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I just don’t want to be busy anymore

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Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore

#151

Post by itronitron »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #84
itronitron wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My two cents... if your inbound baby is your first then a lot of your prior concerns will naturally disappear. If it's not your first then that won't surprise you. Time to be selfish with your time and start distancing yourself from any colleagues that are a time suck. In my humble opinion, the author is either delusional or spinning a yarn when they say they have solicited advice from colleagues. No co-worker is goi…

> No co-worker is going to give you advice that doesn't serve their own interests first. This just isn’t true, unless you’ve managed to find a supremely hostile workplace. I’m always shocked at how cynical some HN comments can be about coworkers. I’ve had my fair share of bad coworkers over the years, but I’ve also found numerous wonderful friends and built lasting relationships with many people. This idea that all c…

I'm not saying they are inherently out to get you, my point is that they're advice is going to be based first on what works for them and not necessarily what best works for the person seeking advice.

I suppose my larger point is that if a person's main source of stress is coming from the workplace then it's better to seek insight from sources external to the workplace.

Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore

#152

Post by ryan_lane »

knightofmars wrote: post #144
dreyfan wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This attitude works at random jobs where you’re replaceable, absolutely. However if you’re a meaningful part of an early team with equity, this is quite literally how you can indeed get rich.

This was how you could get rich. Maybe I'm overly cynical, but I feel that these days VC and founders know all the right tricks to play to remove value from the contributors and reallocate it to the investors.

Nope. You can still get rich from equity, especially by being an early employee. It's all a giant lottery though.

The easiest way is to join companies that are obviously doing well and will likely IPO in 2-3 years. This is still a lottery, but one with much higher odds and a lower potential payout. You can make $600k-1m every few years in equity alone by hopping around these companies.

If you ever wondered why so many people have ~1-2 years of experience at each company on their resume, this is often why. They join, get a decent chunk of their equity grant (in RSUs), then go to another company to get more equity. Some of these companies will do well, others will do poorly. You end up distributing your risk and ensuring you'll get a decent payout.

Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore

#153

Post by argc »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #150
knightofmars wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was how you could get rich. Maybe I'm overly cynical, but I feel that these days VC and founders know all the right tricks to play to remove value from the contributors and reallocate it to the investors.

Yeah, staff does not get big payouts anymore because investors want that money. If you're a founder you might get rich

What do you mean by big payout in this context?

Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore

#154

Post by dexwiz »

lr4444lr wrote: post #28

It's very hard to disentangle how much of this is pressure from your workplace vs. your internalized sense of obligation about work intensity. Parenthood does change a lot of things. But at the end of the day, tech isn't slinging drinks at a bar, or fixing cars, or even like other intense white collar jobs where the stock market closing bell or potential sales target companies office hours put hard time limits on thi…

Less like cogs, more like ants. Not a perfect motion, a squirming mass.

Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore

#155

Post by bumby »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #109

One thing that helped me is not to care so much about my employer's goals. It's almost heretical. But once you embrace this mindset, it does wonders. Or at least, it has for me so far. I think a lot of us want to be proud of the work we do, and we feel that if we slack off, then we shouldn't be proud. But it's the other way around. I think the slackers have it right. You're probably not going to get rich from working…

This is tough if you actually try to have a team-oriented mindset. I’ve worked in groups (hard to really call them a team) where everyone, everyone , stiff armed duties. The end result is that the hard stuff, or low status stuff, never got done. I get there’s a balance, but if you entered a career where you actually care about the mission, it’s hard to just see that mission suffer because people want to take the easy way out. It’s particularly problematic when they are positions of public trust.

Would you want to go to a hospital where the “it’s not my job” attitude is prevalent? Would you hire a contractor to build a house with that attitude? I tend to think the better organizations don’t think in terms of what are peoples “jobs” but what problems actually need solved

Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore

#156

Post by fy20 »

dreyfan wrote: post #135
sillysaurusx wrote: post #109

One thing that helped me is not to care so much about my employer's goals. It's almost heretical. But once you embrace this mindset, it does wonders. Or at least, it has for me so far. I think a lot of us want to be proud of the work we do, and we feel that if we slack off, then we shouldn't be proud. But it's the other way around. I think the slackers have it right. You're probably not going to get rich from working…

This attitude works at random jobs where you’re replaceable, absolutely. However if you’re a meaningful part of an early team with equity, this is quite literally how you can indeed get rich.

"Early team" here meaning a founder or first C-level hire. As an engineer, even as one of the first hires, it's unlikely your equity is going to be life changing unless the company ends up going to unicorn valuations - which most startups will not. Better to ask for market level salaries instead.

Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore

#157

Post by ThrowawayP »

jugg1es wrote: post #118

My problem with the word 'burnout' is that it denotes some kind of final state. I'm sure I've had periods of burnout but it doesn't last more than a day or two. I had a third kid 4 months ago and my company is transitioning from a small to medium-sized company. I am the tech lead/architect on our company's flagship software and I am constantly struggling with the skill sets of my friendly but incompetent members of m…

> "My problem with the word 'burnout' is that it denotes some kind of final state."

It can be. Failing to heed the warning signs can result in a variety of long term medical issues, both physical and mental.

Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore

#158

Post by mooreds »

ryan_lane wrote: post #152
knightofmars wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was how you could get rich. Maybe I'm overly cynical, but I feel that these days VC and founders know all the right tricks to play to remove value from the contributors and reallocate it to the investors.

Nope. You can still get rich from equity, especially by being an early employee. It's all a giant lottery though. The easiest way is to join companies that are obviously doing well and will likely IPO in 2-3 years. This is still a lottery, but one with much higher odds and a lower potential payout. You can make $600k-1m every few years in equity alone by hopping around these companies. If you ever wondered why so man…

How do you get RSUs if the company hasn't IPOed?

I thought that RSUs were limited to public companies (since they are essentially grants of stock, not options).

Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore

#159

Post by tomerbd »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #109

One thing that helped me is not to care so much about my employer's goals. It's almost heretical. But once you embrace this mindset, it does wonders. Or at least, it has for me so far. I think a lot of us want to be proud of the work we do, and we feel that if we slack off, then we shouldn't be proud. But it's the other way around. I think the slackers have it right. You're probably not going to get rich from working…

Do you have OnCall shifts?

Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore

#160

Post by notacoward »

gregd wrote: post #2

As a 54 year old Software Engineer, who has had a nice IT career for over 26 years, I'm spent. This is coming from someone who has always had a growth mindset and had a really hard time sitting still. I used to loathe naps and felt like I was missing out if I took one. Now, I take a one hour nap almost daily and I'm finding that after 1pm I'm basically fried (I start working around 7AM). I'm not sure what to do about…

I'm 56, and a couple of years ago I was very much where you are. I was used to hard work (about a dozen startups over the years), I was used to learning and excelling and being recognized for it. Until I wasn't. To keep a long story short, I was able to retire and took advantage of it.

I highly recommend that you take a good hard look at what it would take for you to get to retirement, and make a plan. It might require cutting back in some areas, but if you don't figure out how to do it then the universe will and it'll probably be worse. Your plan might involve "one last push" to build up savings, or it might involve a "wind down" at a less stressful kind of job that you can sustain for longer. That's up to you. One thing I will say is that I've known several people who tried the "learning new things" route as an antidote to burnout, and it backfired badly. They ended up being even more stressed, unable to perform at their accustomed level, younger colleagues being resentful, etc. Maybe it'll be different for you, but it seems to me that learning new things is best done on your own time - cutting back on work hours to make room if necessary. A sabbatical or a period of part-time work might seem like it's just dragging things out even more, but sometimes it's the right strategy if it keeps you from losing it altogether.

Good luck.

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