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

From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

jasonshen.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

301–310 of 352 posts

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#301

Post by ckemere »

spacemadness wrote: post #32
carlosdp wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you actually read the article? He's probably the one person in tech that is directly aware of what it's like to work at a warehouse because he actually did it for real. He's not claiming to be "making the world a better place" by working at Facebook. He's telling the story of how he got burned out from that world and sought out a real "honest labor" job that he'd heard a ton about in the media to snap out of it a…

“For me, a lot of my meaning comes from two things. One is doing something in the world that feels like it's actually making things a little better somehow. And so contributing to society in some meaningful way.” Yes, I read the article.

To be fair, his most recent job after Microsoft and FB was a Gates- foundation funded startup building tools for healthcare in underdeveloped contexts. I think that might be what the phrase refers to?

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#302

Post by zikduruqe »

symlinkk wrote: post #35
avgDev wrote: post #9

"The experience was physically taxing, he was diagnosed with tendonitis after moving hundreds of boxes a day, but it pulled him out of his depression and helped him gain perspective and a deeper sense of meaning"....... I have mixed feelings about this. What this has proven is working at amazon warehouse sucks, and is not sustainable. I've had many physical shitty jobs in my 20's. Then, I had some health issue and co…

Software development is taxing on your brain the same way physical labor is taxing on your body. It’s depressing, soul sucking work. You’re stuck inside, staring at a screen for 8+ hours a day.

My son in law was visiting the other week and asked me about my tech job. I told him that it is like taking a calculus exam everyday of the week, where I am not exactly sure what the course material is that day, or that it is a chapter I have not seen yet.

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#303

Post by zivkovicp »

I'm surprised he didn't dedicate himself to volunteering, I assume he doesn't need the job because of money, and volunteering should provide a lot more connection to community and a feeling of "making a difference" that so many seek.

Alternatively a hobby farm or vineyard can give you plenty of opportunities to do manual labour and have varying amounts of responsibility; and I imagine it would be quite a bit more enjoyable than an Amazon warehouse.

To each his own I suppose. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#304

Post by markdown »

Manuel_D wrote: post #150
markdown wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Better than destroying your body for no pay in a command economy.

More capitalist propaganda. You're incorrect... workers do get paid in a command economy. Of course there isn't a command economy on earth, so this is pointless whataboutism on your part, but like I said... capitalist propaganda.

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#305

Post by pc86 »

BurningFrog wrote: post #141
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What this has proven is working at amazon warehouse sucks, and is not sustainable. This person went from a 23-year career sitting at a desk to doing physical labor all day. Any physical labor is going to take a toll on someone in their 40s who hasn't been doing physical labor. I have a lot of people in my extended social circle who are in physical labor jobs. Amazon Warehouse jobs are always viewed as the "easy" fa…

You can also write a very similar rant about how sedentary desk jobs are not sustainable with all the obesity related life shortening conditions it leads to :)

Both can be true.

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#306

Post by osigurdson »

BlargMcLarg wrote: post #269
osigurdson wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> You prefer to be in meetings for 6 hours a day and scramble to code in between them How did we possibly get to this and what shareholder or customer thinks this is a good idea?

It's the 2000s, talking about problems ad nauseam without solving them unless pressing has been the status quo for a few decades now.

Sure, but companies that only talk and don't do should die out by natural selection. Why isn't this happening?

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#307

Post by sarchertech »

yourusername wrote: post #293
Temporary_31337 wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of ultra distance runners and cyclists eat and burn more than that. The point is with sufficient exercise it is almost impossible to stay fat.

Sufficient is a lot. If you eat a fast food meal (burger, fries, soda) above maintenance you're looking at half a marathon to burn that off. And most people aren't pro cyclists that are able to sustain 400 watts+ for a hour.

Sufficient is a lot, but it’s nowhere near as extreme as that example makes it sound.

That’s a half marathon for a 150 lbs fit person, running efficiently. A 250 lbs person who is a little out of shape will burn that in a 2.5 hour walk.

Obviously 1300 calories a day above maintenance is extreme for most people, but energy expended scales non linearly with weight. There are also a lot quicker ways to burn calories than marathon running.

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#308

Post by Bakary »

kramerger wrote: post #288
oldsklgdfth wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could do that and then go work at the Costco food court. Somehow that doesn't feel any less like larping. On a serious note, how does one do that? It doesn't "feel" that way, but I know that's lifestyle inflation.

I once took a "down shift" job and it didn't work well. After only a few days I started seeing inefficiencies, some people slacking like crazy while others had to work for two, management that was really incompetent and could not be convinced to improve anything. I mean, people were nice and everything and I enjoyed the social aspects of the job, but I learned that I was too competitive to function in a less demandin…

Inefficient for the company maybe, but if you are not going to be paid more for extra work or diligence, and the work you are doing is not particularly meaningful or helpful to others (could be wrong as I don't know what we're talking about) why would you work hard unless you are larping?

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#309

Post by Bakary »

NSMutableSet wrote: post #245
Bakary wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you work in a FAANG (presumably as some sort of knowledge worker) you have a unique opportunity to never have to work again within just a few years of saving.

How?

It'll depend on your personal factors, but the median salary at FAANGs is nuts at $220-250k. Let's say you are an average FAANG person in Washington state and are paid a bit less than the median with 200K as your starting point. That's probably going to be in the 150K take home range. Save 70% of that at $105K your first year, and it only speeds up from there since the salaries reach 300k-400K in just a few years. This is just the raw salary, and if you take into account all the FAANG perks, generous healthcare package, stocks, social capital, connections, even the free food, etc. it just snowballs like crazy unless your priorities revolve around conspicuous consumption.

Based on the 4% rule, you can then determine how much you need to retire, sell your house (because you'll have a mortgage instead of rent at those salaries) bounce to a lower COL area and then enjoy the rest of your life. You don't even need to stop working if you don't want to, but can downshift to part time and earn much more than the median full-time salary. If you are a SWE you'll have offers, many of them remote.

Post reply on HN