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

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

#221

Post by reactspa »

zzzcarrot wrote: post #189
reactspa wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment is pure gold. I found Scott Adams' recent books and Daniel Kahneman's work profoundly influential in changing my "observed personality" (i.e. the psychology I project to the world), and making me an order of magnitude more effective in dealing with work issues/co-workers. Please share a few books (or perhaps authors/youtubers) that you learned from. Thank you.

Can you elaborate on the observed personality thing? How do you do this?

E.g.: I'm a jeans & t-shirt kinda guy. However, I now dress a little more formally (business casual) because it leads to better outcomes. I've not gotten around to wearing suits even though that would be even better.

A little more strategic: I usually wear at least one item of clothing with my employer's logo visible on it. (Gives off a "corporate citizen" vibe.) A far cry from the recent past when I'd carry a laptop-bag with my ex-employer's (and a competitor of my current employer's) logo on it.

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

#222

Post by razodactyl »

You’ve lost your edge. This is actually pretty common amongst technical fields. You lack the inspiration required to achieve more either from life or work factors. Look after yourself as a priority and ground yourself. Your job is clearly stable enough to help you correct your foundations.

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

#223

Post by Ocerge »

wolco wrote: post #180
wayoutthere wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have; I was a software engineer for over a decade before I moved up through architecture and laterally into product. Those problems are tedious. Not difficult.

10 years ago everything was tedious but possible because you had full control. Now it's super easy until impossible/difficult.

> Now it's super easy until impossible/difficult.

That's interesting, I've never thought of it this way. I'm bored out of my mind at work more often than not due to not having full access to a monolith where it's actually possible to understand/work on the whole thing. Instead, I have to work until I hit a black box/3rd party and I have to either work around it or knock on the black box and ask the proprietors for help. I know that's a generalization, but it's a real cost of componentization of everything into services and the like, at least in the web world. It's _super_ fucking easy to get like 95% to a solution to almost anything on the web, but that last 5% where you spend the most time is like a constant root-canal.

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

#224

Post by reactspa »

abledon wrote: post #164
reactspa wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment is pure gold. I found Scott Adams' recent books and Daniel Kahneman's work profoundly influential in changing my "observed personality" (i.e. the psychology I project to the world), and making me an order of magnitude more effective in dealing with work issues/co-workers. Please share a few books (or perhaps authors/youtubers) that you learned from. Thank you.

which scott adams books? loserthink?

Start with "How to fail...", then "Win Bigly", then "Loserthink". "How to fail..." is the most important IMHO.

Also, read up on this: https://www.ribbonfarm.com/the-gervais-principle/

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

#225

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

fearface wrote: post #220
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This blows my mind that in the US one can make such insane money in tech while still being a slacker and retire early with a dream house bought and paid for while in Europe devs are slaving away through SCRUM powered meat grinders burning themselves out for a 3% salary increase on a pitiful 40-80k/year, no stock options, without any hope of early retirement or owning a decent home without a 30 year loan or financial…

No, that’s not generally true in Europe. It depends solely on the company. During the first 12 weeks of fatherhood, I worked two days instead of five and my perceived productivity stayed the same. As an expert slacker and procrastinator, you can slack in many places. Salaries in IT are generally very good in all European countries and if you manage your salary well, you’ll buy a house when you’re in the mid-thirties.…

Which country and domain are you in?

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

#226

Post by mixmastamyk »

You’re in a rut. Take a long vacation aka sabbatical. Don’t fill your day with activities, let your mind wander. Climb mountains, go skydiving perhaps.

At some point what you want should come into focus. Don’t be too quick to quit the job, save up first and buy some income investments.

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

#227

Post by [deleted] »

rzzzt wrote: post #126
wayoutthere wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

How do you figure out what really matters?

[deleted]

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

#228

Post by agitator »

goatherders wrote: post #50

You don't realize how good you have it: 1. you work for a company that is an excellent resume booster outside of the valley. I'm from central texas and most everyone I know in tech has worked at Dell and once complained how boring it was to work at Dell. The moment they decided to move away from Austin their Dell experience made them very hot commodities to non-Austin tech companies. Every day you stay at Google the…

I think this highlights the fundamental problem with hiring at many large companies. They think they are getting the best, but are they? They sure are overpaying for their employees.

I think if OP isn't motivated enough to learn, excel, and build cool things on the side while he has a catered life at google, I don't think she/he will put in much effort elsewhere? That intrinsic motivation isn't there. And it honestly doesn't make sense to leave, take a pay cut, and hope that you will be given responsibilities to do new things that require learning. If you haven't been learning new things on the fly, you missed years of practice trying new things, and they won't give those responsibilities to you.

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