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I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

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Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

#451
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a feeling this is even more damaging for Millenials, because they constantly compare themselves with the rest of the world. In a sense, even leisure has turned into competition. When I was in my teens a long time ago I did sports and learned classical guitar. If I had seen the acrobatics you see daily on Reddit or the "casual home musicians" on Youtube, I'd probably have given up all my efforts. Doing a backfl…

I read this a lot online, but strangely enough I see the opposite in practice. Young people who grew up immersed in social media are primed to recognize the difference between a rising social media star and the norm. It's the older people who associate any degree of notoriety with ultimate success who struggle to understand the difference between a super star and someone with a lot of social media followers. > If I h…

> seeing people gain small degrees of fame and notoriety

Small point: "notoriety" is negative (the noun form of "notorious"). Its opposite is "renown". Both notorious and celebrated people are famous and carry, respectively, notoriety or renown.

(I keep seeing this and am hoping "notoriety" will not become an accepted alternative for "renown".)

Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

#452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For last few years, I have been telling myself to take it slow and do what you are doing now. I got a easy but a boring job. I figured this way I will save all my mental energy for my projects after work. But this is slowly burning me out. The boredom of not doing any real work for 8 hours is soul killing. I do a lot of busy red tape work but it is not intelluctly stimulating. So now I will do 180 and quit my job in…

I'm interpreting the "tortoise" comment as slow and steady, not apathetic to the day job. Personally, I put my creative energy into my 9 to 5 job. Instead of using evenings to start side hustles or to "get ahead" on work, I unwind and get adequate rest. This is so I can be alert and switched on during my regular work hours. I've found stretching myself thin starts to affect me quickly, and I feel like I'm actually op…

I really tried to dedicate myself to my day job but I work in a large IT corp where most people are apathetic to their jobs. Even my managers told me to take it easy, And that's when I tried my best to accept the culture and save my mental energy for personal projects.

Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

#453

I was incredibly driven about 7 years ago... I was a founder of a startup and had really lofty aspirations. I told my wife that it was very possible that we would be millionaires by the time we hit 40. Fast forward to today and that did not happen. The startup is no more, but mainly due to burnout. We made money and did well, but not well enough. I never made my millions, but did have a substantial aqui-hire opportun…

I like that. Thanks for sharing it. I'm 58. I spent over thirty years, writing and managing software projects that other people generally didn't use well (or mishandled while developing). It was frustrating, but they paid the bills, so there wasn't anything I could do about it. Since leaving my last job, I started to look at working, and immediately , and with extreme prejudice, slammed into the notorious ageism in t…

Do you want to work together on a thing?

Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

#454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For last few years, I have been telling myself to take it slow and do what you are doing now. I got a easy but a boring job. I figured this way I will save all my mental energy for my projects after work. But this is slowly burning me out. The boredom of not doing any real work for 8 hours is soul killing. I do a lot of busy red tape work but it is not intelluctly stimulating. So now I will do 180 and quit my job in…

How about being a security guard? There are some cozy, chill, nothing-ever-happens places where you can just sit there at night, maybe do a couple of walks but other than that you could work on your projects! This way you have a steady job that will also be beneficial for pension (adds to work years), and you can work on projects that will pay off later. Do not forget to bring your laptop!

Sounds amazing but it might be hard to focus. In my country, there is no pension. Healthcare is an issue, my wife works for hospital but my health insurance is so much better than hers. We will switch to hers but this pandemic make us a little nervous.

Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

#455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“ If you live in a city and want to live somewhere affordable, you're often looking at 1hr+ of commute each way” Here’s a suggestion: don’t live an hour away from work? With more companies going permanent remote, I find the whole concept of commuting for 2 hours round trip a day unimaginable. Especially for those of us working in Tech that don’t need a physical presence to deliver results.

Tell that to the voters who decided to put in Yet Another Lane on the highway instead of building housing closer to jobs. I'm going to wind up being remote for a year, and my job still refuses to let us work remotely permanently. So sorry, it's not that simple.

do you mind sharing what type of job? is it tech? are you a programmer? asking because not everyone on HN is a programmer.

Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

#456

I was incredibly driven about 7 years ago... I was a founder of a startup and had really lofty aspirations. I told my wife that it was very possible that we would be millionaires by the time we hit 40. Fast forward to today and that did not happen. The startup is no more, but mainly due to burnout. We made money and did well, but not well enough. I never made my millions, but did have a substantial aqui-hire opportun…

I like that. Thanks for sharing it. I'm 58. I spent over thirty years, writing and managing software projects that other people generally didn't use well (or mishandled while developing). It was frustrating, but they paid the bills, so there wasn't anything I could do about it. Since leaving my last job, I started to look at working, and immediately , and with extreme prejudice, slammed into the notorious ageism in t…

You just became the first GitHub profile I follow. Good luck bro! I’m still just 35 but I know I’ll face the same music in 20 years or less.

Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

#457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like that. Thanks for sharing it. I'm 58. I spent over thirty years, writing and managing software projects that other people generally didn't use well (or mishandled while developing). It was frustrating, but they paid the bills, so there wasn't anything I could do about it. Since leaving my last job, I started to look at working, and immediately , and with extreme prejudice, slammed into the notorious ageism in t…

Do you want to work together on a thing?

That depends. I’m only interested in doing stuff I want to do; the way I want to do it.

Most of that stuff is now water under the bridge. I’m pretty hesitant to get into the industry, in its current state. Not much fun to be had.

I’m already committed to working on a nonprofit, but we’ll see how that develops.

Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

#458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dream is so far out of reach, it doesn't even exist. Yet we chase the money anyways. Thank you for explaining.

Many people chase money just to chase money, because they think that it will make their life wonderful. And many of them are disappointed when they get money (if they do), because it didn't make their life suddenly wonderful. I think that's the point you're trying to make, and it's a valid one. But you're making it in such an extreme way that it makes you sound completely disconnected from reality. I can want a nicer…

Money has consequences. When rich people get old, they suddenly find themselves surrounded by enemies, conspiring to hasten their deaths. I've personally seen it happen thrice now. And before that I was hearing about it happening to friends of my own well-heeled friends.

So I guess I'm just curious to see why people want to put themselves in that position. To me, a nice house and a happy spouse just doesn't inspire me to walk around wearing a massive target on my back y'know? To me, "1 million dollars" just sounds like "a whole lot of Trouble", especially for those who are not good with the legalities of trusts, estates, etc.

Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

#459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my buddies who works at Google basically lives in a hacker commune so he can pocket most of his earnings post tax. Not sure quite what he does with it.

Sits in an account until the day that he gets suckered into marriage and home ownership

After that a messy divorce and funds are in lawyer and exwifey account and back to the commune

Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

#460
post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you have kids? I feel like that is a hard stop and pushes you beyond burn out with sleep deprivation and all your undivided attention, free time and career notwithstanding.

I guess you have babies? It gets easier!

Nope, but my siblings had their first and I witnessed how life altering of an experience it was for them where they had to put their careers on hold and nothing else mattered other than this new born (justifiably so), pregnancy was also rough for the wives so the husbands has double duty, taking care of newborn at all hours and recovering wives from c-section and complications. Not looking forward to the first year.

Got any tips?

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