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

FAANG Simulator

abeyk.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 218 posts

Re: FAANG Simulator

#171

Post by pinkmuffinere »

aliteraryhigh wrote: post #92
dzonga wrote: post #48

I don't know if I should feel sad or laugh at the pain at the same time lol. what a wonderful way to reflect reality for a good population of devs. you can hack the game i.e real life 1. live in a cheaper location 2. do things that don't scale & do the ugly work that naturally extends your runway, you don't need to apply to YC remember the median Pay in the US - is 61800 based on ADP the largest payroll provider. so…

The last 2 statements are so far from reality it's insane. I live in the south/the midwest (depending on who you ask) in an okay-sized city, I was a SWE making $85k/year gross and struggling to cover housing and bills, and I got laid off when the company "eliminated my position".

85k should definitely cover your expenses. You can rent out a bedroom instead of a house. Buy a cheap car. Eat canned beans. Even in SF, it’s doable on 85k.

Re: FAANG Simulator

#173

Post by thedrexster »

hattmall wrote: post #136
api wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly these days even the MCOL (medium cost of living) interior cities like Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Columbus, Charlotte, etc. would be tight on 85K especially with any dependents. Our family lived in HCOL places like Boston and LA before returning to Cincinnati a few years ago. It’s still cheaper than those but wow … I remember it being a lot cheaper when I left. Since we returned it’s gone up even more. Some ne…

And yet, the majority of people in those cities make less than that amount. Like Charlotte the median HOUSEHOLD income is $82K. Median wage is ~$53k. As someone making below the median, I don't understand how people are making so much more money and not feeling rich. We have house, boat, golf carts, kids in private school, decent cars, take multiple vacations. We didn't even get lucky and buy cheap housing with low i…

>> house, boat, golf carts, kids in private school, decent cars, take multiple vacations

PNW dweller here, ^^^ this feels _insane_. average private school tuition for a single child is above $25k, nevermind kids pural! :O

Re: FAANG Simulator

#174

Post by goodpoint »

calculatte wrote: post #35
goodpoint wrote: post #8

Now make it 10x more difficult for those not born in the US.

Maybe you haven't seen the state of things in the US lately...

Look at salaries for the other 95% of human population on levels.fyi - earning $100k at 25 years is incredible privilege.

Re: FAANG Simulator

#175

Post by djaro »

20after4 wrote: post #118
dzonga wrote: post #48

I don't know if I should feel sad or laugh at the pain at the same time lol. what a wonderful way to reflect reality for a good population of devs. you can hack the game i.e real life 1. live in a cheaper location 2. do things that don't scale & do the ugly work that naturally extends your runway, you don't need to apply to YC remember the median Pay in the US - is 61800 based on ADP the largest payroll provider. so…

Cost of living has risen dramatically everywhere. Unless you live in a small town in a poor state like I do then 85K sounds pretty bad. That's barely above the poverty line at this point.

The median household income in the US is like 83K, which means half of all households survive with less than that. And most households have two earners.

Even New York City has a median household income of ~80K. Half of all households in NYC survive on that.

Re: FAANG Simulator

#176

Post by frgturpwd »

jebarker wrote: post #170
__turbobrew__ wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still drive a 2007 honda fit shitbox with a TC of 500k. It is possible.

I don’t doubt it’s possible, but suggesting that the game isn’t simulating FIRE because it includes lifestyle inflation seems wrong.

I don't know, the higher my TC gets the easier I find it to reduce my spending. I feel like it inflates in the beginning and then it kinda levels out.

Re: FAANG Simulator

#177

Post by frgturpwd »

fragmede wrote: post #72
vinceguidry wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... it always has been? It's youthful exuberance that can pretend it was ever anything else.

No it hasn't. It wasn't until money got involved that anything computers were lucrative. Before there was Airbnb there was the Internet of Couchsurfing.org, where people did things for free out of the kindness of their hearts and for fun. That world is long gone, replaced by OnlyFans and Amazon, cos we all got rent to pay. IBM was the big evil and Apple was the upstart and free and open standards and open source were…

If things were so good then, how did they lead to Now?

Re: FAANG Simulator

#178

Post by wil421 »

pinkmuffinere wrote: post #171
aliteraryhigh wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The last 2 statements are so far from reality it's insane. I live in the south/the midwest (depending on who you ask) in an okay-sized city, I was a SWE making $85k/year gross and struggling to cover housing and bills, and I got laid off when the company "eliminated my position".

85k should definitely cover your expenses. You can rent out a bedroom instead of a house. Buy a cheap car. Eat canned beans. Even in SF, it’s doable on 85k.

Most people didn’t go to college to eat canned beans. We went to college so we could stop eating canned beans.

Re: FAANG Simulator

#179

Post by Michelangelo11 »

In the 80s, something like this was a bona fide video game you could buy in stores:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Suite_(video_game)

Very good too, actually, assuming you enjoy the premise of CYOA in the corporate world. You can play it online for free if you want to give it a whirl.

Re: FAANG Simulator

#180

Post by Muromec »

tasuki wrote: post #154
jambalaya8 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember taking pay cuts of 35-65% for a few jobs I thought sounded more cool or less stressful when I was younger, only to find out some of my coworkers were making far more at the same place. They placed me still at or above the median wage, and I learned a lot (I never vested, and stocks weren't a factor in the jobs). In my personal experience, the jobs I have taken which paid less treated me as cheaper and more…

Perhaps you just didn't push it far enough: I took a 90% pay cut and am happy with it :)

The happiest a was when our entire team was laid off and my whole balance was 10k dollars and I went on to live off that from r a year and a half in Thailand.
Post reply on HN