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Why I hate the weekends (2017)

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Re: Why I hate the weekends (2017)

#81

Post by duncan-donuts »

rb808 wrote: post #36

Honestly I hate these self-absorbed, live-is-tough posts by Software Developers doing creative work in a nice air conditioned office. Get a real job, try milking a few hundred cows at 6am, work as a cop in a bad city, or outside in construction when its freezing or scorching hot. Not to mention doing it on a 20k wage with a few kids. I get it, figuring out how to get our software working can require a lot of thinking…

I started my career in the trades and I’m now a software engineer. You’re totally right. Software engineering is a pretty great job. The biggest difference I find is with the ability to turn off. When I worked in trades when the day was done it was done. The work was physically harder, but not as mentally tasking. With my work now I find that it can take me as much as 10 days[1] to truly stop thinking about the problems I work on. So, sure, we have it okay in software, but let’s not pretend it’s not difficult.

1) this is my own experience when I went on paternity leave for a month. Despite having a lot going on in my home life it took me over a week to let go of work and focus on my family.

Re: Why I hate the weekends (2017)

#82

Post by existencebox »

rayiner wrote: post #74
GuardianCaveman wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So by your logic you can work 80 hours a week but because you’re inside an office and not a barn you lose you’re right to want a better work life balance? Where is the cut off for not being able to complain or is it like a spectrum? 20k wage with kids is bad you say what about 30k with 1 kid? Is that too easy? Cop in a good neighborhood? How good does the neighborhood have to be before you can’t complain anymore? You…

> Where is the cut off for not being able to complain or is it like a spectrum? Wherever the cut-off happens to be, software developers are far past it.

That's absurd. I've worked in call centers, as a mover, and as a software engineer. There are perfectly valid reasons to complain across the spectrum. Worker rights are not some limited good that only need to go to the most vulnerable, and even white collar workers should be aware and proactive about fighting for better treatment in the workplace. Being well paid has not prevented me from seeing egregious workplace interactions across many of my past jobs, or observing that workers could likely get a more generous slice of the tradeoffs we give our employers without in any way being inequitable.

Re: Why I hate the weekends (2017)

#83

Post by quickthrower2 »

sverige wrote: post #45
rb808 wrote: post #36

Honestly I hate these self-absorbed, live-is-tough posts by Software Developers doing creative work in a nice air conditioned office. Get a real job, try milking a few hundred cows at 6am, work as a cop in a bad city, or outside in construction when its freezing or scorching hot. Not to mention doing it on a 20k wage with a few kids. I get it, figuring out how to get our software working can require a lot of thinking…

I suspect many people's exhaustion may come from the suppressed awareness that the work on which they're spending so much time and energy is ultimately futile, ephemeral, and perhaps even harmful. I felt the same way some years ago and decided to completely change my life to focus on family time and work that provides a sense of real accomplishment. I'm a few steps lower on the social ladder, I suppose, but my life i…

Do you mind sharing your before and after job role?

Re: Why I hate the weekends (2017)

#84

Post by pjc50 »

nathan_f77 wrote: post #53

Some possible solutions: 1) Ask for a 30 hour work week, or find a company that can offer this. Your salary should still be high enough to aim for a comfortable retirement at 65. 2) Adopt a more frugal lifestyle and increase your savings rate. You need to save a few million dollars to retire with $40-$80k in investment income. It should be very possible to do this with a backend developer's salary over a period of 10…

"Average pension pot at 55. On average those aged 55-65 currently have £105,496 saved in pensions, according to research released by Aegon in June last year": hmm.

Re: Why I hate the weekends (2017)

#85

Post by glangdale »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #75
VyperCard wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd wish i was one of the 1%

Global 1% is about $34k. $100k gets you to the 14th percentile in the US. $150k gets you to the 94th percentile. If you're a developer in the first world, you're incredibly rich and privileged not just by historical standards, but by real world modern standards.

Global 1% is a daft standard for, well, anything. Most of those $34k in a first world country are going to be spend chasing goods that are incredibly expensive by both historical and real world modern standards (positional goods and goods subject to Baumol's cost disease).

This leads to a bizarre narrative (especially roping in 'historical standards') - "hey, your health care may be dire, your education is haphazard, your food is non-nutritious and repetitive, and your living situation is precarious, but you have TV and better plumbing than a king from 100 years ago".

Re: Why I hate the weekends (2017)

#86

Post by Consultant32452 »

glangdale wrote: post #77
Consultant32452 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno, I find it off putting when the 1% complain about how tough their lives are. It would be more palatable if it were surrounded by intense gratitude they are afforded off the backs of the less fortunate who are doing the grinding work of keeping the world functioning. But the gratitude is practically nonexistent.

If we reach a point where, to paraphrase the Situationist International, "the last Koch brother is strangled with the guts of the last Sackler", I'll feel a lot better about people like you attacking members of the professional upper middle class for having the termerity to complain that working life isn't all that fun ("hey, at least you're not picking through a garbage heap on Manilla"). Until then, it seems a bit…

Yes, you have it better than almost anyone who has ever existed in the history of the planet, but there's no need for an ounce of gratitude for that as long as someone else might be even better off.

Re: Why I hate the weekends (2017)

#87

Post by andrepd »

rb808 wrote: post #36

Honestly I hate these self-absorbed, live-is-tough posts by Software Developers doing creative work in a nice air conditioned office. Get a real job, try milking a few hundred cows at 6am, work as a cop in a bad city, or outside in construction when its freezing or scorching hot. Not to mention doing it on a 20k wage with a few kids. I get it, figuring out how to get our software working can require a lot of thinking…

Honestly I hate these self-absorbed, life-is-tough posts by farmers doing work in a nice spacious barn.

Try having your entire village razed by US-backed troops, your family killed before your eyes, your daughter raped and dismembered and then yourself sold to slavery and working in a mine 18 hours a day.

See where that goes? Nobody gets to complain about anything unless they're the absolute worst-off person in the world?

Re: Why I hate the weekends (2017)

#88

Post by jlg23 »

rb808 wrote: post #36

Honestly I hate these self-absorbed, live-is-tough posts by Software Developers doing creative work in a nice air conditioned office. Get a real job, try milking a few hundred cows at 6am, work as a cop in a bad city, or outside in construction when its freezing or scorching hot. Not to mention doing it on a 20k wage with a few kids. I get it, figuring out how to get our software working can require a lot of thinking…

> I get it, figuring out how to get our software working can require a lot of thinking, but compared to most of the people out there its a sweet gig. Stop complaining.

"The worst part is there is hardly any time for resting the mind and body. Our jobs can be mentally and physically demanding."

I don't see how any other "too much" job is excluded; you are blaming the author for his background alone.

For your example: If you have to milk "[n] cows every morning at x o-clock", you are done after n cows every day. If you design large software or manage larger projects, you are done once - when it's done. At least I don't take my physicial work home each day, but when working mentally I do this every day in worst case.

I have done a lot from "both" worlds and honestly don't see much of a difference between aching bones and an aching mind for my private life.

Re: Why I hate the weekends (2017)

#89

Post by andrepd »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #63
hassan_shaikley wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of our ancestors were like you we wouldn't have a 40 hour work week

I dunno, I find it off putting when the 1% complain about how tough their lives are. It would be more palatable if it were surrounded by intense gratitude they are afforded off the backs of the less fortunate who are doing the grinding work of keeping the world functioning. But the gratitude is practically nonexistent.

You can have gratitude for what you have and strive for improvements.

Re: Why I hate the weekends (2017)

#90

Post by throwaway713 »

The "no free time" issue for me is not due to work; it's due to being married — which is a choice I made knowing that I would lose a lot of "me" time. Every so often my wife visits family on the opposite coast for a week or two and suddenly it feels like bucketloads of time have appeared out of nowhere. I imagine once I have children (which I hope to have in the next few years), I will feel even more pressed for time, but I accept that this is just the nature of that decision.

Everything is really about trade-offs, but I think if you are single, a 40 hour work week is probably not enough to make you feel like you are on a hedonic treadmill. I'm currently working at my dream company, but over the next few years, my goal is to reach financial independence as quickly as possible via some side project. 95% of startups fail, but at least in the valley, most of these startups are VC funded and have big ambitions. I'd say if your goal is to simply reach $2-3 million for financial independence, the failure rate is a bit lower for some small project that fills a niche market need.

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