Yeah, I feel luxurious every weekend I spend working on somebody else's code mess.
We Have Luxurious Jobs but We Are Not Aware of It
131–140 of 312 posts
Re: We Have Luxurious Jobs but We Are Not Aware of It
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
This. We enrich "business guys" with connections to billion dollar exits while we ourselves make middle-class or slightly upper-middle class wages. Meanwhile anyone willing to take out the loans to put themselves through Dental school will eventually make more than we do and if they have the motivation to open up their own practice, much more than we do.
You think dentistry is a luxury? Half the time is chasing down nonpying clients, the other half is doing disgusting physical labor.
You think _Dentists_ chase down non paying clients? Ha ha!
Non-payers are part of their expected business, maybe someone fresh out of school who never talked to another practicing dentist might get surprised by this.
They hire people to chase down non paying clients and they still turn a hefty profit.
Yes, dentistry is a luxury
Re: We Have Luxurious Jobs but We Are Not Aware of It
#133Thank you for posting this! I find the Silicon Valley a internally focused place and I think we need more reminders from members of our community that we are the exception and not the rule. Not everyone in the world can be a VC or programmer.
Re: We Have Luxurious Jobs but We Are Not Aware of It
#134You significantly understate the luxury which we enjoy, as even the millions of people searching for minimum wage jobs enjoy extreme luxury.
There are hundreds of millions of people living on under $2 per day. And yes, that is adjusted for purchasing power.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Percentage_population_livi...
Re: We Have Luxurious Jobs but We Are Not Aware of It
#135It's commendable to want to be grateful for what we have and not take it for granted, but it should never be used as an argument against wanting to improve our lot.
I can understand wanting to share your newly found sense of perspective with everyone else, but I'd like to suggest balancing it a bit with the following excerpt from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
To Trin Tragula's horror, the shock completely annihilated her brain; but to his satisfaction he realized that he had proved conclusively that if life is going to exist in a Universe of this size, then the one thing it cannot afford to have is a sense of proportion.
Re: We Have Luxurious Jobs but We Are Not Aware of It
#136It's this sort of thinking that prevents people from getting help when they let their health slide and get depressed (notice that I didn't say it's this sort of thinking that causes depression. Depression is a disease.)
Yes, "First World Problems", etc. But you have to realize that your problems are actually problems. Just because other people have worse problems doesn't mean you should just suck it up and "take it like a man.
If you're feeling like you just don't want to work today, and that feeling perpetuates for more than a day or two, then you need to do something different than what you're currently doing. We used to call it "in a rut", now we recognize that it's a symptom of depression. And however mild it may be, you wouldn't wait until cancer or a chest cold were really bad until you tried to treat it.
What you need to do differently to treat your mind is going to be unique to you. Maybe it's exercising more, maybe it's sleeping more, maybe it's eating better, maybe it's just getting a hug from someone you love. Just remember, engineer, first fix yourself.
Re: We Have Luxurious Jobs but We Are Not Aware of It
#137Let's be careful with that term, "luxury". You're a well-paid and comparatively comfortable wage slave, but just because you don't have to labor in a mine or a burger joint doesn't mean you are experiencing luxury. Luxury is what these people are living: http://www.forbes.com/billionaires/ We would all do well to remember that the first 85 people on that list have as much wealth as the 3.5 billion poorest people in t…
>We would all do well to remember that the first 85 people on that list have as much wealth as the 3.5 billion poorest people in the world Does anyone know where to get the raw wealth data for something like this? It might be interesting to know for example, if you have a net worth of $1, that you might have more wealth than the poorest 500 million combined (or whatever).
Re: We Have Luxurious Jobs but We Are Not Aware of It
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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,…
Fair enough. I'm fully on board with you that more people should have access to the advantages we do.
I do disagree with your characterizing "luxury" solely in terms of consumption. To me, somebody who lives an ascetic lifestyle while saving the wages of their good job still has "luxuries" that others lack: economic security, having the freedom to quit their job if they want, etc.
Re: We Have Luxurious Jobs but We Are Not Aware of It
#139Yes, 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…
So what is the hack that keeps us from constantly taking our luxuries for granted? Just as with the traffic situation, how often do we find ourselves complaining about having to do the laundry or the dishes or vacuuming or even heating up something for dinner -- all fairly small and easy tasks thanks to the help of technology, which took much more time and labor in a previous generation? Yes, it's true that the compl…
Gratitude
Re: We Have Luxurious Jobs but We Are Not Aware of It
#140Yes, 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…
but do most people actually do the comparison, even once? Working on the internet also imparts a lot of anonymity. Your just one of thousands of people doing a similar job, maybe clients just assume this is what to expect, or like how many other things in the world are handled, its good enough to not expend further effort in finding better.
Still IT is a breeze, having grown up on a farm I feel lazy even when I do a sixty hour week. Having worked in low end jobs as an adult when times were bad I have great respect for those who do and never really feel at home amongst those who never have.
Still, working at home is awesome, but no matter how many others tell me that my job or similar is challenging all I have to do is look outside see the garbage man, see the lawn people, see people building house, and not think - damn I got it good.
First world problems is a meme on reddit that fits us well