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Why I hate the weekends (2017)

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Re: Why I hate the weekends (2017)

#221

Post by throwaway713 »

underwater wrote: post #161
goldenchrome wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Earn 250k on average across 15 years. This is quite conservative for FAANG. In California, you'll take home about 150k. Each year, live frugally off 50k and put away 100k in index funds. Over 15 years, you'll gain 7% real annual returns from the stock market. In 15 years you'll go from $0 to $2.5m. At a very conservative safe withdrawal rate of 3.5%, you can withdraw about 85k per year for the rest of your life. If y…

You are describing an outlier of an outlier. To follow your advice our developer has to have well above average skills (250k salary would be relatively senior even at FAANG), be single and live in a share house for 15 years (50k would cover rent for a family in areas with high tech salaries, nothing else) and the tech sector has to remain strong for 15 years (looking back 2004 was 4 years before the financial crisis…

> 250k salary would be relatively senior even at FAANG

Not at all. I joined a FAANG company less than a year ago, am not a software engineer, and I'm at about $250k. Senior software engineers are closer to $400k-$500k. See levels.fyi.

EDIT: You mentioned salary, but I think you're referring to total comp. Base salary at these companies is indeed lower than $200k except for non-senior positions.

Re: Why I hate the weekends (2017)

#222

Post by squeaky-clean »

ajmurmann wrote: post #209
toomuchtodo wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So let’s legislate a four day work week. The productivity gains to justify it already exist, they’ve existed for decades.

I wonder if that would have to happen globally. We are still competing with companies in other countries. Chinese startups subscribe to the 996 schedule (9am-9pm, 6 days/week). I'm not sure if 954 allows us to compete.

Why not? We're currently competing with 955.

Re: Why I hate the weekends (2017)

#223

Post by dorkwood »

I’ve tried to think of a way out of this, but so far none of my ideas are very good.

1) Use my spare time to study a more lucrative field, and negotiate a four-day work week. The pitfall here is that I need to spend all of my spare time working, so that I may be able to work less in the future (and it’s not guaranteed that I will).

2) Move to a country where the cost of living is cheap, and freelance with international clients. The pitfall here is that I have to move away from all the people I care about. I may also end up introducing more stress into my life by living as a foreigner and relying on a freelance income.

3) Invest all of my time into starting my own business (for pitfalls, see 1).

4) Negotiate a four-day work week on my current wage, live a much more ascetic lifestyle, and only save a small amount of money for my future.

5) Marry into a wealthy family.

6) Find a duffel bag with a few million dollars in it.

Does anyone have any better ideas?

Re: Why I hate the weekends (2017)

#224

Post by camwiese »

Narushia wrote: post #108
_mqpu wrote: post #12

I used to work a 4-day week (a true 32-hour week, not 4 x 10 or something) and it was the greatest thing I've ever done. All the "weekend stuff" you can do on your extra day, and get two full days off. I can't believe how great it was.

Though I’m young and have little work experience, I’ve already started to think that a ~30-hour work week would be optimal for the rest of my life. My current work place is very flexible in work hours and days, so I decided to do 6-hour days. I think it leaves me enough time to get daily activities & hobbies done and relax. I really enjoy my work. However, I still occasionally think to myself “man, this kinda sucks”.…

I'm in a similar state of mind. Would love to hear about what you're working on!

Re: Why I hate the weekends (2017)

#225

Post by chillwaves »

coldtea wrote: post #203
jniedrauer wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the United States, the median household income is over 60k. Income is not the same thing as wealth. I will say that there is a significant reduction in stress and jump in wellbeing between 30k and 40k. Beyond that, there is very little actual difference. As my income increases, all it does is reduce my time until retirement.

> the median household income is over 60k Household income is not the same as one person's wage. The media household income includes tons of couples where both are working. And while "income is not the same thing as wealth", still making 80k in income (not wealth) puts you at the top 13%. You get into 1% of USA is 300K. As for the world, 80K (net) income put you at 0.1% globally. http://graphics.wsj.com/what-percent/

So they will have high net worth when they die prematurely due to stress and poor lifestyle.

Re: Why I hate the weekends (2017)

#226

Post by dceddia »

Narushia wrote: post #108
_mqpu wrote: post #12

I used to work a 4-day week (a true 32-hour week, not 4 x 10 or something) and it was the greatest thing I've ever done. All the "weekend stuff" you can do on your extra day, and get two full days off. I can't believe how great it was.

Though I’m young and have little work experience, I’ve already started to think that a ~30-hour work week would be optimal for the rest of my life. My current work place is very flexible in work hours and days, so I decided to do 6-hour days. I think it leaves me enough time to get daily activities & hobbies done and relax. I really enjoy my work. However, I still occasionally think to myself “man, this kinda sucks”.…

You can build up a reputation on the side by creating educational "content" (ugh I hate that word) in the form of written tutorials, videos, etc. While you're building up that reputation + backlog of content, you can also be building an email list of people who like your stuff. Then you'll have an audience ready and waiting if/when you launch a product.

It's not necessarily fast, but it can work! I started in 2015 blogging, wrote & launched a book in 2016, and quit my job in 2018 to focus on my own products. I don't make nearly as much (yet!) but 100% of my time is my own and I can grow it at my own pace.

Re: Why I hate the weekends (2017)

#227

Post by chillwaves »

RugnirViking wrote: post #166
RugnirViking wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Theres a reason that accountants of old are characterised as sullen and miserable people, and its not because they were poor. Happiness for the most part is resiliant to physical hardship - happiness indexes among countries are almost completely unrelated to GDP. Working this kind of mental & menial work clearly is missing something important that I'm confident we will one day understand a lot better. Perhaps its sim…

Theres this fundamental idea we have as a society that people are fundamentally able to do as they please at all times, which is pretty much just a lie. Almost the entire time we are awake, our body is doing things without us consciously deciding to do them. Only afterwards our brain spends time rationalising itself and constructing a sort of post-hoc rationalisation. It's amazingly adept at this, to the point where…

This is a primary core concept in mindfulness/meditative practices. That and to disassociate with our thoughts and minimize our ego.

Re: Why I hate the weekends (2017)

#228

Post by chillwaves »

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.

I would rather be making less in a country with universal health care and subsidized housing. Making more but living on the knife's edge is not my idea of freedom.

Re: Why I hate the weekends (2017)

#229

Post by ta81747 »

All of this is a choice.

You can choose to live a different life. In 20 years in tech, its the rare person who asks "should we?" instead of "can we?"

Should you work yourself to death? Probably not. Can you? Sure. Was it a well considered choice to do so?

Re: Why I hate the weekends (2017)

#230

Post by james_s_tayler »

Synaesthesia wrote: post #67
darkmighty wrote: post #58

What I don't understand here: Why can't we just work less ? I know it's not trivial, but it can't be impossible either. I doubt he would starve if he got a part-time dev job (are those easy to find? I have no idea). I agree wholeheartedly with all that he said. I think a life of work-home-work without breathing is almost meaningless unless you can have possibly unreasonable amounts of fun and freedom in the job (few…

The biggest reason is because bosses don’t want us to. They want to make as much money as possible, and that’s about it really. The good news is we have made progress, through mass action, people have won the right to weekends, fewer hours and other rights. The final battle is one to win control of the workplace itself, a self-managed and owned workplace.

Just go work at Mondragon.
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