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I quit the tech industry

eev.ee

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Re: I quit the tech industry

#341

Post by omouse »

A separate comment I want to make is that the cute puzzles talked about in the article are pretty much the same everywhere: deal with politics, deal with poor performing code, deal with random idiotic UI decisions. The more interesting thing is to work on your own code or company where you have users and customers and they can guide you toward a good design or to work on harder research-y things, things that fall under computer science or software engineering.

I was re-reading one of Paul Graham's earlier essays, the ones I read while at the tail end of high school and beginning college and it basically says give the hackers direct access to user feedback and they'll do the right thing. I don't know what happens but along the way all these companies that started out like that have just introduced layers and layers of people between the user and the hacker so much so that the hackers opinions about what's the right thing to work on right now are ignored.

Maybe it's just time to get back to that and take that exit strategy; just work on a small cool product that you own where you get user feedback immediately where you decide the priority.

Re: I quit the tech industry

#342

Post by ghaff »

mark-r wrote: post #321
jlongster wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always wanted to make $200,000 or so from a successful personal project on the side, just so that I could pay off my mortgage so I didn't have to worry about it anymore. But when I think about really getting that money, I realize I wouldn't do that. If my mortage is $1200/month, I just bought myself 166 months, or ~14 years. If the idea is to quit your job and invest in a company, that's not the smartest move. Y…

Paying off a mortgage is just like any other investment - you need to look at the terms to see if it's worth doing. It's very illiquid, you can't get your cash back without getting another mortgage. On the other hand, it's a guaranteed rate of return that's probably significantly more than any other guaranteed rate you can find. If you think you can do better with a different investment then go for it. But remember,…

The guaranteed rate of return is a crucial point. (There are admittedly also some tax reasons why not paying off the mortgage early can be relatively beneficial.) However, way too many people look at the overall stock market returns over the past few years and conclude that anyone who pays off their mortgage early is an idiot. By that logic, anyone who could should have taken out a HELOC and bet it on the market.

It would have indeed worked out over the past few years. The conclusion for guaranteed or very low risk investment returns is far less obvious and probably has more to do with liquidity and psychological factors.

Re: I quit the tech industry

#343

Post by kelvin0 »

mpdehaan2 wrote: post #139
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…

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…

Wow, this sums up clearly my experiences and what I've taken away from them. Very well written, this fits me so perfectly it's scary ... Makes me realize there are many more devs struggling with the same things. Thanks for that post!

Re: I quit the tech industry

#344

Post by eevee »

JDiculous wrote: post #159

The author's rant is not specific to the tech industry at all, it's the case for practically all full-time jobs. Full-time jobs generally suck. Spending the bulk of every weekday in an office doing what you're told is not fun. If it was, then people would do it for free. Day to day work is generally unglamorous and boring. I think part of the blame is that tech employers permeate this notion that one must "love" thei…

I was (well, am, for now) working remotely. I've always worked remotely. I couldn't stand doing otherwise. Still drives me up the wall.

I would suggest that maybe 8 hours a day is too much (France has a 35-hour week and, as I recall, is still ridiculously productive) but let's not kid ourselves — I doubt most people commenting here actually work only 8 hours a day.

Re: I quit the tech industry

#345

Post by eevee »

mrgriscom wrote: post #140

I don't understand the desire to pay off the mortgage after a big windfall, especially with interest rates so low. I suppose you get a vague sense of security, as in "the bank can never take my house away now", but you just took a big chunk of liquid money that could have been used to pay any kind of expense, and you put it into very illiquid home equity that was being loaned to you at a long-term locked-in rate bare…

I understand the math, but I feel like debt is a huge weight on my shoulders.

I grew up with parents who were constantly in more debt than they could handle and constantly reminding me of it. I would rather not be anywhere near that situation again, even if keeping moderate debt would've worked out a little better in the long run.

Re: I quit the tech industry

#346

Post by rasur »

> I stay up hours later than I mean to, not even doing anything, just trying to put off sleeping — because the next thing I experience will be waking up and going back to work.

Shit, I get this and I'm not even in a particularly toxic work-place. Hell, I'd even go as far as to say it's the best place I've ever worked at (and it had some stiff competition, over the years).

That sentence resonated with me, i'm sad to say. Not a good sign.

EDIT: After having stewed on it for a few moments, I'm not sure me saying 'Not a good sign' is actually correct.

Re: I quit the tech industry

#347

Post by mark-r »

brightball wrote: post #265
mschaef wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 f…

To fix the problem of all your payment going to interest, look at a shorter term. A 15 year mortgage is much less popular than a 30 year, but you start seeing a difference in the outstanding principle right away.

Re: I quit the tech industry

#348

Post by CyberpunkDad »

Congrats to the author, if this refills the battery good for him. That being said, be thankful you didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn and commute like most of the world. Working at home only seems like a burden to those who don't have to commute.
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