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Ask HN: Do you feel bad for having a good job?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you feel bad for having a good job?

#21

Post by Tabular-Iceberg »

codingdave wrote: post #20

It sounds like you have created a distance between yourself and people who make less money. You think your being smarter makes you different. You experience discomfort when dealing with "them" as if they are not people just like yourself, and talk about "different social classes" as if that is anything more than a social construct. Honestly, step one is to stop segregating people in your mind, and just look at them a…

Is this a GPT-3 generated post? It reads like an answer to a completely different different question that just happens to hit the same keywords (e.g. "pay", "smart", "comfort", "social class"...)

Re: Ask HN: Do you feel bad for having a good job?

#22

Post by rramadass »

You SHOULD feel bad.

That shows that you have empathy for the less privileged folks.

A note first; you don't deserve anything, the World is not fair and much of what we achieve is blind luck (read Nassim Taleb) and then us muddling through to a possible local maximum.

The way to deal with it is to be thankful to providence and help your less privileged brethren. Have a keen sense of History and a desire to right the wrongs of the past much of which may have contributed to your success. Strive for a just equitable Society where everybody gets a fair shot at a chance to make it.

Re: Ask HN: Do you feel bad for having a good job?

#23

Post by __s »

No

I worked in flooring one summer. Everyone there thought it was wrong for me to be there; they knew I should be somewhere else programming. We got along. They were happy for me when I eventually got back to where I belong

Sometimes I've heard people remark that tech salaries are ridiculous. But it's not like me taking a smaller cut is going to help them out: that margin would get sucked up by some corporate offshore account

Re: Ask HN: Do you feel bad for having a good job?

#24

Post by [deleted] »

jwilber wrote: post #15

“I feel uncomfortable interacting with people of lower social classes.” Jeez. I’m very fortunate to have grown up with lifelong hobbies (surfing, skateboarding) filled with people who are about as far from the typical high-paid tech worker as possible. Thanks for the reminder.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Do you feel bad for having a good job?

#25

Post by vegai_ »

Having been bullied by some parts of the lower social classes half of my child life makes it all so much easier to handle. Having the lower social classes use their democratic rights to screw things up also helps. In contrast, the higher classes I've met in my life have typically been, well, classy. Some of them might have acted against me, but not in a tormenting and barbaric way.

Another viewpoint is that even if you could say that I don't deserve my currently pretty good place in life, neither would I really deserve a worse part either. Nobody would be doing better if I was doing worse.

Re: Ask HN: Do you feel bad for having a good job?

#26

Post by shapefrog »

I do pity you and I too would feel uncomfortable interacting with someone lower down such as yourself. Knowing that you have a shittier life than me would just make being in your presence a burdeon that would drag me down.

No doubt you still have to fly commercial or even worse rent your time on a private jet, not to mention going to a job (cant you find a better way, pull yourselves up by your bootstraps??!) Urgh, the thought of such an existence is actually too uncomfortable for me to imagine, it must be unplesant beyond my grasp.

I hope you can leverage your unusually great intellect and worth ethic into something with more success, and perhaps you too can achieve some happiness.

Re: Ask HN: Do you feel bad for having a good job?

#27

Post by nameisname »

Tabular-Iceberg wrote: post #21
codingdave wrote: post #20

It sounds like you have created a distance between yourself and people who make less money. You think your being smarter makes you different. You experience discomfort when dealing with "them" as if they are not people just like yourself, and talk about "different social classes" as if that is anything more than a social construct. Honestly, step one is to stop segregating people in your mind, and just look at them a…

Is this a GPT-3 generated post? It reads like an answer to a completely different different question that just happens to hit the same keywords (e.g. "pay", "smart", "comfort", "social class"...)

I think it's real and it makes sense. Look at the post. It reads borderline iamverysmart. He says people who work way harder making making less money but clearly has something going on with his own brain to assume that. I know someone whose worked hard their entire life and they run a small CNC shop. They're a multi millionaire. I know people who are software developers who bust their ass 12-16 hours a day for half of my own salary at the same company. The OPs issue is 100% their own issue and they have to work through it. Superiority complex is strong.

Re: Ask HN: Do you feel bad for having a good job?

#29

Post by toomuchtodo »

strikelaserclaw wrote: post #28

Life is unfair and there is nothing we can do about it.

Half true. You can improve the situation within your sphere of influence, and if you so choose, grow that sphere based on time and resources.

Life is unfair though, no doubt about that. Find joy in making it less unfair when you can, we're only here for a blink of existence.

Re: Ask HN: Do you feel bad for having a good job?

#30

Post by Tabular-Iceberg »

nameisname wrote: post #27
Tabular-Iceberg wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this a GPT-3 generated post? It reads like an answer to a completely different different question that just happens to hit the same keywords (e.g. "pay", "smart", "comfort", "social class"...)

I think it's real and it makes sense. Look at the post. It reads borderline iamverysmart. He says people who work way harder making making less money but clearly has something going on with his own brain to assume that. I know someone whose worked hard their entire life and they run a small CNC shop. They're a multi millionaire. I know people who are software developers who bust their ass 12-16 hours a day for half o…

It's easy to find counter-examples of both non-technologists who who work hard and are rich and people, and technologists who work hard and are poor, but that doesn't disprove that there are, as OP observed, a huge segment people in society who do work much harder and are paid much less than your typical technologist.

Years ago I did an internship in an emergency room to gain a certain medical qualification, and there I saw first hand people who worked much, much harder than I for much less pay. And they are saving lives while I write useless enterprise bloatware. Feeling that there might be something wrong with this dynamic is not a sign of a superiority complex, it's a sign of empathy and humility.

That the root comment was a GPT-3 generated post was the most charitable interpretation. The other is that it's some kind of flamebait.

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