There are hidden sacrifices and costs. 99% of my good friends in this profession took depression medicine at some point of their lives.
We Have Luxurious Jobs but We Are Not Aware of It
111–120 of 312 posts
Re: We Have Luxurious Jobs but We Are Not Aware of It
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
By any reasonable definition, being well-off means being able to take out a mortgage on a house, afford occasional vacations to other parts of the world, invest in the stock market, support a family, put your kids through college, give to different charities, save for retirement, all in addition to helping family members in need, which one would do under any circumstances. A software developer might be able to do the…
Hint: Don't live in California. There are plenty of well-paid software jobs in places like Boston, Chicago, Northern Virginia, Atlanta, Florida, Austin, etc. They might not have the glut of "hot" startups that Silicon Valley does, but they have much more reasonable cost of living.
As a software developer with several years in Boston and DC each, I can tell you 100k does not allow for a mortgage on a SFH within a 20 minute commute to work in either place, which is basically the american dream.
Boston is even worse, the available real estate is all older and smaller and nearly as expensive as SF. I'd say feature for feature your money probably goes further in SF than in Boston.
Re: We Have Luxurious Jobs but We Are Not Aware of It
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google[1] reckons that "luxury" is: the state of great comfort and extravagant living. "he lived a life of luxury" synonyms: opulence, luxuriousness, sumptuousness, grandeur, magnificence, splendor, lavishness, the lap of luxury, a bed of roses, (the land of) milk and honey This says that luxury is about great comfort, something beyond the ordinary. The aristocrats of Downton Abbey live in luxury, the average softwar…
> the average software developer does not. No, that's the point of this article. The average developer does live in great comfort--beyond the ordinary--both in absolute terms worldwide (you have clean water and electricity), and relative terms within developed nations (you posess a well-paid skill that is in high demand and affords a flexible career).
I agree to disagree about this. To me, luxury is "opulence, luxuriousness, sumptuousness, grandeur, magnificence, splendor, lavishness, the lap of luxury, a bed of roses", and I don't associate those with typical developers. "Luxuriousness" is really a measure of consumption anyway, rather than income, so it would entirely depend on how people spend their money rather than how much they earn or receive. A big house, fast cars and yachts are luxury items even if you had to borrow money to buy them. Having a good job is not a luxury because people with good jobs can still live ascetically.
Maybe this is just a cultural difference thing here. When I hear "luxury" I hear something like "extravagance" or "indulgence". Luxury is something you don't need and shouldn't feel entitled to. I think most people do need good jobs, respectful working conditions, good housing and time with their friends and family. I don't consider those to be luxuries, and I don't think that there's anything extravagant about those things. To me, this just highlights how truly awful it is that most people do not have these things.
Re: We Have Luxurious Jobs but We Are Not Aware of It
#114Yes, working from home is great. It is a luxury. Working at your own pace is also nice. But working "on the Internet" means you're also comparing yourself to the best, brightest, and driven. Then it seems like you're achieving maybe 10% of what you seemingly could be, because you're setting your own goals based on what you see out there. It's like getting stuck in traffic. You can point out that I'm sitting in climat…
> no amount of explaining will make it go away Tell that to everyone who comes to terms with it and is at peace or is content and thankful for their situation?
Honest question: how numerous are such people?
On that note, is being content a skill most can learn with effort or does it have significant biological prerequisites (genetics, prenatal environment, etc)?
I'd appreciate links to studies on the matter.
Re: We Have Luxurious Jobs but We Are Not Aware of It
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is semantics. The point is, relatively speaking , our jobs offer good conditions to the average circumstances.
Yeah, you're right. But "luxurious" has connotations that go beyond "good conditions". It's not a luxury to be treated with dignity and respect, paid decently and allowed to make time for your family. That should be normal, and the real problem is that it isn't normal for enough people.
Splitting semantic hairs, but I would argue this is a luxury, and I'm not aware of any time in recorded history where it wasn't.
Re: We Have Luxurious Jobs but We Are Not Aware of It
#116No, I am keenly, almost obsessively aware of how lucky I am and how fragile my situation can be. I have three kids, a stay at home wife, make a considerable salary and have a job I absolutely love and excel at. But I am still fundamentally subsisting; my living expenses are just covered by what I make and am not able to save a considerable amount. This scares the bejesus out of me because all my kids are young: I hav…
> When there are people who are "struggling to find a minimum wage job for years" to me, that means that they lack the education or skills to have a job that pays more and is in more demand.
I'm not sure I agree. There are plenty of "low-skill", reasonably high paying jobs. The problem is that when you're in a cycle of having no money, you spend all your time managing what money you can get ahold of and trying to get quick cash influxes to keep the bills paid. You don't have the resources to sit back and plan a more stable path for yourself.
Re: We Have Luxurious Jobs but We Are Not Aware of It
#117[deleted]
Re: We Have Luxurious Jobs but We Are Not Aware of It
#118Yes, this. I've had jobs where I worked in the freezing rain, etc. etc. The people cutting your grass are likely better than you. I'll just come out and say it, they are, because their life SUCKS and they get up every day and just do it. They have heart. Many people in our community have a disgusting sense of superiority and entitlement. You just don't understand unless you've been there.
What makes many people in this community vapid isn't that they're uncompassionate towards people who have it harder, it's that they musn't realize how well off they really are. It's not your fault that most of us don't have the perspective that some of us do, but the lack of it is very real.
I've been called an asshole many a time by young privileged employees that complain about the free food, that we have certain core working hours, that yes, you need to be at the team standup on time, and in presentations you should pay attention to the presenter and out of respect put down your device(s). Before someone picks those examples apart, if you are about to, you're missing the point. Relatively speaking chances are you have absolutely nothing to whine about in your work. Nothing.
Re: We Have Luxurious Jobs but We Are Not Aware of It
#119While this might be true for a large portion of HN's audience, there are also developers stuck in shitty positions in countries where making $100K writing software is a pipe dream. I'd be happy if I was paid a third of that.
I don't make $100K either. But together with my wife's income, we've still got it pretty comfortable. You don't need $100K to live comfortably.
Indeed, and I certainly don't need $100K either. I don't even live in an area where the cost of living is especially high, but I currently make less than what I was earning working on an assembly line in a factory. While I'm not dirt-poor I'm unable to make any savings or plans for the future. As I don't have much aside, I can't really try my luck in a better area as moving is not free. At least I'm only responsible for myself, so there's that.
Re: We Have Luxurious Jobs but We Are Not Aware of It
#120No, we do not have luxurious jobs. Other people have really really shitty jobs. Software developers are just getting the kind of relative pay and conditions improvements that a much larger number of people took for granted in the 60s and 70s. It's everyone else who is fucked.
Maybe in the industrialized world. Your frame is too small. Zoom out a bit. Put the entire 7B of us in the picture. Now, do you have a luxurious job? The answer is yes.