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

Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

sloanreview.mit.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

401–410 of 477 posts

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#401

Post by newaccount74 »

adwn wrote: post #247
newaccount74 wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "social security net" we have in Europe isn't perfect, though. At least here in Austria they make you jump through all kinds of bureaucratic hoops to get assistance. There's not a single type of assistance you get, there's like 10 different things you can apply for, they all have different preconditions and navigating them is almost a full time job. And before people take a job, they have to think about which aid…

> The "social security net" we have in Europe isn't perfect, though. You're comparing the imperfect reality of an actual situation (unemployment benefits) against the utopian fantasy of an imagined best case scenario (UBI) – of course the imagined scenario will come out on top. The real result of a UBI will almost certainly look less rosy than the picture you paint, just like every other plan once it gets implemented…

> would likely be wrong, because people would instead be jealous because you're "freeloading" by not working and therefore not paying taxes

There's a precedent why I think that people will approve of "universal" income: We have "Familienbeihilfe" in Austria. It's a payment of roughly 200€ per child that parents get. Everyone gets it, regardless of income, so noone is jealous. It's the best way of distributing financial aid in my opinion.

Regarding special needs, in my experience it's much easier to get aid for disabilities. I have a kid with special needs, and it's incredible how helpful people are. Social workers are calling us to tell us what kind of aid we should apply for and help us fill out forms etc. It's completely the opposite experience of applying for unemployment or for aid with rent payments etc.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#403

Post by mrtranscendence »

i_like_waiting wrote: post #28
cube00 wrote: post #6

> While many — if not most — of us are motivated by genuine caring for the people who power our organizations, we also intuitively know that employee happiness should boost job performance. I have a hard time believing that "many — if not most" people in management are actually motivated by this.

I am not, you can add it as a data point. Its just work, you are probably not caring about your manager outside of your performance review. And thats fair.

I absolutely care about my manager, for what it's worth. I've generally (luckily) had very good relationships with basically all my managers, and it's tended to pay off well, even though I'd still care if it didn't pay off.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#405

Post by mLuby »

bgroat wrote: post #293
hyperman1 wrote: post #128

I had the chance to work with a few people I'd consider genius level. While I'm pretty smart myself, they all have something I don't always have: The ability to be happy in any situation and interested in everything. For example, we were walking trough a hallway. On a wall is an old, damaged, ugly map of my country, half covered with graffiti. I'd walked past it almost every day for half a year. He checks it out, and…

I want to focus on the social power this individual had, and to remind everyone that interested people are interesting The reason that you're friend was so magnetic was because they could look at an old tattered map, be entertained for an hour, and be open to sharing that experience with those around them.

> interested people are interesting

If what they're interested in interests you too.

Or as happened in this map genius story, if they're charismatic enough to convince you (and the gathering crowd) that it's interesting. Professor sounds like an ideal place for that skillset to end up.

I know people who are profoundly interested in certain things but you learn not to touch the topic because they'll deep dive on something you don't care about, and they aren't socially skilled enough to keep you engaged despite that.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#406

Post by jklinger410 »

adwn wrote: post #315
jklinger410 wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of what you posted is serious criticism of UBI. > Prices rise due to increased consumer spending capability, to the point where you have to work again to get above the poverty line. Governments will respond to economic factors that diminish purchasing power in order to maintain the effectiveness of UBI, as a part of UBI. > Any realistic UBI is too low for people with special needs Diminished support for disabled…

> Governments will respond to economic factors that diminish purchasing power in order to maintain the effectiveness of UBI, as a part of UBI. How? Using which political, economic, and financial tools? And what will be the side effects of those policies? That's exactly the point I was making: UBI proponents assume a downright utopian best-case scenario where everything works as planned (even though those plans are va…

As an opponent of UBI you should know what economic and financial tools would be available, and then explain why they wouldn't work, rather than act like they don't exist. It would help your counter argument.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#407

Post by mrtranscendence »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #319
istjohn wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can absolutely believe that there is rampant ageism in tech, but if you don't mind my asking, is it possible part of the difficulty you faced in finding a new job just stemmed from your skills getting a little stale? I ask since you describe spending two years "leveling-up." Have you tried interviewing since?

Oh, it never even got that far. I think I only had two or three leetcode tests, and, of course, they were Binary Tree tests (which I would still be bad at). To be fair, I did have a couple of "take-home" tests, but they were looking for buzzword du jour solutions, as opposed to ones that worked, with half the code, much higher Quality, and twice the performance. My skills were (and have been, since I wrote my first l…

Out of curiosity (and I realize you're happy with how things are for you now), did you try contract work? I've worked with plenty of highly skilled, highly paid contractors who were well above the average age of direct employees at my organization.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#410

Post by datavirtue »

xwdv wrote: post #349
czbond wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a lot of experience pushing forward stuff with wife / kids. One must learn to delegate. Yes you can do "programming whatever", but you don't have the time. If you believe in the project, allocate.... $100,$500,$1k a month for a few months (whatever is your threshold) and outsource! It doesn't need to be in "expensive React with microservices".... you can do v1 in Laravel and a purchased template. (as example).…

This advice used to work years ago but user expectations have risen massively and you can no longer get away with a shitty cookie cutter MVP. You must do the big work upfront and come out very polished out of the gate, or else users will sense you don’t really have much skin in the game and not bother investing time in your niche project. This often means you must leverage the latest and greatest tech to get an edge,…

Yeah, users care about React. [Eye roll]
Post reply on HN