Learning some of the language and culture before interacting with native speakers; useful for travel and for teaching ELL students, as it honors their cultural experience and helps develop reciprocal relationships.
Ask HN: What's the most rewarding investment you've made in your career?
21–30 of 44 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's the most rewarding investment you've made in your career?
#22Moving to contracting/b2b had a much larger effect on my quality of life than I anticipated. I don't lose sleep over the insurance or investment options my employer provides. Flexible hours with most contracts. I feel more in control of my life.
Mind if I ask what your path was to get into that? I’m only in the 2nd year of my career but I think that’s the direction I’d like to go eventually, and as a veteran I have benefits (healthcare etc) that follow me no matter where I go that I think would help take the pressure off a bit.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most rewarding investment you've made in your career?
#23[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: What's the most rewarding investment you've made in your career?
#24Moving to a larger city with interesting people. Hands down. I dislike the politics and disagree with a lot of how the city runs, but I've met more likeminded founders, engineers and investors than I would've in a lifetime where I lived prior. I'll give a hint "silicon prairie" - smart people congregate in cool places, there's a reason they're expensive.
which city?
Re: Ask HN: What's the most rewarding investment you've made in your career?
#25learning Vim well
Re: Ask HN: What's the most rewarding investment you've made in your career?
#26Easy answer: the extra time spent every day helping my daughter with her homework. This has paid off enormously. Not because she's a grade-A student (far from it; she has a lot of difficulty). But because I've been able to consistently, calmly teach her the following skills that I'm now starting to see her pick up: 1. Everything looks difficult the first time. The hardest step is always the first one. Take a deep bre…
I am framing this comment because especially today I needed to hear/read something like this :)
Re: Ask HN: What's the most rewarding investment you've made in your career?
#27Moving to a larger city with interesting people. Hands down. I dislike the politics and disagree with a lot of how the city runs, but I've met more likeminded founders, engineers and investors than I would've in a lifetime where I lived prior. I'll give a hint "silicon prairie" - smart people congregate in cool places, there's a reason they're expensive.
which city?
Based on "Silicon Prairie" and OP's focus on startups/founders, I would strongly suspect Austin.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most rewarding investment you've made in your career?
#28Moving to contracting/b2b had a much larger effect on my quality of life than I anticipated. I don't lose sleep over the insurance or investment options my employer provides. Flexible hours with most contracts. I feel more in control of my life.
Mind if I ask what your path was to get into that? I’m only in the 2nd year of my career but I think that’s the direction I’d like to go eventually, and as a veteran I have benefits (healthcare etc) that follow me no matter where I go that I think would help take the pressure off a bit.
I set up my business about a year before switching from full time employment so I had the option to do b2b work.
I would say I feel into it, a former coworker mentioned a contract to me that was b2b. I would say my contracts have been word of mouth for the last 3 years or so.
Edit: When talking with recruiters I frequently ask if b2b is an option, I would say 30% of the time it seems to be.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most rewarding investment you've made in your career?
#29Re: Ask HN: What's the most rewarding investment you've made in your career?
#30Learning to code was the best investment I ever made. Financially, I bought Sun Microsystems for 7 and a couple of years later sold it for 70 at the height of the dot com bubble because I had read "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" and knew a crowd mania when I saw one. Like crypto now.
Thank you for sharing the title of that book.