Live data from Hacker News

Fuck being productive

dostoynikov.bearblog.dev

341–350 of 382 posts

Re: Fuck being productive

#341
post #273
post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> so you can probably get them as employeed for very cheap Not everything is about money or paying for things. >but, on the other hand, people are in dire economical condition, so it's hard to sell them anything. Buying and selling things is a very American construct and tells like 1/4 of the story when it comes to trading. I grew up in a rural area of the US. Lots of folks are poor but wealthy beyond measure. Barter…

> Not everything is about money or paying for things. Not everything, but surely running a business is one of those things that IS about money?

> but surely running a business is one of those things that IS about money?

I'd disagree. Running a business is about developing systems to create and maintain resources, connections, and influence. Money is a symbolic representation of resources but by itself isn't a resource. Resources in my opinion, and experience, are a very small piece of the puzzle. In my experience connections have way more value than money. In my experience money attracts the worst kinds of folks to work with. My skills have created more value than money ever has.

Re: Fuck being productive

#342
I am working full time , then try to preparing for senior software engineer interviews in evenings for a new job plus side projects. It is really exhausting. There is just so much peer pressure to create something amazing, be at a great job with top pay.

Re: Fuck being productive

#344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if money is the only reason, you can get money elsewhere. it ties back to theory of employee motivation, money being only external motivator. For high performance, employee needs also internal motivation (drive). employees with internal motivation are miles ahead and more productive than without one. this is why well paid and pampered Gogle engineers are less productive than some open-source enthusiasts

> if money is the only reason, you can get money elsewhere. And they are all asking the same question. Will they accept an answer like "because you're only a 7 minute commute from my house", "I think the work will be easy in relation to the salary", or "I think I can get away with barely doing anything for an indefinitely long time period because your org is large and dysfunctional"? You ask for a performance, you ge…

by asking "why you wanna work for our company", they really are asking "What are you willing to sacrifice while working for our company"?, just in a roundabout way

Re: Fuck being productive

#345
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a software engineer. I struggled to find meaning in my work for the first few years of my career. I used to lie (unknowingly) to myself "I love my job", "I am passionate about my job", "It's my passion" and I was always disappointed. That is until one day, after many years and barring many details, I decided to tell myself that "I push buttons on a company laptop in exchange for money and I happen to somewhat li…

How does realization address the fact that a lot of us hate showing up for work and even doing it at all? Simple -- it doesn't. Strange how you frame it: "the entire problem was that I was thinking wrongly about my job". No, that's not the problem at all for many people.

That sounds like being in the wrong career, doesn't it? I'm not a fan of the 'if you work on what you love, then you're not working at all' philosophy, but surely people can find something they at least enjoy doing (or the rewards) a little.

Re: Fuck being productive

#346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does realization address the fact that a lot of us hate showing up for work and even doing it at all? Simple -- it doesn't. Strange how you frame it: "the entire problem was that I was thinking wrongly about my job". No, that's not the problem at all for many people.

That sounds like being in the wrong career, doesn't it? I'm not a fan of the 'if you work on what you love, then you're not working at all' philosophy, but surely people can find something they at least enjoy doing (or the rewards) a little.

Nope, nothing like that is on the horizon. Not one bit. Nothing pays even close to 30% of my programming salary.

We're seriously and indisputably talking about losing at least 2/3rd of my income if I get the next best offer in another profession.

And no, I still love programming but the commercial one I now hate. Not sure how can that be remedied. I am taking a hiatus currently but let's be real, that won't solve anything; it's a way to just hate it little less for the first 3-4 months after you're back.

I know it also STRONGLY depends on who you're working for (and the colleagues) but I've sucked at networking all my life and when I finally woke up about it I have nearly zero possibilities to get hired after an informal chat because somebody else already knows me. I got like 3-4 of these bullets and will shoot them soon enough but my faith in the result is low.

So no, I am fairly doubtful that I'll find "something I at least enjoy doing", sadly. Anything I enjoy wouldn't even pay my rent, let alone everything else after it.

Re: Fuck being productive

#347
post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Work being 10 hours isn't that far off. In the US you work, generally, 9 to 9 1/2 or so a day. I'd call them approximately comparable. Sure, it's a little egregious but not that far beyond "normal" for me as an American.

That doesn't make it healthy. 9 hours is too much. 8 is too much. 100 years ago, lots of people, including in the US, fought hard to limit working hours to a 40 hour work week. Keynes even argued that because of increased productivity, we should now be working only 15 hours per week. It's incredibly sad to see how all these accomplishments of the past have been squandered (especially in the US, but not just there). W…

I agree that the work day (10, 9, or even 8 hours) is too long but that's the reality we have. Nobody in the US will fight for labor protections again. Not for many years. What you folks do will have to be on your own. We have no solidarity within the US unless it's against folks with darker skin than Casper.

We honestly should be down to a two- or three-day work week at about 5 hours per day. That's all we really need to work to get our jobs done. But instead we do more work for diminishing returns so we can make the wealthy even wealthier.

Re: Fuck being productive

#348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Being a wage slave is a choice. If you don't like your life, change it. It's incredibly unfortunate that instead of using a shred of empathy to see that your situation isn't the situation of nearly everyone else in the industry, or alive for that matter. "If you don't like your life, change it" screams "I have no idea what I am talking about" because you're failing to see that situations elsewhere are different. Ta…

you’re a SWE working 45 hours a week? You can do better, even in the US. I suggest focusing on company culture when interviewing if you care about this kind of stuff. I’ve worked at 3 companies in my career so far, and worked about 40 hours a week at each of them. i was not born into wealth…neither were (most) of my coworkers. I won’t even ask about the $70k salary. I made that much at my first gig after college. Sou…

You really can't do much better as a SWE in the US. Even when you're not sitting at your computer typing in all that super slick code you're still working. Company culture is the same within the US from place to place unless you want some ultra fundamentalist loon for a boss?

The base salary for Entry Level Developer ranges from $67,415 to $84,398 with the average base salary of $75,125.

> Sounds like your employer is taking advantage of you.

That's what employers do. That's all they do. That's all they're designed to do. But that's irrelevant because I am personally speaking to industry trends not a singular employer.

I guess cope harder? You've been working 40 hours. I assume you had a lunch period. That's 45. You work what we all do. Congrats.

Re: Fuck being productive

#349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of control immigration. 10x per capita what's allowed in the US, all going to three major cities. Not only that, but when filing out immigration petitions, most firms will actually file in Canada and the US. Workers who can't meet the higher bar for US immigration will be sent to Canada.

You need that immigration since the birth rate is below replacement. Without it the Canadian economy would be in worse shape - and there would be higher inflation. Countries with low birthrates that can attract immigrants will be in better shape than countries that restrict immigration.

Japan has been permanently doomed by economists for the same reason since... the 80's and has yet to collapse. Greater productivity and innovation can offset a shrinking population.

Canada is facing a huge brain drain to the US, for highly paid and in demand professions like in healthcare and tech. It remains to be seen whether or not they can replace the lost productivity of their native expats with mass immigration.

Re: Fuck being productive

#350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds like being in the wrong career, doesn't it? I'm not a fan of the 'if you work on what you love, then you're not working at all' philosophy, but surely people can find something they at least enjoy doing (or the rewards) a little.

Nope, nothing like that is on the horizon. Not one bit. Nothing pays even close to 30% of my programming salary. We're seriously and indisputably talking about losing at least 2/3rd of my income if I get the next best offer in another profession. And no, I still love programming but the commercial one I now hate. Not sure how can that be remedied. I am taking a hiatus currently but let's be real, that won't solve any…

Good luck with the search. A lot of good jobs come from networking, but you can still find something great out of shooting cold applications, I know several people who did. It takes a ton of work and perseverance but is achievable.
Post reply on HN