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Ask HN: Did you get "never have to work again rich" through software?

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Re: Ask HN: Did you get "never have to work again rich" through software?

#111

Post by [deleted] »

iretired wrote: post #57
nawitus wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think the manager career path is still worth it, or is the 'technology-oriented' career path better?

It depends on the individual. Most (75%?) of engineers are not suited for management. Most engineers have a "busy-beaver" personality type. "Show me the problem, I'll go solve it." This is a great personality type for an engineer, but it doesn't work well for a manager. Managing is a different game. A lot of it is about pushing back and asking, "what is the question? does this really solve the right problem? are we s…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Did you get "never have to work again rich" through software?

#112

Post by hypatiadotca »

iretired wrote: post #34

I feel obliged to comment, although not with my normal HN username. I’m 41. I retired two years ago at the age of 39. I spent 18 years working in Silicon Valley at four different companies of various sizes. At 29 I was promoted to a first-level manager. Two of the companies I worked for were successful while I was there, although not spectacularly so. Mostly I minimized my costs. For the last five years of my career,…

"I chewed my 20-year-old girlfriend out for not keeping the wine glasses of my guests topped off during dinner at her end of the table."

Wow you sound like a real catch there dude.

Re: Ask HN: Did you get "never have to work again rich" through software?

#113

Post by blinktink »

diego wrote: post #18

Yes. I sold IndexTank to LinkedIn among other things. It was a gradual process for me that started with the first dot-com boom. It wasn't as big of a deal as I thought it would be. I was 41. Cashing out stock from public companies I've been at, selling consulting services before building IndexTank, selling IndexTank. I don't think there is such a thing as overall happiness. I do live in the present more than I used t…

I loved IndexTank. Was a great product. Someone could clone it and it would succeed again.

Re: Ask HN: Did you get "never have to work again rich" through software?

#114

Post by jyu »

hashtag wrote: post #110
lisper wrote: post #98

> How did you do it? I got extremely lucky. I got dragged kicking and screaming into being an early hire at Google. > What did it feel like when you first realised it was going to be true that you would never have to work again if you didn't want to? Kind of surreal. On the day of the IPO, one minute I was still a working stiff, and the next minute I was suddenly looking at an account with my name on it with more dig…

I'm curious on the back story of how you got dragged into working for Google

He used to keep a blog on what it's like to work at Google from 2005-2007. In lieu of his response, it might suffice.

The archive is available below: http://blog.rongarret.info/2009/12/xooglers-rises-from-ashes... http://www.flownet.com/ron/xooglers.html

Re: Ask HN: Did you get "never have to work again rich" through software?

#115

Post by rokhayakebe »

iretired wrote: post #34

I feel obliged to comment, although not with my normal HN username. I’m 41. I retired two years ago at the age of 39. I spent 18 years working in Silicon Valley at four different companies of various sizes. At 29 I was promoted to a first-level manager. Two of the companies I worked for were successful while I was there, although not spectacularly so. Mostly I minimized my costs. For the last five years of my career,…

I do not know why everybody is being harsh on this. He is clearly being sarcastic, there is a message here.

Re: Ask HN: Did you get "never have to work again rich" through software?

#116

Post by mr_luc »

Eyas wrote: post #80
iretired wrote: post #34

I feel obliged to comment, although not with my normal HN username. I’m 41. I retired two years ago at the age of 39. I spent 18 years working in Silicon Valley at four different companies of various sizes. At 29 I was promoted to a first-level manager. Two of the companies I worked for were successful while I was there, although not spectacularly so. Mostly I minimized my costs. For the last five years of my career,…

Reading this post was very uncomfortable, especially the follow-ups describing women as having "no intellectual curiosity", but also the general tone. I was also perplexed at how many others described this as an ideal life -- perhaps they were just referring to the raw facts (lots of fun, dating, throwing good parties, etc.) and not actually adopting many of the implicit attitudes in there. Still, I couldn't help but…

I'd like to thank the gp for his comment and his honesty; I think his participation adds a lot to this discussion.

That said, I felt just as uneasy as you.

Here's my experience from the Funemployment thread, if anyone's interested -- not FU money, but a life that feels just as free: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7932707 (I thought about commenting on this thread, but I already commented on the 'Funemployment' thread).

I think that "emotional immaturity" is a cop-out, though, one that I've seen a lot. What's mature?

I've seen, known and met dozens (hundreds?) of expats, and I fear that the real reasons might be a bit more grim: I don't think people really know what they would run away to do.

It's easy to funnel people towards technology and startups if they want to get rich. It's 'easy' in the sense that, whatever the reasons you might want to get rich, technology can probably help.

But on the opposite end?

Where do people go once they've achieved functional independence (through retirement or other means) and can basically take work or leave it?

Well ... that's pretty personal. It fans out, sometimes to really weird and specific places.

In this case, the gp has found one really good friend, who 'gets' him. The two of them have a bromance going, and they have a hobby they enjoy ('debauchery'), and they treat other people (including some women) as essentially disposable.

That makes me uneasy, but what about it specifically would you call "immaturity?" It seems that you might mean that it's empirically immature, in that it sounds like the dream and the description (and, hey, this being the internet, it might well be a fantasy) of young people without much life experience.

Re: Ask HN: Did you get "never have to work again rich" through software?

#117

Post by japhyr »

jbernier wrote: post #109
japhyr wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in New Hampshire, but now I live in southeast Alaska. I found a third-grade autobiography once: "When I grow up I'm going to live in Arizona, California, or Alaska." I had no idea how far back I had the desire to move west.

Interesting. I always pictured Alaska as a beautiful but lonely place.

There are definitely some isolated places in Alaska, but how lonely a place feels depends on a number of things. My town is big enough that I don't feel alone at all here.

I live in Sitka. We have ~9000 people here, but you can only get here by boat or plane. It's really nice to be off the road system. If you need to get out, you can take a plane and be in Juneau in an hour or two, in Anchorage in a few hours, and you can get to Seattle in about 4 hours.

That said, you can climb to the top of a mountain, drop down the other side a little bit, and see no sign of humans for hundreds of miles. That's a pretty nice balance. :)

Re: Ask HN: Did you get "never have to work again rich" through software?

#118

Post by STRML »

rcvassallo wrote: post #102

> "Never have to work again rich" I'm almost there. At this point, I just resigned my full-time job and have enough cash on hand to maintain my current lifestyle for the next 10+ years before even thinking about finding a new job or withdrawing funds from my retirement accounts. > How did you do it? I worked in IT at a community bank and built a reputation for software development. After ~5 years there, I started a c…

How did you get started in real estate? In a good year, it is sometimes difficult to choose what to do with extra money - and the usual 0.05-0.10% the banks offer certainly isn't cutting it.

Re: Ask HN: Did you get "never have to work again rich" through software?

#119

Post by adventured »

callmeed wrote: post #88
diego wrote: post #18

Yes. I sold IndexTank to LinkedIn among other things. It was a gradual process for me that started with the first dot-com boom. It wasn't as big of a deal as I thought it would be. I was 41. Cashing out stock from public companies I've been at, selling consulting services before building IndexTank, selling IndexTank. I don't think there is such a thing as overall happiness. I do live in the present more than I used t…

* > I was 41* Boom. First of all, congrats on that success. Second, I love hearing stories like this. I'm sure I'm biased because I'm in my late 30s but it's a nice break from all the tech wunderkind profiles in the media and the ageism of VCs & startups.

I compiled this list a while back, in response to an Ask HN, because I see the over 30 discussion frequently.

Turns out, almost all the uber successful tech entrepreneurs were over 30 when they hit their stride. The wunderkind thing is almost entirely a myth.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7864053

Re: Ask HN: Did you get "never have to work again rich" through software?

#120

Post by dang »

iretired wrote: post #50
hitchhiker999 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

nice! The many girls thing will rapidly get boring though. Friends thing never will.

[Thanks, japhyr, for pointing that out although we obviously disagree] Actually, I've already figured that out. This guy is going to be my friend for the rest of my life even though I've only known him for a year. Several times it's happened that we both make excuses to ditch our respective girlfriends to just hang out alone together, drink wine and talk about life. Women have almost no intellectual curiosity. It is…

> Women have almost no intellectual curiosity. It is just how they are wired. If you want to have great conversations about anything meaningful, you must find a man.

It makes me burn with shame to see such horseshit on Hacker News.

This account is banned as a troll. Do not post anything like this again, and kindly keep the douchey Maxim-magazine pastiche off this site as well.

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