Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How to optimize your career for happiness?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 339 posts

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

#81

Post by bserge »

> Sedentarism

Exercise. Seriously exercise, not just 30min/day. Exhaust yourself.

As for happiness, help the less fortunate, be it humans or other animals, or even plants.

There's nothing in this life that brings more "true" happiness than that.

When you see a bunch of kids at an orphanage getting sweets/smartphones/bikes or a single pregnant young woman getting a flat after being homeless, you'll get it.

You likely won't see this because I'm banned for saying uncomfortable things, but here it is, the secret to happiness.

If doing real change in this world by directly affecting other living things and changing their lives won't help you feel better, then comparing your own cushy life to theirs will.

And if neither works, you can just stop because you're already dead. Get some good medication and hope that works long term.

Also, don't just think local. The world is huge.

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

#82

Post by alecbz »

mattgreenrocks wrote: post #78
alecbz wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if working with others and having an impact is what brings me the most fulfillment?

I'll flip the question it's head: how do you know that is worth putting all your resources into? Going all-in on one area of your life is not a good bet. I know because I've tried.

I didn't say anything about putting all my resources into it? Are you saying that a career, uniquely among things one can spend their time on, requires putting all one's resources into it?

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

#83

Post by the_only_law »

netman21 wrote: post #42

I have found that there are two types of people who are happy in their work. 1. Those that help others, like teachers and nurses. Their jobs can be stressful and not very financially rewarding. But they take satisfaction from seeing patients get healthy or students learn. The other type are people who create things. If you are not of the first type I highly suggest that you find a career where you make things. Creati…

Most nurses I know don’t particularly love their work and many are looking for a way out. It seems like a decent career in that it pays better than what else available to many people going into that career and the education is made more accessible thanks to incentives set up because of shortages.

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

#85

Post by larrymyers »

thanatos519 wrote: post #35

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...

Good podcast on the idea that it's scam that people are expecting happiness from their job: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/19/opinion/ezra-klein-podcas...

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

#86

Post by suriyaG »

mattgreenrocks wrote: post #75
bitlax wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And for those who are able, getting married and having children will tend to bring even more fulfillment than becoming a clown.

My twenty-year-old self wasn't ready to hear this, but it's absolutely true. Fulfillment follows from meaning, and meaning flows from responsibilities we bear.

As a twenty three year old. I'm curious to know more.

why take on responsibility through having children? Why not pickup any other type of responsibilty? like, community service, tutoring/helping kids from less fortunate places or in the worst case even Picking up more responsibility from work?

Is it more of a genetic thing where it makes the pain of responsibility more pleasurable?

I'm even more curious to know if you think it could be some form of "endowment bias" that could be happening. From an objective standpoint, of course.

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

#87

Post by mattgreenrocks »

alecbz wrote: post #82
mattgreenrocks wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll flip the question it's head: how do you know that is worth putting all your resources into? Going all-in on one area of your life is not a good bet. I know because I've tried.

I didn't say anything about putting all my resources into it? Are you saying that a career, uniquely among things one can spend their time on, requires putting all one's resources into it?

No, just that it can end up that way if you are avoiding other parts of your life. :)

I will say that the overall concept of a "successful career" that is pushed is very, very overrated. You get the sense it is a message meant for a specific type of person that needs that void filled, and it is sent by that same type of person. To which I say: don't be that person, so you're not unduly manipulated by the messaging.

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

#88

Post by the_only_law »

peterkelly wrote: post #56

Forget about chasing high salaries. It's just not worth it. As long as you're earning enough to comfortably support yourself and those that depend on you, that's enough. Health and happiness come first. Don't tolerate bullshit from anyone, especially yourself. Set high standards and meet them; the satisfaction of a job well done is a reward in itself. Take pride in what you do and approach your work as a vocation, no…

> This is actually an explicit requirement if you want to get a PhD, which I've found to be a valuable way of opening up fulfilling career opportunities that would otherwise not be available to me.

As someone who’s considering getting a PhD, how do you know if you’re capable of completing it. I hear a lot that academia is a lot of bullshit and that you don’t have to be particularly competent to get one.

But at the same time, contributing novel research to a field just seems so foreign to my own abilities. Particularly when I haven’t historically been very academically gifted in some of the areas I’d need to be to succeee in the fields I’m interested (to be fair though, the last time I was in school was high school, where I was much less mature and there were many things other than just intelligence that negatively affected my performance)

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

#89

Post by alecbz »

mattgreenrocks wrote: post #87
alecbz wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't say anything about putting all my resources into it? Are you saying that a career, uniquely among things one can spend their time on, requires putting all one's resources into it?

No, just that it can end up that way if you are avoiding other parts of your life. :) I will say that the overall concept of a "successful career" that is pushed is very, very overrated. You get the sense it is a message meant for a specific type of person that needs that void filled, and it is sent by that same type of person. To which I say: don't be that person, so you're not unduly manipulated by the messaging.

I'd say I think I need a sense of purpose or fulfillment in my life. If you're describing that as a void that needs to be filled, than sure, that's me.
Post reply on HN