Sometimes, it’s just time to go home • Hacker News Board

Re: Sometimes, it’s just time to go home

#111

Post by knd775 » Fri, Nov 07, 2014, 4:14 PM UTC

barbudorojo wrote: post #102

What surprised me is the "Buy me a coffee" barner. It is supposed they are having a big success with BBVA selling their product/application. The business sound really interesting, but "buy me a coffee" doesn't give the impression I should like to receive for such a product. I was expecting to see something about how our product is the top one in security or any other required feature. Perhaps I am a little harsh, but…

I would agree if it were the company blog, but this is his personal site. He may not need the money, but the button uses Dwolla's form builder. He probably just wanted a reason to use his own product. I don't see much wrong with that.

Re: Sometimes, it’s just time to go home

#112

Post by dasil003 » Fri, Nov 07, 2014, 4:15 PM UTC

tedks wrote: post #105

yason wrote: post #51

Life is now. If you‘re doing something for money so that you can live your life the way you want later, that doesn‘t work because it takes time to learn to live your life the way you want. Typically it takes a lifetime to do that, so you must start early: you must start now if you wish to make it. Otherwise you‘ll end up with a lot of cash and no idea of what kind of life makes you fulfilled. If you‘re doing somethin…

This is the sort of sentimentality that has no place in modern capitalism. Why would you need to cook dinner or water a garden (who even has a garden) or even have children in the first place? People have been doing that for thousands of years. If you want to scratch dirt you can move to Kansas and be a dirt farmer. Plenty of time with your kids with that career track. If you're building a company, you have almost no…

What if "winning" doesn't fill the hole?

Re: Sometimes, it’s just time to go home

#113

Post by wonsler » Fri, Nov 07, 2014, 4:16 PM UTC

tedks wrote: post #105

yason wrote: post #51

Life is now. If you‘re doing something for money so that you can live your life the way you want later, that doesn‘t work because it takes time to learn to live your life the way you want. Typically it takes a lifetime to do that, so you must start early: you must start now if you wish to make it. Otherwise you‘ll end up with a lot of cash and no idea of what kind of life makes you fulfilled. If you‘re doing somethin…

This is the sort of sentimentality that has no place in modern capitalism. Why would you need to cook dinner or water a garden (who even has a garden) or even have children in the first place? People have been doing that for thousands of years. If you want to scratch dirt you can move to Kansas and be a dirt farmer. Plenty of time with your kids with that career track. If you're building a company, you have almost no…

Work smart, not hard. Cash is a metric of how valuable something is to the purchaser, and not how hard it is for the master to perform, but for the purchaser to perform from scratch. Working hard, without balance, is an obsessive-compulsive behavior, so that you needn't define yourself and figure out how to live your life. The parent of your comment is spot on.

Re: Sometimes, it’s just time to go home

#114

Post by hibbelig » Fri, Nov 07, 2014, 4:19 PM UTC

tedks wrote: post #105

yason wrote: post #51

Life is now. If you‘re doing something for money so that you can live your life the way you want later, that doesn‘t work because it takes time to learn to live your life the way you want. Typically it takes a lifetime to do that, so you must start early: you must start now if you wish to make it. Otherwise you‘ll end up with a lot of cash and no idea of what kind of life makes you fulfilled. If you‘re doing somethin…

This is the sort of sentimentality that has no place in modern capitalism. Why would you need to cook dinner or water a garden (who even has a garden) or even have children in the first place? People have been doing that for thousands of years. If you want to scratch dirt you can move to Kansas and be a dirt farmer. Plenty of time with your kids with that career track. If you're building a company, you have almost no…

I find that raising children and caring for and loving my family is the hardest I've done yet. It's not paying any money.

Re: Sometimes, it’s just time to go home

#115

Post by TheBiv » Fri, Nov 07, 2014, 4:21 PM UTC

tedks wrote: post #105

yason wrote: post #51

Life is now. If you‘re doing something for money so that you can live your life the way you want later, that doesn‘t work because it takes time to learn to live your life the way you want. Typically it takes a lifetime to do that, so you must start early: you must start now if you wish to make it. Otherwise you‘ll end up with a lot of cash and no idea of what kind of life makes you fulfilled. If you‘re doing somethin…

This is the sort of sentimentality that has no place in modern capitalism. Why would you need to cook dinner or water a garden (who even has a garden) or even have children in the first place? People have been doing that for thousands of years. If you want to scratch dirt you can move to Kansas and be a dirt farmer. Plenty of time with your kids with that career track. If you're building a company, you have almost no…

>>Building a company is a very difficult task that very few people can successfully execute, and even fewer can successfully execute in the limit. It's just intrinsically hard.

Please do not act as if 100% of the things you do on a daily basis are "hard" things. You're commenting on HN, so I know you are not 100% tapped on the hard things.

I believe that the author chose to use the example of cooking as a way to do a relaxing (easy) thing that doesn't need a whole lot of brain power.

Re: Sometimes, it’s just time to go home

#116

Post by famousactress » Fri, Nov 07, 2014, 4:24 PM UTC

xtracto wrote: post #104

famousactress wrote: post #24

The saddest thing about this post to me is the fact that he could only write it because his startup is apparently doing great. Most startups aren't, despite the fact that lots of the folks there are in effectively the same personal position and feeling the exact same thing - in addition to the added pressure of not feeling like they measure up to stories like this one because their quarter didn't go nearly as well. I…

>for God's sake appreciate the fact that you're in the hilariously small fraction of people who get to blog about the pains of working too hard by choice. This made me think: How would a similar blog post from one of the albañiles (construction worker) be? Earning 13 bucks a day doing hard physical work and then having to do another job to earn a little more.

We'll probably never know because that guy doesn't have time to write one. (Note the irony)

Re: Sometimes, it’s just time to go home

#117

Post by dddrh » Fri, Nov 07, 2014, 4:31 PM UTC

If you have never read The Monk and The Riddle, I would highly suggest it. The experiences that are shared and the story that is woven lends some really good perspective on our lack of an ability to focus on what is important now versus what will be important later.

It's a short read and worth every page.

Re: Sometimes, it’s just time to go home

#118

Post by OhHeyItsE » Fri, Nov 07, 2014, 4:38 PM UTC

tedks wrote: post #105

yason wrote: post #51

Life is now. If you‘re doing something for money so that you can live your life the way you want later, that doesn‘t work because it takes time to learn to live your life the way you want. Typically it takes a lifetime to do that, so you must start early: you must start now if you wish to make it. Otherwise you‘ll end up with a lot of cash and no idea of what kind of life makes you fulfilled. If you‘re doing somethin…

This is the sort of sentimentality that has no place in modern capitalism. Why would you need to cook dinner or water a garden (who even has a garden) or even have children in the first place? People have been doing that for thousands of years. If you want to scratch dirt you can move to Kansas and be a dirt farmer. Plenty of time with your kids with that career track. If you're building a company, you have almost no…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law

Re: Sometimes, it’s just time to go home

#119

Post by noir_lord » Fri, Nov 07, 2014, 4:45 PM UTC

mooreds wrote: post #109

tedks wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the sort of sentimentality that has no place in modern capitalism. Why would you need to cook dinner or water a garden (who even has a garden) or even have children in the first place? People have been doing that for thousands of years. If you want to scratch dirt you can move to Kansas and be a dirt farmer. Plenty of time with your kids with that career track. If you're building a company, you have almost no…

Hey, I applaud you for your mindset for its purity and clarity. I think it's a bit shortsighted myself, but I've found the world a more complex place than I expected when I was younger (I'm in my 30s), and I think it's important to realize that everyone has different priorities. I agree with the parent of this comment that it takes a life to learn how to live. If you want to live the life of a founder, live that life…

> I've found the world a more complex place than I expected when I was younger (I'm in my 30s),

Amen, I'm 34 and for the first time in my life when exposed to unexpected complexity from life I don't retreat back into a set of circumstances that allow me to control the situation (i.e. throw myself into work and minimise all distractions).

I had a fairly horrible (if not unusual) upbringing so I fear messy complex life situations, I deliberately live a Spartan existence (I don't drink, smoke, do drugs or socialise that much (outside the local developer meet up and odd cycle club event)) but I'm working at it, reducing life to a problem simplified enough to be solved is one coping strategy but as I'm starting to realise there are others, my business partner is a Buddhist and while I'm not in the slightest religious I find much of the foundation interesting particulary acceptance and mindfulness.

24 year old me would have never even stopped to question what he was doing, 10 years can make a hell of a difference.

Re: Sometimes, it’s just time to go home

#120

Post by startupgrinder » Fri, Nov 07, 2014, 4:58 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #64

startupgrinder wrote: post #55

I wish I had the balls to write this post. Mine would certainly not be so honest and raw. It's also sad that it comes to this. I get home for dinner but work till midnight. I'm in town for birthdays but leave at 6am the next morning. I still talk to my very best friends but no one else. I hope to heaven that the startup never ruins my marriage but it's not impossible to see it could happen. Maybe these "compromises"…

> I hope to heaven that the startup never ruins my marriage That's probably already happening, you're just not being told/aware of it yet. If you're only in town for birthdays and leave at 6 am the next morning and wreck your social life you're well underway. Been there, done that so take it from me as an experience to avoid.

Thank you for the concern. This is not happening, I'm just saying that as a founder I can understand how people's obsession can go overboard and ruin important stuff. Clay Christensen's "How to Measure Your Life" is the best book on this subject and is a guiding principle for me. If my wife said "You need to quit your startup it's ruining us" I would do it in a second. As much as I love what I do, it's not even close to the plane and importance of my family.