog post.
I’m going all in on independence, and I’m going to try to make a living with my own bare hands starting from nothing. 500k/year in your last year is "nothing", huh? It really undercuts the entire thrust of the post, because you're starting with a nice big war chest and a hell of a safety net, not "nothing".
Yes, I saved a lot. About $1M in liquid assets. But I meant that I'll start with no income, no product, no business. I'll write another post about how I set up my safety net.