What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job • Hacker News Board

Re: What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

#41

Post by ams6110 » Wed, May 30, 2018, 9:03 PM UTC

pkaye wrote: post #19

icedchai wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing you don't have any savings or investments? You might want to plan ahead more than your next pay check. Investigate financial independence / retire early (FIRE.)

Yes I guess that works as long as a sudden bout of cancer or some other chronic illness doesn't turn your world around. Suddenly all the "plan to retire in X years" come into question. Will I be still living in X years? Will I be able to continue working and investing till then? Or will I have burn through all my savings? True financial independence doesn't come till you can weather such a storm and most people are n…

There are all sorts of small chance disasters that can happen. You can be killed tomorrow in an auto accident. Don't live your life worrying about things unlikely to happen.

And no, I don't mean ignore the common-sense stuff like having life insurance if you have a family, etc.

Re: What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

#42

Post by mitko » Wed, May 30, 2018, 9:05 PM UTC

syndacks wrote: post #30

mitko wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From Medford, OR to San Francisco along the coast, but skipped a section before Crescent City due to advice of it being dangerous to cycle through. I put some photos at #or2ca17

cool - I've done that route as well. care to expand on the 'advice of it being dangerous'?

Cave Junction to Crescent city is a narrow two lane road with high cliffs/drops on each side, and a tunnel, with semi-trucks taking that route (I was told). I opted for a shuttle for that section after looking it up on Google StreetView - http://oregon-point.com/southwest-point/

Re: What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

#43

Post by mtlynch » Wed, May 30, 2018, 9:08 PM UTC

mnort wrote: post #3

enjoyed this a lot. the revelation moment was described in the kind of manner that brings a smile to your face.

Thanks for reading! Glad you liked it.

Re: What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

#44

Post by blunte » Wed, May 30, 2018, 9:14 PM UTC

Once you finally break free of the office/corporate mentality, suddenly the world opens up. The possibilities are so vast (but not all possibilities mean income).

Breaking free from the golden handcuffs (or in my case, aluminum handcuffs), you start to realize that high income and lots of stuff really doesn't matter as much as experiences. And then you might even consider doing work that doesn't leverage your brain and career experience. That's actually freeing, because it means you're allowed to go do a manual labor job for a week if you want to. You stop comparing effective hourly rates (which usually suck you back into a corporate or consulting world).

I envy the people who are born into entrepreneurial families. They may or may not go to college, but they usually do not start with the idea of "I go learn X in school so I can get a high paying job doing X". Instead, they seem more likely to seize opportunities with an expectation of success rather than a pessimistic view of cost/benefit. They will surely have more thin times, but they also have much greater chance of both hitting it big (selling a company) as well as actually filling their years with interesting experiences.

Re: What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

#45

Post by mtlynch » Wed, May 30, 2018, 9:19 PM UTC

mitko wrote: post #12

Kudos to Michael for keeping busy with projects. I quit my job 6 months ago. Gave myself 6 months to see if I would descend into complacent procrastination, and if so - I'd find another job. Having no job, but enough saving to rely on, has been a blessing. I've learned so many things from creative writing to deep learning, wrote a lot of personal essays, biked for 500miles, and did some side projects. Having one unsu…

Thanks for reading!

It sounds like we had similar experiences. I agree that the biggest benefit has been the freedom to explore my interests. At Google, I always wanted to get deeper into machine learning, but I felt pressure to lean into my strengths so that I could deliver something and get promoted rather than slow down and learn something new.

Now that I'm on my own, I do still feel pressure to release something, but it's also a lot easier for me to control the pace and devote more time to learning because I'm on my own roadmap.

Re: What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

#46

Post by lazyasciiart » Wed, May 30, 2018, 9:19 PM UTC

txcwpalpha wrote: post #34

pkaye wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes I guess that works as long as a sudden bout of cancer or some other chronic illness doesn't turn your world around. Suddenly all the "plan to retire in X years" come into question. Will I be still living in X years? Will I be able to continue working and investing till then? Or will I have burn through all my savings? True financial independence doesn't come till you can weather such a storm and most people are n…

>Yes I guess that works as long as a sudden bout of cancer or some other chronic illness doesn't turn your world around. What does this have to do with it? Insurance would cover it just the same as if you hadn't quit your job. I also took a hiatus from working and meeting expenses has never even been a concern for me, despite dealing with some quite serious medical issues. During my hiatus, I am constantly dumbfounde…

If you expect to be dead at 40, you might not think your life was best spent working your tail off until 39 to "retire early".

Re: What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

#47

Post by ams6110 » Wed, May 30, 2018, 9:23 PM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #37

icedchai wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's good news. Since they're not paying their bills, they actually have more money to invest instead. ;) You know what they say about lies and statistics... In all seriousness, even if this dubious statistic is true, most of those are not due to terminal or debilitating illnesses. "Unable to pay medical bills" can be for a variety of reasons, ranging from the obvious (not having the money), to confusion, to billin…

In the US, it needn't be terminal nor debilitating to bankrupt you.

Bankruptcy is not the end of the world. It's an inconvenience for a few years.

Re: What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

#48

Post by Buttons840 » Wed, May 30, 2018, 9:24 PM UTC

mitko wrote: post #12

Kudos to Michael for keeping busy with projects. I quit my job 6 months ago. Gave myself 6 months to see if I would descend into complacent procrastination, and if so - I'd find another job. Having no job, but enough saving to rely on, has been a blessing. I've learned so many things from creative writing to deep learning, wrote a lot of personal essays, biked for 500miles, and did some side projects. Having one unsu…

I'm seriously thinking of doing this myself. I have a date set, I have concrete plans. I want to create some side products and get some passive income and learn new things.

My biggest fear though, is that when I do look for work again, people will say: "That's great that you took that time to learn, I can see that you learned a lot of valuable skills, we want you to be part of our team! -- here's some poorly thought out features we want you to hack into our shitty CRUD app".

Re: What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

#49

Post by ak39 » Wed, May 30, 2018, 9:30 PM UTC

acconrad wrote: post #2

The hardest thing is just finding routine. Freedom via constraints is a great thing. Once I started to plan out my entire day (and then week), my productivity skyrocketed.

Agreed. For me it’s been forcing myself to the habit of getting stuff done from 8 am to 12 pm. After that it’s anyrhing else but serious deep work. I’m ok with 4 hours.

Re: What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

#50

Post by txcwpalpha » Wed, May 30, 2018, 9:33 PM UTC

lazyasciiart wrote: post #46

txcwpalpha wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Yes I guess that works as long as a sudden bout of cancer or some other chronic illness doesn't turn your world around. What does this have to do with it? Insurance would cover it just the same as if you hadn't quit your job. I also took a hiatus from working and meeting expenses has never even been a concern for me, despite dealing with some quite serious medical issues. During my hiatus, I am constantly dumbfounde…

If you expect to be dead at 40, you might not think your life was best spent working your tail off until 39 to "retire early".

What does that have to do with anything? I'm 27 and (f)unemployed.