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Ask HN: How to optimize your career for happiness?

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Re: Ask HN: How to optimize your career for happiness?

#31

Post by __all__ »

quadcore wrote: post #25

Could that be youre anxious because youre not getting __all__ the "special" attention you think you deserve? If yes, then trying everything in terms of career to get enough attention wont help, getting "attention fix" on hn either. Are you capable of being alone or does that makes you miserable? I dont know what it is, but its not your career. Youre telling it yourself, youve been doing everything right.

You bring a topic I have been myself concerned about but never managed to articulate. I'm usually performing quite well at my job, and easily get "special" attention and recognition which is good. At jobs, I tend to start motivated just by the work itself but at some point, after a few victories, recognitions, salary increases, or promotions I discover myself being that guy seeking attention and recognition and start feeling demotivated if I'm not getting it.

Perhaps, that's the big thing to solve. Being attention/recognition dependants doesn't look like being a good professional.

Re: Ask HN: How to optimize your career for happiness?

#32

Post by Kooshaba »

wpietri wrote: post #9

Happiness depends on a lot on what you truly want, as opposed to what you want to want, so I'd encourage you to get familiar with where those diverge. E.g., a lot of people want to want to get rich, but as you've discovered, more money doesn't actually leave them more fulfilled. If you're finding that hard to discover, a good therapist can help a lot, as talking with a lot of people lets them see patterns an individu…

+1 to therapy.

Specifically, a therapist that cares about your condition long-term. I went through a bunch of therapy apps with very transactional therapy sessions which didn’t get my anywhere. I eventually found a therapist I visit in person a few times a month who has numerous multi-year patients. It’s been an entirely different, enlightening experience.

Re: Ask HN: How to optimize your career for happiness?

#33

Post by Mezzie »

halkony wrote: post #22
Mezzie wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my case, I just took a full time non-tech salaried job and used my tech skills to automate my duties or do them more quickly. So I work 20 hours but get paid for 40. My company is results oriented and they don't care; they're generally pleased as pie I have a little extra capacity for when emergencies crop up.

I'd be interested to know what non-tech work you do. I'm unemployed right now for similar reasons as OP (looking for happiness). Does your current job satisfy the "programmers itch"?

I work in political communications, but that was an accident. I trained/was planning to do tech work for libraries and academic institutions. (So things like working for JSTOR, ProQuest, LexisNexis, etc.) They're not tech companies, but they do need tech expertise, particularly on the back end.

The nice things about academia are that if you're not on the tenure track, you don't have to spin your wheels trying to publish or perish, you get to meet and talk to a lot of intelligent people outside of your field, and they often have a decent work-life balance. The downsides are that you're not going to be working with the newest tech, people sometimes poo poo what you do/there are a lot of status games, and it's SLOW.

It does not satisfy my programming itch, but I prefer for my tech projects to be on my own time and for play.

Re: Ask HN: How to optimize your career for happiness?

#34

Post by Mezzie »

eloff wrote: post #18
Mezzie wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my case, I just took a full time non-tech salaried job and used my tech skills to automate my duties or do them more quickly. So I work 20 hours but get paid for 40. My company is results oriented and they don't care; they're generally pleased as pie I have a little extra capacity for when emergencies crop up.

The idea has crossed my mind before, so I'm quite interested to find someone doing it. What line of work are you in?

I work in political communications, but I trained/planned to work for libraries and academic institutions/companies as a tech person/tech adjacent person. So places like ProQuest, LexisNexus, or being an academic librarian who did research relating to HCI.

Re: Ask HN: How to optimize your career for happiness?

#35

Post by thanatos519 »

Use your career/job to support your life, then get a life. Become an artist, author, clown, or build some awesome technical system because you want it to exist. GPL it.

Don't ask for anything, especially not happiness, from your "career". I put it in quotes because it's conceptually bankrupt.

https://www.roystonguest.com/blog/why-happiness-is-not-a-des...

Re: Ask HN: How to optimize your career for happiness?

#36

Post by yboris »

Optimize it by learning about happiness via Positive Psychology, a direction of inquiry about what makes people happy (above baseline).

One gem from the field: If Money Doesn't Make You Happy Then You Probably Aren't Spending It Right [0].

Great books from the field: Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert [1] and The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky [2]

[0] https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/danielgilbert/files/if-mon...

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Stumbling-Happiness-Daniel-Gilbert/dp...

[2] https://www.amazon.com/How-Happiness-Approach-Getting-Life/d...

Re: Ask HN: How to optimize your career for happiness?

#37

Post by linuxdude314 »

For me the key was to stop trying to find fulfillment in work. It’s a myth that your work needs to provide a deep sense of fulfillment or satisfaction.

It’s important to not hate your job or be in a toxic environment, but work should not be the locus of your happiness.

If you don’t have a hobby try and find one you like!

For me learning to appreciate beauty in the small things (even something simple like a pleasant interaction with a cashier or watering my garden) helped me gain a new outlook on life.

Re: Ask HN: How to optimize your career for happiness?

#39

Post by yboris »

yboris wrote: post #36

Optimize it by learning about happiness via Positive Psychology , a direction of inquiry about what makes people happy (above baseline). One gem from the field: If Money Doesn't Make You Happy Then You Probably Aren't Spending It Right [0]. Great books from the field: Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert [1] and The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky [2] [0] https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/danielgilbert/file…

As for career-specific advice, keep Self-determination theory in mind. The three foundational components are CAR:

- Competence (work on something that demands skill and attention from you)

- Autonomy (be able to determine what you'll be working on next)

- Relatedness (feel like your work is contributing to a greater whole - helping others)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory

Re: Ask HN: How to optimize your career for happiness?

#40

Post by tuan3w »

I share with you a bit about what I have learned. I've struggled a lot. Everything is like broken. I'm still struggling right now. However, I'm still working on something to make our situation better. I do several research and experiments on Happiness, psychology, neuroscience and here are something I'm want to share.

+ Hedonic adaption: Hedonic adaption is special psychological effects that explains about how we perceive about happiness. Even after a big happy moment, our level of happiness do down quickly. We adapt our perception to our current situations. So it's like nothing will last forever. Hedonic adaption is both good and bad. It makes us adapt quickly with any situations. It keeps us safe. So we should appreciate it and learn how to make use of this effect rather than blaming it. Learns to attend with everything you do even it's bad, explore something news. It will help you deal with bad effects of hedonic adaptation.

+ Mindfulness: Do some mindfulness exercise. We feel stress because our mind think we're having problems. Our mind made up our feelings to keep us safe [7]. It's good for us. Mindfulness help us understand more about feeling and more enjoy the moment.

+ Mind body connection: Your health affects your mental, and your mental will affect your health. To me, it's not because some spiritual belief, but it's how systems work [3] [4]. Our body, our mind are systems. They are part of bigger system. They connect each others and interact with each other, sending some feedback. So try to improve both your health and your mental. Try to improve your health diet, do exercises and taking care of our thoughts and feelings.

+ We aren't rational. Our thinking system is optimal but it has limitations [3]. It has a lot of problems (cognitive biases). Learn to appreciate and find a way to make it better. For example, we can adapt. We update our belief overtime. Try to make new better habits[5]. Make small steps.

+ There isn't perfect things. Every systems aren't perfect. Our immune system, our cognitive system, organizations, data structures, design patterns,... Appreciate what works, what not and improve it.

Some interesting books, articles you might interest:

[1] https://www.plantinghappiness.co.uk/hedonic-adaptation/

[2] https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp...

[3] https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Systems-Donella-H-Meadows/dp...

[4] https://www.amazon.com/Mindbody-Prescription-Healing-Body-Pa...

[5] https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits

[6] https://www.coursera.org/learn/the-science-of-well-being

[7] https://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-Insecurity-Message-Age-Anxiety...

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