Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 1001 posts

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#71

Post by booleandilemma »

wayoutthere wrote: post #65
dash2 wrote: post #13

It's sad and revealing to see the other comments here. Many of them say, don't seek fulfillment in your job, just keep on cruising. What a change from the exciting atmosphere of the 2000s. Seems like software engineering has become a safe, dull career nowadays. Don't listen to them. Your 20s are the time to learn, push yourself and discover who you are. Autopilot is for middle age.

Software engineering just isn't that hard. Tedious yes, but not remotely difficult. We've been fed the narrative of economic success that many folks have forgotten what personal success looks like. You can be successful in your career and still feel like a failure. Therapy is the answer here. You have to un-brainwash yourself from the notion that your job is your life and figure out what really matters to you. Then f…

Software engineering just isn't that hard. Tedious yes, but not remotely difficult.

Come back and say this after you’ve had to fix concurrency bugs or had to maintain some overseas contractor’s terrible codebase with no documentation.

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#72

Post by filoleg »

throwaway_googl wrote: post #48

I have three friends at Google who are nice, smart people, but terrible employees. All three of them seem to be doing just fine in their Google careers. One is very smart, but he's been telling me literally for years that he has zero motivation, to the point where he sometimes won't actually start working until 6PM. He's moved around within Google trying to find something he's interested in, but it's just the same th…

I think that might be what inspired the “rooftop assignment” plotline in the first season of Silicon Valley.

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#73

Post by enitihas »

We are highly lucky to be in a time where it is very easy to switch among high paying jobs across various companies. If you are able to get by with 10% of your mental capacity, I am sure you would be able to land up a lot of jobs. I would recommend you apply to many places, and take it from there, depending on the interviewing experience.

I don't think you really need to learn anything special for job interviews. There is no necessity to understand special technologies, as most good companies are fine as long as you have any experience with similar things.

I would also recommend you read books on programmers. I recently read "Masters of Doom", and it might open your eyes into goal driven programmers and their impact on the world.

Also, out of curiosity, which companies do you think have a higher hiring bar than Google?

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#74

Post by yazaddaruvala »

sjg007 wrote: post #38

If I were you, before I would do anything, I would first go to therapy and work with a therapist. That or pick up a good CBT book. To me, it sounds like you have a lot of questions to resolve first. I would do that before you change anything. For example why do you think you are doing a minimal amount of work and does that actually mesh with reality? How do you define and measure work output anyway? You mention deali…

This is a great answer. I was going to say something very similar, but rather than a therapist, I’d recommend meditation!

Talking to yourself about yourself and seriously debugging, can be a lot of effort but long term, it is very rewarding.

I always say to people, “Emotions and intuition are just a complicated set of logic you don’t understand yet”.

Emotions can be a fog in your mind, blocking you from seeing the path from where you are to where you want to be.

Putting in the time to understand the root causes of your emotions, start to help map your mind and you can better navigate and find paths to your final goals.

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#75

Post by anigbrowl »

Why not work for yourself instead of getting hired? After 6 years at Google you probably have some cash in the bank. Also, consider the possibility that maybe you don't enjoy programming just because you're good at it. What do you daydream about? You mention dating/breakups/depression and gaming (arguably a form of escapism), so it sounds very much like you have some unfilled emotional need. If that's family based you need therapy of some sort, but you also need to find something to do that satisfies you rather than hoping a partner will fix you somehow.

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#76

Post by munmaek »

furyofantares wrote: post #64
munmaek wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, most comments say to find fulfillment through personal projects/hobbies. Work is work; it doesn't necessarily have to be the most satisfying or fulfilling experience ever. That's always going to be the case if you're working for someone else. Earning a boatload of money (and saving it) to retire early isn't anything to scoff at. This also assumes one can find a more fulfilling job elsewhere (with ideal compensati…

We spend a LOT of time at work. It's ridiculous not to seek fulfillment at work as well as elsewhere. Edit: I think maybe I didn't communicate well. I just mean that being fulfilled at work can be _very_ significant because work is such a huge part of our lives whether we like it or not. And so not _seeking_ fulfillment in work can be a huge blind spot. I didn't mean to imply it should be prioritized above all else,…

In an Ideal World, sure.

The Reality that most people live in is that we need money to pay the rent, like right about now. This limits the opportunities available to us because we simply cannot wait to find a fulfilling and justly compensated job.

I simply will not work for low(er) income just to satisfy my need for fulfillment (at work). You know what's better than that? Financial security. Retiring Early. Owning my own house instead of renting.

I would rather get paid a lot of money and not really work on very interesting things, if that meant I could retire a lot earlier and then do whatever I wanted for the rest of my life.

When work ends for the day, I work on my personal & open source projects, or engage in other intellectually stimulating activities like learning a language, etc.

I think the only exception at this point would be me taking slightly lower pay if it meant living and working comfortably abroad, because I want to live abroad for an extended amount of time, personally, so that tradeoff would be fine for me. In all likeliness that's going to be exactly what I do after I own my own house (at 26yo), and work under my own consulting business.

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#77

Post by damnyou »

rkagerer wrote: post #43
jboggan wrote: post #5

If you can not only survive at Google but slack along well enough to get promoted once on "10% of your mental capacity" I'd stay right where you are. You aren't going to find a better place to earn money for equivalent effort and it sounds like you've already adapted to the ecosystem. Sounds like you need an interesting side project or just a meaningful hobby. Don't go looking for the missing sense of fulfillment you…

Strong disagree! I can't believe all the advice here telling you to stay in a situation where you don't feel challenged. Clearly you wouldn't have written the post if you were content with the status quo. Find a role you thrive in, doing work that musters your enthusiasm. Whether it's at Google or elsewhere. Yes, it means giving up the cushy freeride, but there's no substitute for the deep sense of pride and satisfac…

Doing capitalism better is the least interesting way to find fulfilment. Find a partner and build a family instead. Or find a hobby.

I know because my thoughts used to be very similar to yours.

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#78

Post by jspaetzel »

wayoutthere wrote: post #65
dash2 wrote: post #13

It's sad and revealing to see the other comments here. Many of them say, don't seek fulfillment in your job, just keep on cruising. What a change from the exciting atmosphere of the 2000s. Seems like software engineering has become a safe, dull career nowadays. Don't listen to them. Your 20s are the time to learn, push yourself and discover who you are. Autopilot is for middle age.

Software engineering just isn't that hard. Tedious yes, but not remotely difficult. We've been fed the narrative of economic success that many folks have forgotten what personal success looks like. You can be successful in your career and still feel like a failure. Therapy is the answer here. You have to un-brainwash yourself from the notion that your job is your life and figure out what really matters to you. Then f…

Software engineering can be hard and it can be tedious, either or neither... I think it's what you make of it. That's one of the most entrancing things about it to me. It's one of the few jobs that's truly "choose your own adventure". There's a thousand ways to solve every problem and you get to decide the difficulty at every turn.

Re: Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

#80

Post by weinzierl »

jboggan wrote: post #5

If you can not only survive at Google but slack along well enough to get promoted once on "10% of your mental capacity" I'd stay right where you are. You aren't going to find a better place to earn money for equivalent effort and it sounds like you've already adapted to the ecosystem. Sounds like you need an interesting side project or just a meaningful hobby. Don't go looking for the missing sense of fulfillment you…

I have no clue what working at FAANG is really like, but from the comments I read it is said to be very much an "up or out" culture. So I wonder how it is even possible to stay for six years with only one promotion and how long this is going to go well?
Post reply on HN