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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

#301

Post by pjerem »

rizzaxc wrote: post #294
pjerem wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you but it’s easy to not have this end goal when you are already rich just by doing your job.

I dont follow. Do you mean doctors are rich so they dont have to care? Last I checked a doctor needs 10 years since high school to make any real money. A fresh grad in SV needs 4, sometimes 3. By the time the medical student can legally be called doctor, you and I are already making "obscene money" by their standard

> Do you mean doctors are rich so they dont have to care?

Where am I saying this ? I'm totally ok with "rich" doctors. I totally want the doctor to have its full mind caring about "me" and not how he'll have to pay for his debts.

I'm just saying that it's easy for doctors not to care about money. Not that it's bad or that they are overpaid.

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

#302

Post by dstick »

SquibblesRedux wrote: post #232
tayo42 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest personal lesson from covid and lockdowns was that I dont need to be running at 100% for work all the time. Bertrand Russell wrote about this in In Praise of Idleness

For any who have not seen: https://harpers.org/archive/1932/10/in-praise-of-idleness/ "In Praise of Idleness." Harper's Magazine. By Bertrand Russell

> This is the morality of the Slave State, applied in circumstances totally unlike those in which it arose. No wonder the result has been disastrous. Let us take an illustration. Suppose that at a given moment a certain number of people are engaged in the manufacture of pins. They make as many pins as the world needs, working (say) eight hours a day. Someone makes an invention by which the same number of men can make twice as many pins as before. But the world does not need twice as many pins: pins are already so cheap that hardly any more will be bought at a lower price. In a sensible world everybody concerned in the manufacture of pins would take to working four hours instead of eight, and everything else would go on as before. But in the actual world this would be thought demoralizing. The men still work eight hours, there are too many pins, some employers go bankrupt, and half the men previously concerned in making pins are thrown out of work. There is, in the end, just as much leisure as on the other plan, but half the men are totally idle while half are still overworked. In this way it is insured that the unavoidable leisure shall cause misery all round instead of being a universal source of happiness. Can anything more insane be imagined?

This has been a fantastic read. Thanks for sharing!

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

#303

Post by amelius »

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…

> That's true, but they won't get rich from that career, so I don't understand why they care so much about it.

Perhaps they have company shares?

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

#304

Post by newshorts »

In my 20s / early 30s I worked an insane amount of hours. I got a ton of skills and progressed quickly.

After having two kids, I’ve slowed down a lot, but I believe i can still have just as much impact. I focus my time now, I have hard conversations, I say no to the majority of the things I would have said yes to.

It’s definitely more challenging, but I’m able to keep up by growing in new ways, so keep your head up, you can have a life and get things done. You have to simplify, that’s the hard part.

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

#305

Post by Chyzwar »

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…

It is easy to say. But people characters are well-formed in theirs twenties. If someone is hardworking and motivated, they will work hard and be proactive regardless of project, compensation or whenever they care for the company. It is not something you can switch on and off.

For me, it is better to ride it. Since I am not going to change my approach to work, I will continue to be an expensive contractor until I can live from my savings and pursue my side projects.

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

#306

Post by ikiris »

snowwrestler wrote: post #258
Kranar wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Contractors is overly broad but plenty of contractors work overtime and very long, stressful hours including weekends and holidays. Hospitals on the other hand, you're just downright wrong about that. Not only in general do hospital staff work 12 hour shifts including being on-call and having to work abrupt hours, especially over the past year their hours have been absolutely ridiculous. This includes nurses and MDs.…

I don’t need studies, I have a number of friends and family who are doctors and nurses. You completely missed my point, which is that it is ridiculous for tech companies to compare themselves to a profession that faces literally life and death situations. Comparing to “the past year” (i.e. a historic global pandemic) just highlights the absurdity. Your OKRs are not COVID patients!

My ancedote, and general data, agrees with the other person that your ancedote is wrong and healthcare is one of the most abusive environments in terms of nursing staff levels, hours, and quality of care. It's like you live in a different world.

Healthcare was easily the most toxic environment I ever worked in as well. The CTO literally was happy to quote that he treated it like a sweatshop because thats how you got the most value out of your human resources.

We literally had contractors fall asleep at the wheel and die driving between sites during marathon crunches where people got written up for leaving to eat / sleep.

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

#307

Post by Charlton55 »

Chyzwar wrote: post #305
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…

It is easy to say. But people characters are well-formed in theirs twenties. If someone is hardworking and motivated, they will work hard and be proactive regardless of project, compensation or whenever they care for the company. It is not something you can switch on and off. For me, it is better to ride it. Since I am not going to change my approach to work, I will continue to be an expensive contractor until I can…

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

#308

Post by paulluuk »

5350-uiop-1130 wrote: post #298
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…

I totally agree. Don't be "pro-active" be "re-active" - is my way of putting it. Frankly, most orgs will not reward pro-activity, in fact you can even be punished for it, since if a problem is not yet known by stakeholders then why are you solving it. There have been times in my career where I spotted issues from other teams on preview or staging servers and helped to fix it. Then I later got blamed (or dragged into…

One thing I did learn though, is that if you spot a problem and then report it to the relevant stakeholder, along with a plan for how you think it could be resolved, that's a really easy way to work yourself up in a large organisation. You have to work the politics, not just the code.

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

#309

Post by nvarsj »

antupis wrote: post #281
edmundsauto wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is around $2M in the US, using what the FIrE community says. Does that seem reasonable, Or are you thinking about $20M+ payouts? (That’s what I would need to retire now.)

2M is 140k$ yearly with 7% return. You could live very comfortably almost every where.

If you can manage a consistent 7% return then you should be running a hedge fund.

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

#310

Post by akie »

freyr wrote: post #290
idontwantthis wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Were you making a very small amount then? You said you were in college 20 years ago. Did you start your career very late or do you want an very large salary before you have kids? I made $60K right out of college (far less than 20 years ago) as a software developer at a small consultancy in one of the cheapest cities in the country. People on here are always talking about changing jobs and getting a huge salary increa…

I’m not OP but my numbers are similar. I spent most of my twenties in college and grad school. Then worked in the Midwest in my early thirties making $100k-$130k. I moved to Silicon Valley and took a job for $150k. That was a downgrade considering the much higher cost of living, but it seemed like a good stepping stone at the time. I stayed at that company for way too long working towards a promotion that was dangled…

In the end, those who own the apartments and the buildings will always be able to capture a significant part of the economical output of a city or country.

All that clever software that increased the company's revenue by 10%? A large part of those additional earnings ended up in some landlord's pocket.

We're all just working around the clock so that landlords can increase their rents and sip cocktails.

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