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Ask HN: What you up to? (Who doesn't want to be hired?)

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Re: Ask HN: What you up to? (Who doesn't want to be hired?)

#231

I won the IPO lottery and I’m in the middle ground between rich enough to never work again but not quite rich enough for the yachts/mansions/private jets lifestyle. I haven’t worked in 6 months and I’m struggling to find a larger meaning to my life beyond getting yet another tech job. I’ve considered going to college for a math degree, moving to my parents home country, and joining the military (among many other opti…

What were the events leading up to getting such a big equity pay out? What # employee were you? Was it options/RSUs? What % of the company do you have? How long did you work there? I ask because I am at a series B, and I'm very optimistic for our future. But I am only employee #100 or so and don't see a big payout for me barring a multi billion dollar exit (a little too far fetched). I'm just curious how it all goes…

Also what % do you have out of interest? I'm outside the US so I feel my % is less than you'd get at US startups that generally compensate better. Obviously % isn't everything but it's a metric to track.

Re: Ask HN: What you up to? (Who doesn't want to be hired?)

#232

I won the IPO lottery and I’m in the middle ground between rich enough to never work again but not quite rich enough for the yachts/mansions/private jets lifestyle. I haven’t worked in 6 months and I’m struggling to find a larger meaning to my life beyond getting yet another tech job. I’ve considered going to college for a math degree, moving to my parents home country, and joining the military (among many other opti…

Happy B-Day!

Looking for external sources of happiness is likely a losing battle. Keep your eyes open and you will likely see somewhere to be useful/maybe even create something that both helps others and makes something for yourself to get to the yachts stage. In the mean time, try working on relationships around you and maybe volunteer/give back with something more valuable than money - yours skills and experience. Good luck!!!

Re: Ask HN: What you up to? (Who doesn't want to be hired?)

#233

I won the IPO lottery and I’m in the middle ground between rich enough to never work again but not quite rich enough for the yachts/mansions/private jets lifestyle. I haven’t worked in 6 months and I’m struggling to find a larger meaning to my life beyond getting yet another tech job. I’ve considered going to college for a math degree, moving to my parents home country, and joining the military (among many other opti…

Do you perchance like to teach? Maybe lectures like traditional classes, but there's a huge need for mentors to young folks with interest in technical fields, particularly in underdeveloped countries (in many such cases merely talking to them in English is already a lot of help!)

I know I'd like to do that, but I've always liked teaching so maybe it's not fitting to everyone.

E.g. I volunteer at a local (Brazilian) nonprofit org as part of my employers' give-back programs and I love it. I try to get (underpriviledged) kids interested in computer science concepts by discussing how they are applied in games. It is all remote (which adds a level of challenge)

I'd believe many such orgs exist. In fact, writing this it occurs to me that putting together a curated list could be a worthwhile effort.

Re: Ask HN: What you up to? (Who doesn't want to be hired?)

#234
Outside of the day job, trying to scrape together some projects that scratch whatever itch I have at the moment.

I'm trying to learn kanji and it was a fun exercise to learn how to render svg in unity so I made a free iOS and Android app:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kanji-book/id1532844605

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bmalicoat....

More recently during the pandemic, I wanted a simple way to stay connected to friends and family so I made an async multiplayer word game, Downwordly. I was super psyched when Apple made it game of the day a few months back! Still have to learn how to market it in non-scummy ways :)

https://www.downwordly.com/

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/downwordly/id1544633266#?platf...

Coming to Android very soon!

Re: Ask HN: What you up to? (Who doesn't want to be hired?)

#236

A couple of things. All unfinished (of course). First idea, a website that combines Reddit (or HN) and Discord. The goal is to create ephemeral, real-time communities (like this thread). I find discord too exclusionary to bring strangers together. And reddit is not dynamic enough to encourage relationship formation. With this site, you post a thread, people start chatting, there's a simple interface for groups of peo…

> And reddit is not dynamic enough to encourage relationship formation.

What do you mean by "dynamic"? I think the reason it can be hard to make friends on reddit (and other social media) is because friendships require repeated meetings. The population of reddit is massive and the mechanics of the site make repeatedly meeting the same individual unlikely. Also, the design of reddit can make it difficult to recognize people (they'd need to have a distinctive and memorable name).

Discord fares better because there are many small communities and hanging around often results in talking to the same people repeatedly.

Re: Ask HN: What you up to? (Who doesn't want to be hired?)

#237
Hobby wise, getting into the espresso rabbit hole where you spend $1000 for each 2% better you make your coffee (ok I jest!) and trying latte art too. Learning all this from youtube.

Working part time because of fatigue. Making coffee a good hobby as its purely at home.

Re: Ask HN: What you up to? (Who doesn't want to be hired?)

#238
post #209

A couple of things. All unfinished (of course). First idea, a website that combines Reddit (or HN) and Discord. The goal is to create ephemeral, real-time communities (like this thread). I find discord too exclusionary to bring strangers together. And reddit is not dynamic enough to encourage relationship formation. With this site, you post a thread, people start chatting, there's a simple interface for groups of peo…

One little vote from the internet :) would love the first idea!

With all the positive feedback I think I'll slam out the MVP this weekend. Hopefully have a cool ShowHN soon!

Re: Ask HN: What you up to? (Who doesn't want to be hired?)

#240
Haven't won the IPO lotto like some here but I'm comfortable financially and don't have a family. Thus my pay check mostly just ensures a nicer lifestyle, which doesn't seem to be enough to keep me motivated in the tech world. Hoping to try to do some side projects in order to give more external value to my day job:

1.) Imgur is just full of ads and annoying to use these days. Wondering if a high scale image sharing site could be built and hosted for next to free? Cloudflare gives away unlimited bandwidth and other services can be utilized for pennies. By scaling back on some nice-to-haves like perfect latency, just how cheap could it be done?

2.) Interested in building a hedgefund but for the common person. Right now, IMHO, the middle and working classes pay for a lot of what society values in the US. They're not rich enough to skirt taxes and QE money printing reduces their wealth and spending power while increasing the wealth of the rich. How might we utilize the securities markets to restore wealth building power to the average citizen? I have some ideas.

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