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Ask HN: What has your work taught you that other people don't realize?

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Re: Ask HN: What has your work taught you that other people don't realize?

#61

Post by godot »

turkthrower123 wrote: post #33

When a company uses the word "family" to describe themselves, run for the hills!

This is repeated often on HN, but I feel like it generalizes too much and is not always accurate. My last company specifically had "We're a team, not a family" as a core value. The company and team always had an air of arrogance around everyone and while nothing stood out as a giant red flag, it was never really that comfortable of a place to be in. My current company regularly uses the term family to describe themselves, but the overall vibe feels a lot nicer than my last place and it does not have an overwork culture; it actually has great work life balance.

[Edit] It's not a time thing. I was at my last place for 1.5 years. I've been at my current place for 1.5 years now and am happy to stay for long term.

Re: Ask HN: What has your work taught you that other people don't realize?

#62

Post by clarry »

tehwalrus wrote: post #21
goatinaboat wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t count it as lying unless there is intent behind it. But it is certainly true that many people’s deeply held beliefs are not as true as they think they are, myself included obviously. The more experienced you get, the fewer absolute truths there are.

I think I agree more with the parent than with you, particularly in engineering. Lying in engineering means saying anything that's not true with any certainty. I wouldn't hold it against someone, but I would ask them to think carefully before speaking, to make sure what they said is true, as it can lead meetings to decide the wrong actions if nobody present happens to be able to contradict it. Outside of engineering,…

Lying is saying something you know to be not true.

Saying something you don't know to be true is just spewing bullshit or practicing a religion.

Re: Ask HN: What has your work taught you that other people don't realize?

#63

Post by tasogare »

tempsy wrote: post #11

Little correlation between effort and reward My biggest payday came from a junior role at a startup I got extremely lucky at

Probably the most important of the thread. Working smarter > working harder and communicating about your work and its impact is as important (sometimes more) than the work itself.

Re: Ask HN: What has your work taught you that other people don't realize?

#65

Post by collyw »

badtuple wrote: post #35
jl6 wrote: post #6

The taxonomy of jobs that most people have in their minds is extremely simple (doctor, lawyer, teacher, builder, engineer, window cleaner, garbage collector, astronaut, ...) and is mostly based on a grade-school understanding of what kind of jobs people do. But the reality is that there are millions of types of jobs, with incredible variety and specialisms, and the real content of a job is rarely captured in a job ti…

Not only that, but the incredible depth of pretty much every field. Not every practitioner dives deep, but the masters of any job leave me speechless.

Having worked filling shelves in a supermarket, I disagree that it applies to every field.

Re: Ask HN: What has your work taught you that other people don't realize?

#67

Post by timeattack »

Kind of obvious one, but I wish more people knew that — critical thinking.

On the one side it helps to avoid bad/stupid things in life: quackery medicine, scammers, bad investments, etc.

On the other side it allows to peep deeper into things and see more choices even in ordinary life. After some practice you gain nearly magical ability to peel couple of additional layers from reality and to see non-obvious things everywhere.

Re: Ask HN: What has your work taught you that other people don't realize?

#68

Post by thenewnewguy »

Maven911 wrote: post #4
brudgers wrote: post #2

Physical labor correlates to social status not intelligence.

Unsure what that means, can you elaborate

Traditional view: Jobs with a high amount of physical labor are low skill, so people with more skills (i.e. intelligence) have jobs with less physical labor.

Your parent's opinion: This view is incorrect, people with higher social status, not higher intelligence, receive jobs with less physical labor.

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