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I quit the tech industry

eev.ee

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Re: I quit the tech industry

#261

Post by plinkplonk »

CrLf wrote: post #88
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a social problem we'll have to address as remote working becomes ubiquitous. It helps if the remote environment is more immersive, with the team aware of each others' presence and activity even when they're not directly communicating. Keeps your head in the space, so to speak.

I think you just described somewhat of a dystopian future... :) Most work is a group effort. Group efforts require the feeling of belonging to a group to be effective. You just cannot get that if you work remotely. Real human interaction cannot be faked or successfully replaced by electronic means. Working remotely a couple of days a week is probably beneficial. It alleviates the pressure of constant interactions pre…

" Group efforts require the feeling of belonging to a group to be effective. You just cannot get that if you work remotely"

I wonder if someone told all the (paid, for the sake of argument)devs working on Open Source projects that they can't have the feeling of being part of a group since they are scattered all over the world.

Re: I quit the tech industry

#263

Post by sbierwagen »

mootothemax wrote: post #89
ode wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't Ireland have a graduated tax system?

Doesn't Ireland have a graduated tax system? According to Wikipedia, it does: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_the_Republic_of_Ire... "The taxation of earnings is progressive" Which makes the OP's post rather confusing. Does any country out there not tax progressively? I just can't imagine it - "Great, you got a pay rise! Now you get to take home less, until your pay rises by another $5,000!" Edit: On second…

  Does any country out there not tax progressively?

  I just can't imagine it - "Great, you got a pay rise! Now 
  you get to take home less, until your pay rises by 
  another $5,000!"
He's just whining. At no point under the progressive tax system do you get penalized for earning more: the first $35K of your income is still taxed at the lower rate. When you earn dollar number 35,001, that dollar is taxed at 53%, but your average tax rate only goes up a hundredth of a percent.

This misunderstanding of how tax brackets is so widely pervasive that I can only assume it's the work of enemy action: people who want to reduce income taxes, or to move the tax burden to the poor by implementing a flat tax rate.

Re: I quit the tech industry

#264

Post by skynetv2 »

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…

I hear Netflix also has a very high pressure culture and if people cant cope up, they are given a generous severance and asked to leave. is this right? how long can a person survive in such environments?

Re: I quit the tech industry

#265

Post by brightball »

mschaef wrote: post #245
brightball wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree with you on that point, just looking from a cash flow perspective if you were to keep working for a little while after paying everything off you'd likely be able to save a huge amount of money very quickly. Save, invest, relax on a beach...any of it's easier without that mortgage eating away at you. I remember when I finally got around to doing the math on my first mortgage and realized I was actually g…

> I was actually going to pay close to triple the sale price of the house if I waited the full 30 years. Did you adjust for inflation? Even at today's inflation rates, the dollars you pay in 30 years will be worth considerably less than the dollars you pay today. There's also an opportunity cost issue. Paying off your mortgage means not putting the money somewhere else. > you're really just throwing away money. No...…

Matter of perspective I guess. When I looked at my early mortgage payments and 85% of the payment was interest so after 10 years I would have barely paid down the principle at all. To me, that feels like waste.

I invested with steady 12-14% returns for 10 years and then watched it all get wiped out. The interest rate on paying of debt doesn't change. Granted, at current rates it's a lot tougher to make the argument for mortgage interest vs other types of debt.

Nobody ever shows a compound interest chart with anything other than a steady interest rate (aka - 30 years of 10% return = millionaire!). A single negative or downturn can have a pretty dramatic effect on those projections. If you look at those same projection charts and take the amount you'd look to invest over the first 10 years, but put into into debt payment instead of investing so that you get everything paid off, then take that same amount you would have been investing, start investing it plus the money that you're no longer paying in monthly expenses then you'll find the end of the 30 year period to be an almost identical result. The only difference is that after 10 years you've eliminated virtually any risk of personal bankruptcy.

If you can find something with a guaranteed long term return higher than the mortgage interest then it's another ballgame, but those are pretty hard to come by. Right now dividend investing seems to be the closest approach that generally lets you ignore the actual interest rates over time and instead focus on building cash flow.

But this is one of those topics that is part math, part point of view and part personal comfort level. This was just my perspective.

Re: I quit the tech industry

#266

Post by marvel_boy »

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…

That's not burnout. He's doing the correct thing, where your jobs sucks is time to try a different thing. Good luck !

Re: I quit the tech industry

#268

Post by angersock »

zippy786 wrote: post #213
mpdehaan2 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While not burnout related, I found out a while back, and this is somewhat paradoxical, that if I care TOO much, I'm less happy. What happens is I notice all the stuff I can't fix, or need to fix, and other people get stressed out making them fix it. The end result is that I stop caring quite as much (I still care), get happy, and then start caring too much again. It's especially hard at times when you have a lot of e…

This is what is fundamentally wrong with the industry. Often those who don't care or don't do much are the highest paid and get more reward that the ones who care the most and always try to do something. Obviously, the environment eventually turns those who care into someone not caring as much. Eventually not caring at all, thus a toxic environment is formed. Some may also feel that this is the norm in most companies…

The author kinda hints at the key right here:

"They’re interesting for a while, but they’re also the same self-inflicted wounds everyone seems to deal with — why is this slow? why is this broken? how can we keep this old code limping along indefinitely without having to rewrite it? how does this thing a former employee wrote even work? They’re cute puzzles, and I can get into solving them for a while, but I don’t care about them. Because they aren’t my problems; they were just dumped in my lap, along with a canvas sack with a dollar sign on it."

Companies that write their own software create something where nothing existed before--and so by definition, all of their problems are self-inflicted.

Shit gets old, fast.

Re: I quit the tech industry

#269

Post by platz »

jebblue wrote: post #200
shalmanese wrote: post #65

It's sad to me that the industry is pushing out so many great people because they feel so disenfranchised by it. I believe technology is one of the most potent forces of good in the world but for that to sustain, a culture has to develop around it with a deep desire to solve serious, large problems. I attended my first (and last) Hackathon a couple of weeks ago because it was immigration themed and so I thought I cou…

>> I believe technology is one of the most potent forces of good in the world I believe technology will be the downfall of humankind; but the work is interesting.

Technology’s primary effect is to amplify human forces. technology has become a kinder, gentler variant of so-called trickle-down economics. Technology — even when it’s equally distributed — isn’t a bridge, but a jack. It widens existing disparities.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/09/us/taking-a-tire-iron-to-t...

Re: I quit the tech industry

#270

Post by Arjuna »

pinky1417 wrote: post #236
Arjuna wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what burnout looks like. I agree. Boys and girls, as you likely know, burnout is real. But, you can manage it. I'll tell you what I do. Here's the secret: Put yourself first. Now, that sounds quite selfish on first-blush. What exactly does that mean? For me, it means I take care of my health, first and foremost. Before the day is started, before the family is awake, I head off to the gym to be with The Iron.…

Because I see you attend The Iron Temple, you must also be a worshipper of Brodin. Wheymen.

Because I see you attend The Iron Temple, you must also be a worshipper of Brodin. Wheymen.

I wasn't aware of any of the references that you used (e.g., "Brodin", "Wheymen") until I looked them up just now.

I suspect that you're joking, but for the benefit of other readers regarding my intention:

I would personally find it terribly unfortunate if what I've sincerely written in my original post above were to be misconstrued in any way with the Brodin references, which come across as a part of "bro" culture; this was categorically not my intention.

Strength training is for everyone, and both the physical and mental aspects of exercise of any type (e.g., cardio, strength, yoga, etc.) are beneficial to everyone.

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