Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

#331

Post by mrsofty » Fri, Mar 03, 2023, 5:32 PM UTC

adamsmith143 wrote: post #211

cosgrove wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is your general approach? Selling premium? Earnings announcements? Do you frequent any online communities of professionals, or is it just you, your spouse, and your mentors? Beyond wanting to learn alternative approaches myself, I help moderate a local trading group. We are always looking for presenters in our monthly meetings.

Please don't do this. Virtually all day traders lose money and the ones that don't are almost certainly running on luck. If you really had an edge in the market you would open a hedge fund and rake in billions. Everyone else is just playing the law of large numbers and the winners happened to flip 50 tails in a row.

Nope options allow you to choose your probability so it's NOT 50/50. We tend to sell premium with prob of profit of 80 - 90% it's less premium

YOU are mistaken.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

#332

Post by danjoredd » Fri, Mar 03, 2023, 5:33 PM UTC

whateverman23 wrote: post #289

resource0x wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"If you don’t have [nice things], they can mean a great deal to you. When you do have them, they mean nothing. To me, the unhappiest people in the world are those in the watering places, the international watering places, the south coast of France and Newport and Palm Springs and Palm Beach. Going to parties every night, playing golf every afternoon, then bridge. Drinking too much, talking too much, thinking too litt…

Sounds good, doesn't actually mean much. It's just an extended version of "money doesn't buy happiness". Money buys the ability to do whatever you want. It buys you the ability to take what would normally be big risks. It also buys you the ability to live a sad but otherwise comfortable life on a beach. Money bought the person you responded to the ability to travel the world and study math, instead of worrying about…

I think a better way of putting it is "Money alone doesn't buy happiness." You can be happy with or without money, sure, but it absolutely helps. Either too much or too little of it can negatively affect your life satisfaction

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

#333

Post by mauvehaus » Fri, Mar 03, 2023, 5:34 PM UTC

aarghh wrote: post #318

mauvehaus wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's me! It also generated a rather large discussion here and if you want to read how things were going up to that point, I posted a lengthy comment there: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24541964 How am I doing now? Still good, still grateful to be married to somebody who gets good health insurance through their job. Still need to update my website a bit (is that work ever really done?). Still working on the…

You are an inspiration - the chandelier on your website is a thing of joy. I may reach out soon, my wife and I have been talking about a side table that she has very definite ideas about. (I'm working my way through the Anarchist Design book and thinking about getting started on the stick chairs).

Thanks for the kind words; I had so much fun building that chandelier! Please do reach out; it's always a lot of fun working with people who have a strong vision and working with them to figure out how to realize it in wood.

Regarding stick chairs, I put one together from an accumulation of scrap pieces recently (hey, this could be a leg some day! throws it in the stick chair pile). Putting one together out of random pieces and letting the pieces you have "inform" the design is about as close as it gets to the sheer hackery joy of banging together some wild one-liner (if I use awk this way and pipe it to sort it'll do what I want) in the shell and hitting enter.

It's like, there's no way this could possibly work, and then you're sitting in it marveling at the fact that it only wobbles a bit. And then you level the feet (or fix your quoting), and damn if it doesn't do just what you want it to!

It's also a cool opportunity to make some of your own tools. Jennie Alexander has a great article on making your own tapered reamer[0] (which does sort of require a lathe), and Tim Manney has one on using your reamer to make a tapered tenon cutter[1].

[0] https://www.greenwoodworking.org/steel-saw-tapered-reamer-pl... Dunno what's up with the certificate error, but the site is legit. You don't have to get picky about the compass saw. I did this out of one I picked up at my local large home improvement store.

[1] http://timmanneychairmaker.blogspot.com/2015/06/use-your-rea...

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

#334

Post by karaterobot » Fri, Mar 03, 2023, 5:34 PM UTC

I don't know if it counts. I was a programmer, worked for SaaS companies, and hated everything about that job, and sort of hated myself for doing it. Selling $60k/yr "solutions" to companies with the value proposition that they could lay off several people on their staff and replace them with our product.

I also hated being a front-end developer, because of the constant churn of new frameworks and techniques — "article driven development", where somebody releases a shiny new package or writes a neat article, and all the lemmings run in that direction for six months, before running in a different direction. I like programming, and still do it for fun, but it's such a different experience when you don't have to do it "at scale" and in a team environment.

I switched to doing design, which I sort of did already, and now work for a non-profit. My work is something I can more or less describe to my family and they don't have a glazed over look in their eyes. Still technically in "tech", but in a different corner of it, working in a different capacity (for less money...)

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

#335

Post by SoftTalker » Fri, Mar 03, 2023, 5:42 PM UTC

danjoredd wrote: post #332

whateverman23 wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds good, doesn't actually mean much. It's just an extended version of "money doesn't buy happiness". Money buys the ability to do whatever you want. It buys you the ability to take what would normally be big risks. It also buys you the ability to live a sad but otherwise comfortable life on a beach. Money bought the person you responded to the ability to travel the world and study math, instead of worrying about…

I think a better way of putting it is "Money alone doesn't buy happiness." You can be happy with or without money, sure, but it absolutely helps. Either too much or too little of it can negatively affect your life satisfaction

Money doesn’t buy happiness, but for the things it does buy, it has no substitute.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

#336

Post by cachecrab » Fri, Mar 03, 2023, 5:43 PM UTC

Xeoncross wrote: post #243

jollofricepeas wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t understand Americans POV on this subject. Other than providing tutors and making sure their children are in the best secondary schools, I don’t understand the American obsession with paying for college. The best way to prepare your child is to let them experience reality not coddle them. - A luxury university diploma will not guarantee a good job - There are other educational opportunities besides an expensiv…

I would say it's not so expensive as it more deprives you from the time you would otherwise spend climbing the corporate ladder, networking, and starting a company/side project. Kids aren't the huge bill that people seem to think they are unless the parents have a spending problem or don't really want to raise the kids and lease out the education, child care, and transportation duties to other people/organizations. T…

Childcare is a pretty large expense. Whether you have two working parents and use daycare, or one stay at home parent (single income instead of double), there's a significant cost associated with each.

The average amount spent on a child per year is 17k [1]. It may not be that much if you're making $200k+/yr, but on the median household income of $71k/yr [2], it's a pretty significant chunk — about ~24% of your income for just one child.

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2022/cos...

[2] https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2022/demo/p60-27...

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

#337

Post by madengr » Fri, Mar 03, 2023, 5:52 PM UTC

counttheforks wrote: post #329

mdorazio wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a quick note on this since I ran into the same wtf? moment a few years ago. 1) Saw Stop holds a number of patents that legally prevented anyone else from adding the same tech to their saws. Most of the patents didn’t expire until 2021, but a few are still effective until 2024. We will probably see other manufacturers add similar features in 2025 as a result. 2) SawStop built its reputation on being a premium bra…

Another point to show how deeply unethical the US patent system is. I wonder how many people have lost appendages because of these patents and the exorbitant pricing?

[dead]

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

#338

Post by MR_Bulldops » Fri, Mar 03, 2023, 5:55 PM UTC

subungual wrote: post #313

I left tech ~6 years ago to pursue medical school. I'll be graduating and starting residency soon. A significant number of my classmates express regret for choosing medicine, and a lot of them fantasize about pursuing a career in tech, instead. I feel pretty well inoculated against this, having had a varied life and a collection of very different work experiences before med school. I'm happy with my choice. My work s…

I've been wrestling with this decision for a couple years now. I've slowly knocked off remaining pre-reqs, but haven't fully dived in - which would be leaving my job and becoming an MA or ED tech and doing dedicated MCAT studying.

I work for a tech company that you and your fellow classmates have no doubt used during medical school.

The massive financial hit is one of the big reasons I haven't made the jump. It doesn't feel fair to my wife to uproot our life. I always say if I won the lottery, I'd go to medical school.

Congrats on graduating and matching! I hope residency treats you well.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

#339

Post by swsdsailor » Fri, Mar 03, 2023, 6:00 PM UTC

gabereiser wrote: post #253

Not exactly. I'm still in tech but I sold everything and bought a sailboat to sail the world after I got sick and tired of sitting at a desk. I have starlink now which makes it possible (before it was hunting for 4G/5G signals like I was the crocodile hunter) and sailboats can be pretty affordable if you want to sharpen your trade skills. I've "re-kindled" my love for woodworking, fiberglass, diesel engines, electric…

This is exactly what I'm planning on doing, after the pets. Kudos.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone started over outside of tech?

#340

Post by kqr2 » Fri, Mar 03, 2023, 6:14 PM UTC

mtm wrote: post #299

After working full time in a wide variety of tech since 1983 (embedded systems work on medical equipment and commercial fire alarm systems, hotel reservation systems, ramp and fuel delivery systems in aviation, multiple startups in Silicon Valley, etc, ad naseum) I’m currently taking a break and working as a pin setter mechanic at a couple of local bowling alleys. The work is physical (running up and down the back of…

How did you get the experience to do this?