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Quit Your Job

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Re: Quit Your Job

#131

Post by ravenstine »

darkengine wrote: post #41

I know it's bad form to move so quickly into meta-discussion on here, but I feel a lot of the comments in the thread right now are endemic of a certain closed-mindedness that has, to me, come to define in part the Hacker News zeitgeist, which stands in something of a contrast to the site's supposed founding principle of intellectual curiosity. There is plenty of prior art in Western (and other traditions of) philosop…

It's HN comment sections this one that make me really sad.

Like, there's nothing actually wrong with anything the author said or did, but a lot of what I'm reading here is just snark. I can even tell just how little of it many of us actually read, seeing as how he's admitting to privilege yet some know-it-alls still need to point out privilege as if that invalidates the whole thing. You're damned if you do, and you're damned if you don't, which is why the whole issue of privilege is a bullshit waste of time.

Re: Quit Your Job

#132

Post by dang »

codeafin wrote: post #44

Had to double check to make sure it wasn't an Onion article. He certainly has been having a crisis, and as someone else mentioned here, recently read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius and tried to mimic the writing. But instead, came across as another stressed, lost mind with their head too buried in social media, thinking they have to be at their absolute highlight of their life at any given moment. I feel sorry for th…

Please don't break the site guidelines by being snarky or fulminating, and especially please don't cross into personal attack.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Quit Your Job

#133

Post by gbudee »

decebalus1 wrote: post #113
psyc wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Don't have kids 2. Work at one or more MAAAMs for 10-12 years, while living on $40k/yr 3. Retire, maintain lifestyle If you somehow run out of money, just pull a Michael Jordan or a Jay-Z Variations include working 3 years on, 2-3 years off, or working 3-4 months per year. The point is that if you're a programmer and you don't have children, you don't have to work very much.

That sounds great. Unfortunately in America, healthcare costs depend a lot on how well your employer negotiates with an insurer. If you're on your own and you want the same level of coverage, you're gonna have to pay a lot more money. If it wasn't for that, I'd have totally taken a sabbatical since Covid started.

If you're in a state which signed on for post-Obamacare Medicare expansion (or WI, which self-funded BadgerCare), you may be eligible for free health care without a wealth test. In other words, if you cut off your income to rely on savings, you may be able to get good healthcare from the gov't, until such a time as you start making money again.

Re: Quit Your Job

#134

Post by mike00632 »

joey_bob wrote: post #29
walrus01 wrote: post #7

In 2022 who still uses the term "courting"? I feel like it's a term used by somebody from the Edwardian era who needs a refill on their moustache wax.

Not a lot of people. What would be the modern day equivalent? It certainly isn’t dating, that’s too broad. Maybe “I started seeing someone”?

"found someone I like," "met someone special," "dating" There are many things he could have said that are way less cringe. Not to mention that the word "courting" feels like it implies a gendered asymmetry between the two. It's old fashioned to put it mildly.

Re: Quit Your Job

#135

Post by ebruchez »

honkycat wrote: post #101
ebruchez wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Before agriculture, life wasn't bountiful. It was short and harsh. Not saying it's necessarily right or wrong, but Yuval Noah Harari, in his book "Sapiens", has a perspective on the transition of humanity to agriculture that echoes TFA (or vice versa). It struck me, when I read it, as an interesting perspective, as we do tend to see the move to agriculture as strictly positive.

Yuval Noah Harari clearly meant that tongue-in-cheech, not to be taken literally.

I'd say "clearly" not.

Re: Quit Your Job

#136

Post by nobody9999 »

hattmall wrote: post #92
sanedigital wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to add another $20K for taxes. And potentially another $10K for health insurance, depending on location. At $70K/yr you’re well into the top tercile in the US.

If you only make $40k a year you aren't going to be paying very much in taxes at all. You also want be paying very much for healthcare as it will be subsidized by the ACA.

>If you only make $40k a year you aren't going to be paying very much in taxes at all. You also want be paying very much for healthcare as it will be subsidized by the ACA.

ACA subsidies (at least in NY) are in the form of tax credits. If you don't have any (or not enough to pay taxes on) income, those tax credits are useless.

If you have no (or very low) income, the state will instead put you on Medicaid. Which has mostly terrible healthcare providers.

As such, if you go the "quit my job and go my own way" route, expect to pay USD$600-1000/month (for an individual, families will be much, much more) for decent health insurance or deal with the huge pile of crap that is Medicaid.

If you're young, single and healthy, perhaps that won't matter to you. If you're not, that could be a big problem.

Re: Quit Your Job

#137

Post by spcebar »

taurath wrote: post #58

Letting the fields go fallow to allow for rejuvenation rings like a very apt allegory to me. Breaking routines, finding out who you are outside of work is actually one of the most luxurious things one can do. It’s a great time for healing. But most can’t afford to do this at their lifestyle level. There’s lots of cognitive dissonance over what makes our lives rich in the tech world. However there also a lot in the po…

I think this is the most cogent take on the essay I've read.

I wonder where the middle ground exists between letting the field go fallow and feeding your family is. If you quit your job and then need to pay an unexpected medical bill— or decide to have kids and realize you have no savings— I wonder if one might rethink the spiritual fulfillment they found in unemployment. But on the other hand, if you spend your entire life grinding at a job to make enough money to protect yourself from emergencies and support a family, you might look up at retirement age and wish you had spent more time with your kids.

It would be nice if we lived in a society where the sabbatical was normalized. That seems like a conceivable middle ground.

Re: Quit Your Job

#138

Post by arbitrary_name »

VeninVidiaVicii wrote: post #109
darkengine wrote: post #41

I know it's bad form to move so quickly into meta-discussion on here, but I feel a lot of the comments in the thread right now are endemic of a certain closed-mindedness that has, to me, come to define in part the Hacker News zeitgeist, which stands in something of a contrast to the site's supposed founding principle of intellectual curiosity. There is plenty of prior art in Western (and other traditions of) philosop…

> I have, as I'm sure many on here have, found success in grinding away at boring problems, suppressing any kind of "call of God" or desire to do something larger. What a profound statement. This is the sentiment of a generation of tamed hackers.

Ugh. "See how many of our flock stray from the path, wasting their gift! They must only do the work of the righteous!"

'hackers' don't need you looking down your nose at them, o righteous one.

Re: Quit Your Job

#139

Post by thelettere »

honkycat wrote: post #97
thelettere wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The notion that one has to take care of one's "needs" before pursuing anything "higher" is a lie and an excuse. The number of great intellectuals and writers who lived at least a portion of their lives - and often more - in absolute penury is testament to this. Einstein for example nearly died of starvation, yet he kept working. One could make an argument that it is because of real world difficulties that one is able…

> Einstein for example nearly died of starvation, yet he kept working. Citation needed. I'm unable to find any sources that back this up. Einstein was known as a mathematical GENIUS far beyond his years, even as a young person.

Mentioned here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7935078/

Re: Quit Your Job

#140

Post by lhorie »

thelettere wrote: post #69
throwawayboise wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those people are the exceptions. The vast majority of people, if hungry, will have their next meal as their highest priority.

How will you know which one you are - or which one you could become - if you don't try it? Although the very idea of "trying it" like one tries on a pair of pants is absurd. Either a people has the moral fortitude to recognize and live that there are things more important than mere survival or it doesn't. And if it doesn't, ironically we're already fucked.

Worth pointing out that Starbucks and restaurants around Hollywood are staffed by actor-wannabes hoping for a big break in the movie industry, many of whom never end up amounting to anything. On another corner of the spectrum, you get Paris Hilton, who frankly doesn't have to put effort into anything she tries.

Point being, depending on who "you" are and what "it" is, the advice of "why don't you just go for it, everything else be damned" may or may not be callous/tone deaf/etc.

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