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Fuck being productive

dostoynikov.bearblog.dev

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Re: Fuck being productive

#201

Post by rorroe53 »

danny_taco wrote: post #79
sBqQu3U0wH wrote: post #15

Honestly, I do feel somewhat similar. I work a normal 8-hour day and I am not obsessed with productivity nor I am some kind of anti-work activist, but it just feels like such a waste of time. The only reason I go to work is for money. I don't care about the products we build for someone else (why should I?), nor the technologies used (each of which brings its own challenges and frustrations). If I didn't need to go t…

The main reason we all work for someone else is for money but there is something to be said about the things we build at work and not caring about them. This is something that took me a long time to realize but you need to stop thinking about software as a field and start thinking of it as a skill set. From there figure out what interests you. Wildlife, economics, vehicles, etc. or whatever, and then use your skill s…

I agree. I find it highly pointless to spend one's leisure time learning new tech stacks, working on hobby projects just so that you can show them to an employer. Finding actual real-world problems that you care about to solve, that's way more satisfying. Intrinsic motivation beats extrinsic motivation.

Re: Fuck being productive

#202

Post by mulmen »

cableshaft wrote: post #172
mulmen wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you give an example of what actually happened up there? And what you are doing? I hear rumors (China!) but you seem much more knowledgeable on the topic. I live down in Seattle so I'm curious how similar the situations are.

I don't live in Canada, but Toronto has an average housing cost of $1.1 million dollars (USD)[1], which is almost as much as San Francisco (at $1.3 million dollars)[2]. Meanwhile the average salary in Toronto is $52k USD per year[3], versus San Francisco's average salary of $109k[4]. So that might give you some idea. [1]: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-home-sales-1.... [2]: https://www.zillow.com/home…

I’m more interested in how this happened, not that it is happening.

Re: Fuck being productive

#203

Post by geodel »

yamtaddle wrote: post #31
zwieback wrote: post #20

Yeah, just wait till you're in your fifties and feel like you're also running out of time to do things! For example: "how many more growing seasons do I have to try this or that tomato" or "should I learn Spanish?". On the plus side kids are out of your hair.

At some point it dawns on you that unless you make some special effort, you're only gonna see your favorite movie or listen to your favorite album or eat your very favorite food or see such-and-such person or go to [place you really like] a disturbingly small count of times before you kick it.

True.

At least for me I will say that disturbingly small number is probably good enough for practical purposes. All favorite thing, people, food are just snapshots in memory and revisiting them in physical world did not feel as great as my mind imagined.

I tried a few of those past favorite things and they were fine but nothing like best moments or some such. Same with people, neither they nor I am same person as before.

Re: Fuck being productive

#204

Post by tuscen »

ZephyrBlu wrote: post #179
nly wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This will give you an idea. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/percentile-points-f... In US terms somewhere around $240K USD, before tax.

Sounds like you have a really expensive lifestyle man. Even most US devs don’t make $240k USD.

He said he's in the UK. So his net income is somewhere around 120k USD. It's big money, but not that much.

Re: Fuck being productive

#205

Post by BeFlatXIII »

Jach wrote: post #102
nly wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Frugality is an understatement on that timeline. To retire in 10 years you're going to have to be able to live comfortably on something like 1/3rd of your take home pay. No employer is going to pay you 3x what your nearest peer is willing to live on.

It's relatively easy for software devs to live comfortably on $50k and make $150k+.

If they have their mortgage already paid off, yes, very much so.

Re: Fuck being productive

#206

Post by acuozzo »

TechBro8615 wrote: post #9
oifjsidjf wrote: post #2

This guy has everything backwards: he doesn't realize it's his insane long wageslave work hours that are the problem, not those extra 3 hours.

Yeah. Anyone who is blessed with this kind of motivation needs to quit their job and work full time on "being productive" toward their own goals. As someone with technical skills they have a high-leverage opportunity as a maker and builder. They shouldn't waste it by selling it to someone else for pennies on the dollar. Granted if you have a family to provide for, and a life outside work, then you might be "working t…

> The first step is realizing that the risk of quitting your job is much lower than you think.

With a SAHM wife, three kids under ten, a home, an investment property, and several other loans & liabilities, I'd say that the risks are considerable, especially given that neither my wife nor I have any family to fall back on.

Re: Fuck being productive

#207

Post by feoren »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #156
tiedieconderoga wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that you need a lot of money to be free of servitude.

Servitude is thinking that you do.

Go tell that to the single mom working two minimum-wage jobs just to feed and house her kids. Go tell that to the homeless person. To the recent grad barely paying off the interest on his student loan that he took because he "had to go to college". Come off it.

Re: Fuck being productive

#208

Post by joenot443 »

scaramanga wrote: post #4

Dude, you are absolutely not being productive in the 12 hours of indentured servitude. You need to find a new job. The people at your current job aren't your friends. They've let you arrange to give away a full 50% your life (most of what's left must be occupied by sleep, pissing, shitting, eating, and paying bills). Not a single person in your life has said anything or tried to get you out of the office earlier? You…

I would guess the work they're doing isn't what you'd expect. From their site -

> Majored Japanese Language at university currently working at a Japanese company as a Japanese translator in Turkey and also, at the same time, self-studying web development slowly as it is my dream to be a developer.

If they're working towards the dream many of us are blessed enough to be living right now, I have a hard time telling them to slow down. I admire that kind of work ethic, honestly.

Re: Fuck being productive

#209

Post by dahwolf »

BossingAround wrote: post #184
nightski wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only that, software salaries in Europe tend to be far lower on average.

I've seen this argument over and over again, as if "more expensive to employ" directly causes "lower salaries". I don't think the two are directly tied. If it costs you $150k to pay $90k employee salary, for example, that doesn't explain why there are $300k+ employees in the Valley (while that amount of money is kind of preposterous in Europe, though I'm sure some have it as well). In my mind, it's rather a combinati…

None of your listed reasons make a dent in explaining the massive salary differences between the US and EU.

There's a much simpler explanation: The EU simply doesn't have the capital. There are no pools of venture capitalists clustering hundreds of billions of dollars they can piss away on half-ass ideas.

It's as simple as that. They funding money simply doesn't exist.

Re: Fuck being productive

#210

Post by eertami »

nly wrote: post #147
badpun wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To retire in 10 years you're going to have to be able to live comfortably on something like 1/3rd of your take home pay. That's very easy if you don't have kids - just don't get on a hedonic threadmill (and, if you're already on it, start gradually getting off). I'm not a parent myself, so won't speak about the "with kids" situation.

Rent isnt a "hedonic treadmill". Neither is food or energy. These are the 3 areas seeing the most inflation right now. Rents in London are up 20% in a year, food almost the same, and energy ...well, everyone knows what has happened to energy. The average Londoner is paying almost 40% of their take home pay on rent, so saving 2/3rds is already impossible. Even as one of the lucky ones earning a top 1% salary, I _still…

Yeah. London is great when young and going out to do things all the time, sucks later on though. In London I definitely felt like I was living paycheck to paycheck, but moving to a European city with better services (but probably less culture), rent for our 3br flat in the city center was cheaper than our 1 bed in zone 6 - and taxes are much lower.

Now 9% of my takehome goes on rent, and I have no idea how I could ever go back to the UK. The energy bills alone are mind boggling, and every time I visit it just feels like it slips further and further behind the times.

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