Medium is such a PITA
I just don’t want to be busy anymore
321–330 of 463 posts
Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore
#322Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, staff does not get big payouts anymore because investors want that money. If you're a founder you might get rich
Plenty of staff got rich from the Uber / Airbnb / snowflake etc IPOs though.
> Plenty of staff got rich from the Uber / Airbnb / snowflake etc IPOs though.
GP said "anymore", so I assume he was talking about newer startups.
Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore
#323Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
You're making $300k and not financially comfortable starting a family?
Welcome to SV
Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore
#324As 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…
If you're open to try new approaches, meditating may help.
Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore
#325I don't sacrifice my health or family life for money or any prideful work. Thus, I set my boundary to avoid burnout.
Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore
#326One 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…
First, employees stop caring for their employer's goals.
Next, they are upset when MailChimp sells and they don't get their options (apparently believing that receiving options is their sacred right protected by God, Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human rights).
Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore
#327Earlier quoted context omitted.
> You're probably not going to get rich from working a day job. If you make a middle class salary, underspend your income by at least 10%, max out your 401k and IRA, invest in stocks, and start doing this in your 20s, yes, the odds are pretty good you will.
This also assumes that one has already won the lottery of birth.
If you were born in the US, and are of sound mind and body, you won the lottery.
Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore
#328Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
That’s my main issue with the way our society is structured. There’s a class difference between those who own a property and those who don’t even if they do the exactly same job. I don’t even talk about the people who have not done single contribution to the society and live of on the rent of inherited properties.
It’s like the peasants who work all day and have nothing when people from blue blood are having generations living of their backs in castles.
Having an elite is fine, it’s even better when class movement is feasible but when you have a large class of people doing nothing or rewarded drastically differently for the same input, things are not fine.
Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore
#329Earlier quoted context omitted.
My TC increased 7-10%/yr each year I was there, so the promise is inline with expectations. Me and my partner just can't wait 2 years for 25% when I can have 2x now. Even with 2x, raising kids will be financially challenging.
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…
A little bit of everything you said. I didn't start working in software right away. I didn't complete my (non-CS) degree, and so thought a career in software was out of reach. Right at the beginning I was shot down without interview by a bunch of companies because I had no industry experience. Once I had my lucky break (massively underpaid but fun work with good people) everything changed.
Every time I've changed jobs to date I've had multiple job offers. 3 years ago I had 3 offers from 3 different companies. This time around I had the same - 3 offers, 3 companies. Just in the last 5 years my salary has increased 6 fold.
My basic philosophy with respect to compensation is to take home enough to maintain the lifestyle you want + 20% extra to save and invest.
Re: I just don’t want to be busy anymore
#330Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Yes, it does depend a lot on the environment.
Many cases, the stakeholders don't have an appreciation for what you're suggesting or even the consideration to balance your workload:
"Oh, thanks for bringing the problem to my attention, let me just add that to your massive pile of work and make it a P1 like everything else - and this problem space is also now your responsibility forever because you're (in my mind) the expert on it"
- unfortunately, there are many managers that operate this way. Just clueless.
That's why i always advocate a cautious, cynical, self preserving approach but again depends on the env and your relationships.