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I quit the tech industry

eev.ee

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Re: I quit the tech industry

#111

Post by jrochkind1 »

Of course a full-time job sucks. Most people need one anyway in order to pay the rent. If you have the luxury of getting away without it, of course why wouldn't you?

I have the luxury of working a 4/5ths time (four days a week job). I'm still a programmer. At a university. That also allows me to work reasonable hours on that 4/5th time job, take personal days for personal business, etc. And most of what I write is open source, which is very nice. It's definitely still a trade-off, it's a very frustrating place to work sometimes, I don't always get to work on interesting problems (but sometimes do, in some periods often), I don't have enough colleagues to work on the _really_ cool stuff that would take more IT resources than my employer is willing to devote to what I think would be the really cool stuff. Etc.

My impression is that trying to start your own business will end up taking _more_ of your time than a 'full time job', not less. But if you end up finding that time more rewarding to spend, then, great.

Re: I quit the tech industry

#112

Post by bottled_poe »

johan_larson wrote: post #34
probablyfiction wrote: post #17

This is what burnout looks like. Unless Yelp has a toxic work culture, it's likely the author brought it on themselves by pushing too hard. After several months, the author will probably start thinking about work again, and begin the job search once more. Not to say that the author's points are invalid; it's a terrible feeling to have to spend your most productive hours working on someone else's problems. He or she m…

Generally speaking, if you have to pay people to do it, there is something nasty about the work. It's strenuous or dangerous or dirty or degrading or stressful or boring. If it were actually fun, people would be doing it for free. (Exceptions, anyone?) We programmers are quite lucky. At its worst our work is only frustrating. And we are well compensated, usually. Don't get me wrong; programming itself can be lots of…

>If it were actually fun, people would be doing it for free.

How much fun? Whatever you think is fun, I'm pretty sure I can think of something more fun. That's not me saying I know what is fun, just saying it is a subjective term. Also, what is fun today may not be in 2 weeks time.

Re: I quit the tech industry

#114

Post by toadi »

mootothemax wrote: post #84
pessimik wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go to Poland - 19% flat income tax rate for companies - you can get flat by 400 euro / month in biggest cities and work remotely for foreign clients.

Go to Poland - 19% flat income tax rate for companies - you can get flat by 400 euro / month in biggest cities and work remotely for foreign clients. To expand on this: one can operate as a sole trader company, and enjoy the 19% flat income tax rate. You can also register your company for VAT, and then claim back the VAT on company purchases. The only other cost is ~$270 / ~240 EUR / ~180 GBP per month in social insu…

Or not really Shengen. But as EU citizen I don't really care. Bulgaria has 10% flat rate. Cheap cost of living also.

Re: I quit the tech industry

#115

Post by mvanvoorden »

We're not meant to do jobs, this is just some modern made up concept to keep people busy so they don't see they are actually analogous to cattle.

So that you don't care about the virtual problems you solve for virtual company X, is perfectly normal and healthy. They are not your problems, they are not even remotely life-threatening, and so they are not relevant for survival.

Jobs are just created to keep us busy, as I said before. If we imagine a world without money (realistic or not), about 90% (educated guess) of jobs would not even exist anymore, as those are just jobs that do some money-related thing: Banking, insurance, financial advice, most lawyers, any administration department at any organisation. Indirectly even more jobs would disappear, because there is no need to compete financially, which means for example all R&D in a specific field can be brought together, as no one has to invent their (still unpatented) version of their wheel anymore.

We would be in a world where only work is done that is needed, that is directly involved with our survival, curiosity or entertainment, and no 'need' is created by some virtual dependencies. We would live in a world where everybody has the time and freedom to pursue their own dreams, without having to be afraid they will get in trouble later (because no pension built up etc).

We would also able to always pursue the most efficient and sustainable way to do something, as money is out of the equation. No more fraud, no more oil leaking in the oceans, no more rainforests cut down, and with all the empty offices due to disappeared redundant jobs, the demand for resources will be down and we wouldn't have to build any new houses or shelter for many years to come.

So yes, wake up and stop working and go exploring. Travel the world, find a skill that is directly useful to people, as helping out people will make you happy and you will get food/shelter in return even without asking for that. See also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7SVLaDdvDY and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCFe2KnBuJ0

Anyway, don't worry about financials. I went travelling in 2013, through Europe and Canary Islands, and spent about 5000 euro's in 18 months. With what I've learned now, I could spend twice the amount of time travelling with the same money.

At the moment I'm (unfortunately) working in IT again, because I haven't found the way yet to earn bread on the road. When I started travelling I knew nothing, now I know what to do and so this will be the last time I will spend many hours a day in an office, as my salary will buy me all the gear I need to make a(n easier) transition.

Anyway, whatever you do, don't lock yourself up in a stone prison for the rest of your life. Become your own boss. Don't spend your life realizing other people's dreams and wealth, because you WILL regret it when you are a pensioner, as then you find out you forgot to live your own life and there's no energy left for it now.

Re: I quit the tech industry

#116

Post by jtbigwoo »

nugget wrote: post #80
psybermancer wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks to the Internet numbing my moral compass, it's not often I'm shocked, but 53% is just horrifying :(. On the other foot, I live in Australia where most can't afford to buy a house in Sydney, even with what would be considered pretty good wages. That's why I moved out of core tech and became a librarian (which is still pretty tech) in a more regional city. Lower wages but slightly more affordable houses mean I m…

Between (hidden) payroll taxes and state and federal income taxes a developer making 120k in San Francisco isn't too far below 53%.

120k is in the top 20% of wage earners in the U.S. That's quite a bit different than $35k which is in the bottom ~30% (in the U.S.)

Re: I quit the tech industry

#117

Post by hopeless »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #48
yc1010 wrote: post #11

I have been working for myself for last 8 years after completing my masters, in hindsight financially I did not do too badly (tho there was some great and ups and incredible downs!) and it is NICE working from home and watching your kid grow (tho there are quite a lot of distractions!!! says he who is procrastinating reading HN :D ) BUT if I was offered a job with guaranteed employment and steady wages and (gaaasp pe…

It is (was) great for Ireland, though. That's how they attracted tons of (large) tech companies to Ireland. It's the perfect match: low corporate tax, no incentive for people to go away and do their own startups, which means you can get paid less as there as less alternatives for you. Very smart play by Ireland. Then, the EU went back to them and told them they couldn't keep doing this, and very soon (is it 2016?) th…

There are no plans to change the corporate tax rate and the EU have no jurisdiction in these matters.

What is happening, rightly so, is the dismantling of some mechanisms which allowed large corporations to avoid paying the corporation tax at all. I think, though not sure, that this includes dismantling the double-irish arrangement where companies declared the majority of their income as expenses for licensing the product/brand etc from a parent company.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement

Re: I quit the tech industry

#118

Post by mootothemax »

chii wrote: post #103
mootothemax wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go to Poland - 19% flat income tax rate for companies - you can get flat by 400 euro / month in biggest cities and work remotely for foreign clients. To expand on this: one can operate as a sole trader company, and enjoy the 19% flat income tax rate. You can also register your company for VAT, and then claim back the VAT on company purchases. The only other cost is ~$270 / ~240 EUR / ~180 GBP per month in social insu…

how come it's so cheap to live in poland?

how come it's so cheap to live in poland?

Off the top of my head:

- The state's still transitioning from a post-communist economy.

- Wages are very low.

- Relatively high emigration rate "brain drain" (although people are starting to return).

- More supply, less demand.

You can buy a brand new apartment close to the centre for somewhere around $2000 per square metre / $200 per square foot. Depending on how your housing market work, that's either scandalously high, or shockingly low.

It is however, very very affordable as soon as you start earning a reasonable wage.

Re: I quit the tech industry

#119

Post by a3n »

renegadedev wrote: post #72

I feel his pain but it's easy to quit when you can cash in your stock options and pay off your mortgage

Yes, that's how you do it. If he was burned out and asking how to do it, the answers would be variations on this.

He did it.

Re: I quit the tech industry

#120

Post by brianwawok »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #48
yc1010 wrote: post #11

I have been working for myself for last 8 years after completing my masters, in hindsight financially I did not do too badly (tho there was some great and ups and incredible downs!) and it is NICE working from home and watching your kid grow (tho there are quite a lot of distractions!!! says he who is procrastinating reading HN :D ) BUT if I was offered a job with guaranteed employment and steady wages and (gaaasp pe…

It is (was) great for Ireland, though. That's how they attracted tons of (large) tech companies to Ireland. It's the perfect match: low corporate tax, no incentive for people to go away and do their own startups, which means you can get paid less as there as less alternatives for you. Very smart play by Ireland. Then, the EU went back to them and told them they couldn't keep doing this, and very soon (is it 2016?) th…

> And if you're Google, you built a large office and hired thousands of people, you're not going to leave anytime soon.

You think? I don't think big business tends to fall into the sunk cost fallacy like we do. It may take a year to move out, but if they save no money in Ireland over the US, why stay?

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