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What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

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Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#191

Post by bumby »

taneq wrote: post #183
aliteralrobot wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn’t at all what people by money not buying happiness. Even if your life objectively improves, it’s just a matter of time until your brain adjusts to the new normal and you’re back to the same levels of happiness you were at before the money. It’s pretty much the crowning “feature” of our biological wiring - because if an animal like us in ancient times was blissfully content the moment their lot in life improv…

If you're hungry, or cold, or have no safe place to sleep, money will fix that. If you're just managing to make ends meet and in constant fear of losing your job, money will fix that. If you're overworked and stressed from your high pressure job, money will fix that. In fact, until you're rich enough to be way off the pointy end of Maslowe's hierarchy, money will fix pretty much anything that ails you.

From what I've seen, there's a clear line of demarcation below what you're implying. If I remember correctly, the research says it's around $60k-$75k in the U.S. where the happiness levels out in response to money. I'd have to look it up again to make sure I'm not misremembering

Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#192

Post by logicprog »

AmericanChopper wrote: post #165
taneq wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Having work life balance is somewhat of a luxury, and it's a luxury to be able to say "money doesn't make me happy". It's a luxury to come to that conclusion. Exactly. Any time anyone says "money doesn't make me happy" what they really mean is "I already have enough money that it's no longer the limiting factor in my happiness." The vast majority of peoples' lives and happiness could be markedly improved by giving…

I think this is unnecessarily cynical. I’ve been through multiple periods of both success and extreme hardship in my life. I can confidently say that money doesn’t make me happy, because I’ve managed to be happy at my lowest points of financial stability. If losing financial stability robs somebody of all their happiness, then I’d say they should question whether they were really happy to begin with, or just comforta…

That's totally fair, and I think many people can identify with what you're saying, with a caveat. I think you're talking about a different kind of happiness... I'm not you, so I can't say for sure, but it sounds like you have what I would call "joy" no matter what. Where "joy" is a sense of purpose, of maybe self worth and other things that stay with you even when you may not actually be enjoying yourself at any given time, you can even be sad, and still have an overarching sense of "joy".

I think the other posters mean happiness as the more run of the mill enjoying the moment, enjoying life, am happy about X kind of happiness.

Also, when we talk about happiness vs income, we should actually look at what many people actually say about it themselves, in data (pardon the pun :):

1. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gdp-vs-happiness

2. https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2017/04/Happiness-by-Inco...

3. https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2017/04/Happiness-across-...

I mean, it seems like there is a connection between happiness and income up to a certain level.

Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#193

Post by logicprog »

taneq wrote: post #183
aliteralrobot wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn’t at all what people by money not buying happiness. Even if your life objectively improves, it’s just a matter of time until your brain adjusts to the new normal and you’re back to the same levels of happiness you were at before the money. It’s pretty much the crowning “feature” of our biological wiring - because if an animal like us in ancient times was blissfully content the moment their lot in life improv…

If you're hungry, or cold, or have no safe place to sleep, money will fix that. If you're just managing to make ends meet and in constant fear of losing your job, money will fix that. If you're overworked and stressed from your high pressure job, money will fix that. In fact, until you're rich enough to be way off the pointy end of Maslowe's hierarchy, money will fix pretty much anything that ails you.

In support of your point: https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2017/04/Happiness-across-...

Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#194

Post by cgh »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #101

In many ways, the piece is basically a story about someone young and naive becoming an adult, so to speak. That process gets conflated with "working for Microsoft." I'm a former military wife. The military does a lot of moving around. Affairs are common when spouses are separated. Etc. So that kind of thing is hardly something peculiar to Microsoft. It also sounds like she is European and speaks English as a second l…

No offence, but if you’ve never worked in the particular cult-like pressure cooker that is Big Tech, then you can’t relate. The article was not about culture shock.

Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#195

Post by chapium »

iforgotpassword wrote: post #166
DoreenMichele wrote: post #101

In many ways, the piece is basically a story about someone young and naive becoming an adult, so to speak. That process gets conflated with "working for Microsoft." I'm a former military wife. The military does a lot of moving around. Affairs are common when spouses are separated. Etc. So that kind of thing is hardly something peculiar to Microsoft. It also sounds like she is European and speaks English as a second l…

I didn't particularly read this as blaming Microsoft, but rather big corps in general. I never worked for a company with more than a couple thousand employees, so I can't really relate to anything she wrote.

Agreed, it was partly coming of age and partly corporate culture. The issues with microsoft sicken me a bit, but its not much different than what I have seen elsewhere.

Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#196

Post by Cardinal_ »

andersonmvd wrote: post #177

I am dumb or everyone is missing the point in their comments. It's not about disillusion or work-life balance. It's about how smart people go into submission of the corporate b.s. so quickly and for so long. You can count on your fingers, if you actually know, a place where you can work and derive from it your own fulfillment and generate a real impact to real human beings. People get lost along the way, put money fi…

People are animals before they are humans and life is a battle for survival. Money and sex always come before morals and values. Classic red pill vs blue pill and hardest lesson I ever had to learn.

Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#197

Post by chapium »

Waterluvian wrote: post #17
devinmcafee wrote: post #11

I think many young people in tech learn this lesson the hard way. They get excited with all the free food, laundry services, and events that tech jobs offer. They end up spending all of their waking hours at work and work becomes an identity. Then one day something changes and they realize they spent the last N years of their life at work, not building real lasting relationships, pursuing hobbies, dating, etc. It tru…

I learned this a few years into my career and made major changes to adjust it. I've never felt happier and more fulfilled than this last year where my job is a sideshow and my focus and best hours of the day are spent with my family.

How do you cope with spending the majority of your time being a "sideshow"?

Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#198

Post by Aeolun »

hamburglar wrote: post #140
DoreenMichele wrote: post #101

In many ways, the piece is basically a story about someone young and naive becoming an adult, so to speak. That process gets conflated with "working for Microsoft." I'm a former military wife. The military does a lot of moving around. Affairs are common when spouses are separated. Etc. So that kind of thing is hardly something peculiar to Microsoft. It also sounds like she is European and speaks English as a second l…

Seems to me it's a story about someone who's too impressed with a lot of superficial stuff. The appearance of a "perfect life", business travel, expensive hotels, uber rides (?), overpriced seattle apartments with a great view that you can't actually afford, etc. The irony is that these things are all rather unimpressive to those that actually have them within reach, so citing them as evidence of your lavish lifestyl…

It sounds like you’d have to be in the 1% before this could be something you can casually afford.

At least is still sounds pretty crazy to me.

Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#199

Post by Aeolun »

devinmcafee wrote: post #11

I think many young people in tech learn this lesson the hard way. They get excited with all the free food, laundry services, and events that tech jobs offer. They end up spending all of their waking hours at work and work becomes an identity. Then one day something changes and they realize they spent the last N years of their life at work, not building real lasting relationships, pursuing hobbies, dating, etc. It tru…

I don’t think that’s necessarily bad though. Learn all these things when you are 23~ish

Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#200

Post by ordu »

andersonmvd wrote: post #177

I am dumb or everyone is missing the point in their comments. It's not about disillusion or work-life balance. It's about how smart people go into submission of the corporate b.s. so quickly and for so long. You can count on your fingers, if you actually know, a place where you can work and derive from it your own fulfillment and generate a real impact to real human beings. People get lost along the way, put money fi…

> How come this statement is simply reversed nowadays AND people don't make an effort to change it.

They do.

https://www.kaporcapital.com/ https://socialenterpriseinstitute.co/ https://bcorporation.net/

In the "Lab rats"[1] Dan Lyons tried to give a perspective on the "new kind of capitalism" after he gave a perspective on the current state of the Silicon Valley capitalism. Links above are from his book.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Lab-Rats-Silicon-Valley-Miserable/dp/...

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