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Quit Your Job

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Re: Quit Your Job

#281

Post by mlatu »

vmception wrote: post #199
JimboOmega wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It smells like privilege. That isn't to say that the OP was protected regardless. But the mindset that lets you do this is a mindset that comes from a background of abundance. Where you can always get another job if you want one, where you always have friends or parents who will bail you out or give you what you need. A background where things just always seem to work out.

Another way to look at it (especially for those allergic to the idea that privilege may apply to their own outcome) is that ambition, risk taking, and entrepreneurship are evenly distributed across all socioeconomic classes, or close to it. It's just that some distinct socioeconomic classes have the capability of failing and retrying very quickly, due to moneyed resources. Contrast that to the person without assets o…

i liked your comment until the last sentence.

> outnumbering the poorer people that want to play tech entreprenuer.

PLAY?

why the belittlement?

Re: Quit Your Job

#282

Post by bitspook »

gremlinsinc wrote: post #23
spaetzleesser wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what I was thinking. Obviously I don't know the situation of this guy but from my experience a lot of people who preach this stuff (or minimalism) either have already made a lot of money or have parents who can support them when things don't work out. It's much harder to jump into the unknown if you know nobody will catch you.

I've mostly done this....I get bread/butter from freelance, I have ADHD which gives me some major motivation issues already but depression/anxiety/uncertainty and maybe just burnout have led me to go very slow w/ work. I have one client who I absolutely love cause she's not pushy, she's a developer too, and I'm only a cog in their freelance outsourcing - a good one cause she seems to appreciate my work, but I'm not t…

I have had similar thoughts for some time too! Thoughts of building a co-op, and open source software needed to support it.

Coincidentally, I have a resignation email written, and have been sitting on it for several days. I am looking to quit work (for some time) not to work on an ambitious project, but just to see what will become of me when I do so. I started my career as a freelancer, and ADHD gave me tons of trouble. Structure and accountabiliy that a regular day job brought made my life very easier, motivation-for-work wise. Now after 5 years of doing a day job, I want to see what I will do when I don't have that structure around me.

HN today has been quite a ride for me.

Re: Quit Your Job

#283

Post by laserlight »

themacguffinman wrote: post #249
_blu wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's a terrible definitioin of addiction and health. Alot of people with addictions don't think they have a problem and are unable to see it. It can affect alot of people negatively and yourself.

That just sounds like you're projecting your own values onto others for doing something more than you'd like them to. How they spend & value their time and health is their choice alone, whether it affects the individual negatively is up to their perception, not yours. The miserable drug and alcohol addicts you might be imagining are aware that it's a problem, they may not know how to fix it.

What if they had a chance to experience a life without addiction and then decide whether to live their life with or without addiction. Would they still choose addiction?

People might be happy with their life, but this doesn't mean that they wouldn't be happier with an alternative life. After they try the alternative, they could even think that what they had thought as happiness, turned out, was suffering.

Re: Quit Your Job

#284

Post by srcreigh »

iandanforth wrote: post #47

Such drivel. If you really want to move people to act give them a clear roadmap for a lifestyle that supports years without meaningful income. Did you have $1M in savings? Did you have rich parents? Did you just live off your SO's income? Did you have financial dependants like children or elderly parents? I hope I'm wrong but this just reeks of intense privilege being misconstrued as nonconformity.

The audience is people who will find a way, or even already have a way. In my opinion clear roadmaps aren't really on topic.

Re: Quit Your Job

#285

Post by coldtea »

Kranar wrote: post #90
coldtea wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> is the lifestyle of someone with 100% confidence in their social safety net Sorry, but millions of working and middle class people without any "net" have done it in history, I'm sure millions have done it in the US, and millions will continue to do the same thing in the future. As for "whitest"? Tons of blacks have quit their jobs and safety nets and tried their luck in what was termed "the great migration", while…

Comparing a dude who quit their job to court a woman and lift weights while living off of their friends income to the plight of blacks in America or European Jews is quite something.

Ah, hollier-than-thou faux-rage in behalf of others combined with reading comprehension issues, the plight of modern internet. As one who lost a number of jewish relatives in WWII (here in old Europe), I find this in bad taste.

First, I didn't compare anybody specific to anybody (even less so, "a dude who quit their job to court a woman and lift weights"). I answered the general question whether a jump of this kind (quiting your job, on a whim) is doable without being born into riches or having some big safety net. I answered in the abstract, that is, not about this particular person, and whether they lift weights or pluck their eyebrows or whatever. In fact, I didn't refer to the person in TFA at all in my answer. I gave some examples from the Baby Boom era, but also from people I know.

Second, note that I didn't write "in WWII", but "post WWII", that is, in the Baby Boom era. This isn't about Jews escaping from the war in Europe, but about (established, and much older) US Jews (and as mentioned, other ethnicities), changing states, looking for "self-realization", changing dreams, and so on.

Third, note that if I indeed had referred to the historical plight of blacks, as you understood it, it would be even better as an argument: if those people could do it while having few things in their name, with no tangible prospects awaiting them, in bad conditions, with no education, and so on, then a 2022 educated person, with a good work prior skills, with a little saved money, who can always try and get another job, can do it far more easily.

Re: Quit Your Job

#286

Post by sangnoir »

thelettere wrote: post #267
sangnoir wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It doesn't match history - the only reason we have many good things is because poor people took major risks Check your history again - most of the people who made scientific discoveries or breakthroughs were people of means, or otherwise didn't have to do "real" (paying) work[1] and could afford to dick-around with experiments all day long for months on end and not starve. 1. In history - i.e. from dawn of time to…

Where did I say science? Many modern scientific disciplines are by their nature exclusionary because they require access to specialized equipment and space, so of course that's somewhat of an exception to my generality. And I say somewhat because historically a surprising number of breakthroughs did not happen in a lab, nor were discovered by professional scientists. I took a course in the history of science and tech…

You didn't - I said science since it's a specific subset of "many good things" in history that has a clear written record I'm familiar with. Do you think science should be excluded? If so, which fields did you have in mind? Philosophy? Political theory? Economics?

Re: Quit Your Job

#288

Post by coldtea »

InitialLastName wrote: post #98
coldtea wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> is the lifestyle of someone with 100% confidence in their social safety net Sorry, but millions of working and middle class people without any "net" have done it in history, I'm sure millions have done it in the US, and millions will continue to do the same thing in the future. As for "whitest"? Tons of blacks have quit their jobs and safety nets and tried their luck in what was termed "the great migration", while…

> Tons of blacks have quit their jobs and safety nets and tried their luck in what was termed "the great migration" You understand that for most of the people in the great migration, "quit their jobs" is shorthand for "escaped from indentured servitude as a sharecropper on the farm where their parents were born as human property", right?

Well, do you also understand that that was the only environment they knew, with their family and community around, and they had way less skills, education, etc. to make it wherever they ended (and many didn't make it) than an average person today.

Compared to that leaving a modern job and - if things don't work - try to find another later is nothing...

Re: Quit Your Job

#289

Post by mlatu »

thelettere wrote: post #237
JimboOmega wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It smells like privilege. That isn't to say that the OP was protected regardless. But the mindset that lets you do this is a mindset that comes from a background of abundance. Where you can always get another job if you want one, where you always have friends or parents who will bail you out or give you what you need. A background where things just always seem to work out.

The idea that only the rich are able to take risks - or even think about it - is a bias, and an ugly one at that. It doesn't match history - the only reason we have many good things is because poor people took major risks - and it's part of the tyranny of low expectations that is seeping deeper every day into the fabric of our culture. It's a remarkably effective way of keeping the pours in their place in the name of…

i agree, though it's not just a bias. it's a lie, meant to keep those who don't have the capital to sit the fuck down and work for their employers like the rest of them.

especcially since time and time again those poor people who do contribute major inventions, without having much capital, have been, one could say, robbed of their invention by people who do have lots of capital. yeah of course money was exchanged, but not in relation. yeah of course nobody can say how well an invention will lift of, but should be considered in the exchange of goods. that makes it to expensive for the buyer as they cant be sure the risk is worth it when really considering it? then you are an non-Lisper: you know the cost of everything, but the actual value of anything? nah....

money has to go. there is no other way. we need to stop valuating things with money. or rather: at all. Value is a synthetic property, imagined by have's to keep stuff away from have-not's, enforced by the state, who has a lot but is really nobody, since we made it so easy to distribute blame across periods of governance. (not saying we should embrace a kazakh model, just we should be all equal workers)

now, commence the downvoting.

Re: Quit Your Job

#290

Post by jopsen »

The claim that structured 9-5 work doesn't bring about innovative breakthroughs needs a citation.

Sure, we all love to think that major innovations are drive by a small team of dedicated renegades.

But reality [citation needed] is that most innovative and breakthroughs comes as a result of gradual improvements stacked on top of each other.

Wind power, Battery prices, Computers, The internet, etc. none of these huge changes were brought about by a small team of thinkers working in their garage.

We tend to only notice breakthroughs when they happen suddenly -- but most of them are gradual, the result of hard work and competition.

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