151–160 of 333 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That was my 1999. Left for Hawaii. Then CA, Berlin, Tokyo, Singapore. Goodspeed.
I took off right before the pandemic. Now I'm living in Tokyo, engaged, and like my job. Doing weird shit rocks.
The thing about sayings like this - they're not just a thing you do, they're a practice you develop and a flow that you become more skillful at adhering to. I've been through hell and back following what's felt true to my creative instincts, and as brutal as it's been, along the way I've by necessity internalized what meaningful work means to me and what freedoms I'm (not) willing to sacrifice.
It can be a brutal path, but (at least in my experience) every level you become more skillful at it and the flexibility and sense of trust in yourself translate in powerful ways to creative and professional potency. If you intentionally hone them in that direction.
My 2c, at least. It's a worthwhile journey.
People look at me like I’m insane when I tell them I’m packing up and taking a year off. I’ve f’in had enough. And that’s me, the wife and our two kids- not quite school age. No I haven’t FIREd. No I’m probably passing up a raise and a promo (or maybe not). Super linear growth requires super linear decision making. You either follow the sheeple or decide enough is enough and make some drastic change. Im not getting t…
I am with you. So fkin done with work (aka management and coworkers) wasting my precious time on this planet - on pointless nitpicks and micromanaging standups. Typed from a hammock on a tropical beach.
The news.yc crowd may not be all too different from your managers and co-workers. They are but a similar people in a different setting.
Friendly reminder that being able to pack up and take a sabbatical year off is still privilege. If you can't just get up and leave to enjoy your good days, don't blame yourself. Most people can't.
> is still privilege The guy worked hard and earned his year off, don’t dismiss it by calling it privilege. He has the skills and intelligence and hard working habits to earn the year off, this is not privilege. Successful people aren’t successful because of privilege, that’s just a label for an excuse by those who aren’t successful. You get what you earn in life.
There are literally millions of people who deserve / have "earned" this privilege, but aren't given it. The word lucky comes to mind.
People look at me like I’m insane when I tell them I’m packing up and taking a year off. I’ve f’in had enough. And that’s me, the wife and our two kids- not quite school age. No I haven’t FIREd. No I’m probably passing up a raise and a promo (or maybe not). Super linear growth requires super linear decision making. You either follow the sheeple or decide enough is enough and make some drastic change. Im not getting t…
> See y’all in Penang. Then what? I like to imagine that if there is a secret to human happiness it must be something which was available to all the ~hundred billion humans who lived before air travel, boats, cars, cheap foreign holidays. Life would be awfully unfair otherwise. https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/2019/08/14 I've also holidayed casually enough to know that me alone in a foreign city isn't as exciting as…
We might all benefit from a stipend to take a long leave for continuing education or travel every decade or so. Many innovations have sprung from the intersections of diverse cultures and fields of study.
I feel like there is wisdom in "Make hay while the sun shines." When you're young and unencumbered by responsibility and family, when your cognitive abilities are at their peak, when your energy is endless, when your body is strong and healthy, when your knees work, and your fingers can type without arthritis: that's the optimal time to work and earn. Min-max that salary and stay healthy. Due to compounding interest,…
> I'd have played fewer video games, traveled less, and relaxed on the beach less. This seems totally opposite of what old people say on their death bed. You sound so obsessed with money here. My guess is your probably very wealthy relative to the average peer and your too naive to realize it. You have to keep telling yourself this philosophy to justify not wind surfing in Bali. You think your gonna wind surf when yo…
So maximizing income seems like pretty good advice right now, especially if we have bumpy economic roads ahead.
The good news is that thanks to a shift towards remote friendliness, holding a high paying tech job (which I'm assuming is something many on HN are capable of) while in Ibiza or Bali may not be as incompatible as it was for older generations, wifi permitting.
Friendly reminder that being able to pack up and take a sabbatical year off is still privilege. If you can't just get up and leave to enjoy your good days, don't blame yourself. Most people can't.
> is still privilege The guy worked hard and earned his year off, don’t dismiss it by calling it privilege. He has the skills and intelligence and hard working habits to earn the year off, this is not privilege. Successful people aren’t successful because of privilege, that’s just a label for an excuse by those who aren’t successful. You get what you earn in life.
To take an extreme example: how hard do the children of Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin, etc have to work to "earn" their fortunes and success?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regret_%28decision_theory%29
I feel like there is wisdom in "Make hay while the sun shines." When you're young and unencumbered by responsibility and family, when your cognitive abilities are at their peak, when your energy is endless, when your body is strong and healthy, when your knees work, and your fingers can type without arthritis: that's the optimal time to work and earn. Min-max that salary and stay healthy. Due to compounding interest,…
Here’s an interesting thought experiment for you - if you could trade 20 years of your life for 10 billion dollars, would you? Just step in a room and walk out a billionaire. I have yet to meet someone that would accept the offer. So if you do the math, they value their time at a shockingly high rate. I’d argue, trading the best years of your life for an early retirement is the same proposal. Steve Jobs would have gi…
Offer someone 500m (hell, even 1m for many) for one year, and I doubt you'd find many who would say no. There's a margin at which you would be losing so much life experience that you wonder what you even live for (20y), while shorter periods (1, 2, 5, even 10y) aren't so defined.
Also, I read this as you lose 20y from the point of the deal (eg. 20yold coming back as a 40yold) rather than taking years off the end of your life, which I suspect is a more palatable interpretation for most.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> is still privilege The guy worked hard and earned his year off, don’t dismiss it by calling it privilege. He has the skills and intelligence and hard working habits to earn the year off, this is not privilege. Successful people aren’t successful because of privilege, that’s just a label for an excuse by those who aren’t successful. You get what you earn in life.
> don’t dismiss it by calling it privilege There are literally millions of people who deserve / have "earned" this privilege, but aren't given it. The word lucky comes to mind.