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My low-paying, early-morning, exertion-requiring job

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Re: My low-paying, early-morning, exertion-requiring job

#91

Post by mikegillman »

herm wrote: post #27
jessepollak wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've actually experimented a fair amount with my sleeping patterns. For the most part, I find that when I wake up in the morning, I feel tired no matter what (up until around ~10 hours of sleep). What I've also found, however, is that this tiredness usually doesn't translate to how I feel for the rest of the day — I feel good all day no matter whether I get 6 or 8 hours.

I felt the same way until I was diagnosed with sleep apnea, even though I don't have any of the usual symptoms such as snoring, obesity, etc.

I was diagnosed with sleep apnea during college, while I was my fittest. Running every day, lifting weights, etc. I felt great, besides the fact that I couldn't get myself out of bed.

I still haven't started using a CPAP machine, as I have developed other coping methods (sleeping on one side helps dramatically). I have considered doing another sleep study though, to get some more information and start with a CPAP machine for backup.

Re: My low-paying, early-morning, exertion-requiring job

#92

Post by waylandsmithers »

nsted wrote: post #71

This story hilariously epitomizes the gulf that lies between the tech scene and the rest of the population. For you a low paying job is a hobby to keep you in check, I'm sure only so long that it doesn't impede your "real job". For most, these jobs are an important source of income. Doesn't it strike you as slightly obnoxious to take such a job away from someone who needs it? I can see this story ending up in Mike Ju…

I've thought about this a lot before, and there definitely is some merit to it.

I worked retail as a teenager, and the managers would give more hours to an older employee because she needed them (I was told this explicitly). I was fine with it at the time, because yeah, I was still mostly living on my parents' dime. Working in a corporate setting now, if I was told someone else at my company was getting a big raise only because they just had another kid or bought a new house, and not due to the quality of his or her work, I'm not sure how I would feel. I guess it just breaks down to whether you think like a capitalist or a communist.

Re: My low-paying, early-morning, exertion-requiring job

#93

Post by jqm »

Excellent idea, excellent article!

A couple of years ago I was driving back to my office and a difficult programming problem which I had been avoiding. It was early fall and the weather was beautiful. On the way, I passed a field of Chile peppers and a crew was gathering to pick. It looked like so much fun to be out picking chile peppers in the sunshine instead of sitting in front of a screen in my dark office. So, on a whim, I stopped and asked the boss if I could get a job picking peppers for the day. He almost fell over in surprise but said yes, I could on Saturday which was the next day.

So, early the next morning I got up all excited and went out to the field. One of the underbosses gave me a bucket and explained in broken English how the system worked. I was paid 55 cents for each bucket of peppers and I was to leave no peppers unpicked. Ok, no problem. I was assigned a row and off I went. After about half an hour I realized my error of judgement. It was really hard work and not nearly as romantic as it looked. To make matters worse, everyone was way ahead of me and had to keep coming over to my row to help me stay up.

But I wasn't about to quit and get laughed at. So I stuck the day out and make like $40. I then went home and slept for a day and a half and could barely walk. I don't know what the point is. But this was a good article. More people should do stuff like this.

Re: My low-paying, early-morning, exertion-requiring job

#94

Post by oznathan »

justinsteele wrote: post #84
pearjuice wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comparing a proper gym workout with some mundane cycling is like saying driving a high class Porsche is the same as driving a middle class Volkswagen

"Mundane" cycling daily is all that it takes to get the majority of health benefits. No reason to downplay what he's doing.

Cycling is actually not that healthy. Repetitive short movements shorten your muscles, which causes all kinds of problems.

Re: My low-paying, early-morning, exertion-requiring job

#95

Post by GrinningFool »

sanoli wrote: post #42
herm wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I felt the same way until I was diagnosed with sleep apnea, even though I don't have any of the usual symptoms such as snoring, obesity, etc.

How was the diagnosis made? Did you have to sleep in a clinic, or at home wearing some analyzer machine?

It depends. For many cases, an at-home analyzer will be sufficient.

But a lot of times you'll get scheduled for a clinic anyway...

Re: My low-paying, early-morning, exertion-requiring job

#96

Post by hoggle »

waylandsmithers wrote: post #92
nsted wrote: post #71

This story hilariously epitomizes the gulf that lies between the tech scene and the rest of the population. For you a low paying job is a hobby to keep you in check, I'm sure only so long that it doesn't impede your "real job". For most, these jobs are an important source of income. Doesn't it strike you as slightly obnoxious to take such a job away from someone who needs it? I can see this story ending up in Mike Ju…

I've thought about this a lot before, and there definitely is some merit to it. I worked retail as a teenager, and the managers would give more hours to an older employee because she needed them (I was told this explicitly). I was fine with it at the time, because yeah, I was still mostly living on my parents' dime. Working in a corporate setting now, if I was told someone else at my company was getting a big raise o…

YEAH to staying forever young and being white, male and without kids! No, honestly we don't have enough context. Maybe there simply wasn't anybody around willing to do the job before and if somebody would need it like in your example then maybe startup guy would "get fired"? Who knows? Context.

Re: My low-paying, early-morning, exertion-requiring job

#97

Post by pearjuice »

justinsteele wrote: post #84
pearjuice wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comparing a proper gym workout with some mundane cycling is like saying driving a high class Porsche is the same as driving a middle class Volkswagen

"Mundane" cycling daily is all that it takes to get the majority of health benefits. No reason to downplay what he's doing.

Majority of health benefits? It is a midly stressing cardio vascular activity and given the circumstances (delivery) it is probably nothing better than jumping up a few times and letting gravity get hold of you.

I am not saying it is worthless but some people praise this as the second coming of Sparta its legion training sets.

Re: My low-paying, early-morning, exertion-requiring job

#98

Post by nnq »

The OP is saying something equivalent to "I snort less coke now, because I've also started drinking and smoking pot, and having a commitment to meet the pot dealer each morning helps me wake up" but translated to workaholic lingo.

When the only way for you to disconnect from the work environment and get in contact with the bigger outer world is to get another job and connect to another work environment, something is definitely wrong with you! When you need commitments to other people, like a morning job, to wake up, you have an even bigger problem.

People need to learn to self-motivate and expand their world outside of work!

Re: My low-paying, early-morning, exertion-requiring job

#99

Post by GrinningFool »

I used to landscape professionally. Which - in my case - is a fancy way of saying I cut grass, dug ditches, raked leaves and spread mulch. I picked up some useful knowledge along the way.

Thing is, no matter how much satisfaction I get from a problem solved, elegant or just effective code written, etc - it isn't quite the same thing as when I could look back at a yard/park/complex etc at the end of the day and say "Yep, that looks good. I did that." Something that not only I could appreciate, but everyone driving by would notice on some level.

I'd not want to go back to that full-time. Intellectually my work now is far more satisfying (mentally designing algorithms while walking behind a bobcat tends to result in both poor algorithms and a poorly cut lawn). And it's easy to forget the long days, paychecks at the mercy of the weather, being constantly sore and always finding dirt and the damndest of places...

But I am thinking about finding some part-time work in landscaping this year for just that reason. I enjoyed it, I was reasonably good at it, and it felt good to be doing. With my hands.

Re: My low-paying, early-morning, exertion-requiring job

#100

Post by scotch_drinker »

jshakes wrote: post #77

I'm glad you appreciate the value of a healthy, balanced lifestyle. But reading this, it's easy to see why people post "Die Techie Scum" stickers around SF. You've taken a job that someone else could actually use to help pay rent and have turned it into a hobby. If I did this job for a living I would be furious at the arrogance of someone treating as an exercise in "Feeling Good". Get some perspective.

Except that in his real job, he creates jobs. So if by taking a low paying, high exertion job, his burnout rate is lowered or his stress level is lower which allows him to expand his company and hire more people, the world is largely a better place. This isn't a zero sum game. Yes, if he didn't take this job, someone else probably would but there is other context and other considerations to keep in mind.
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