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I Wasn’t Prepared for Work (2013)

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Re: I Wasn’t Prepared for Work (2013)

#41

Post by helpPeople »

unlinked_dll wrote: post #27
desc wrote: post #18

My advice would be: rigorously eliminate everything from your life which doesn't fit inside your top X critical priorities. Where X is as small as possible, and seek to cull it further by combining equivalents and trying to identify why some 'important' things might actually be utter wastes of time in the first place. The world generally uses a ratchet approach to conquer your attention. Use a ratchet to take it back…

that sounds like a depressing existence

Chase the extreme pleasures by experiencing much pain.

Or be an Epicurean and enjoy the neutral state most, pleasures but not at the expense of pain.

Or be a Stoic and find comfort in realizing you aren't invading Russia in the winter.

Re: I Wasn’t Prepared for Work (2013)

#42

Post by ssivark »

reikonomusha wrote: post #34

It’s always a little bit risky to write something personal that will inevitably come across as something other than humble. Especially when it’s also mixed with something that comes across very first-world-problemy. Mind you that showing that one can do a little bit of calculus isn’t a testament to being a genius or anything like that. The examples the story describes might as well be equivalent to something more obv…

It takes courage to articulate something so intimate and authentic. Thanks for sharing.

> Or those taking away that I’m not doing something that I like or following my passions, I am. I still do the things I like to do, but I don’t sacrifice everything else in life to focus on them exclusively. It remains to this day that that has its costs and benefits.

Do you still have such creative intellectual pursuits? Do you think you’ll be able to write a follow-up post describing the equilibrium you’ve settled into now (and the associated trade-offs) and how you got there?

Re: I Wasn’t Prepared for Work (2013)

#43

Post by pkaye »

Hermitian909 wrote: post #14
justboxing wrote: post #7

> How has this affected me? I’ve mentally atrophied. I now feel like I can’t talk about any subject with more than a centimeter of depth. A half a decade ago, I could dive with you to the penetralia of convergence theorems of hypergeometric series, but now I cannot. Even my programming has taken a toll even though I do it every day. I find myself abstaining from studying advanced topics in programming and computer sc…

I've seen many engineers manage this by simply finding ways to work less. Programming is sufficiently difficult that time it takes to complete tasks can vary by more than order of magnitude. I've given a junior engineer a task that would take me 2 hours, had them come back with a solution in a week, and been happy with the result. So if you achieve a certain level of skill you can take jobs that are "beneath you" and…

Yeah that is kind of how I'm approaching it after I was diagnosed with serious health issues. I just take it easy on my job where I can do in 20 hours what others take 40 hours. I still get paid well above what I need to live. My travel times to work are good. I rarely have to work on weekends.

Re: I Wasn’t Prepared for Work (2013)

#44

Post by taneq »

justboxing wrote: post #7

> How has this affected me? I’ve mentally atrophied. I now feel like I can’t talk about any subject with more than a centimeter of depth. A half a decade ago, I could dive with you to the penetralia of convergence theorems of hypergeometric series, but now I cannot. Even my programming has taken a toll even though I do it every day. I find myself abstaining from studying advanced topics in programming and computer sc…

If you don't use it you lose it, but if you had it once, it's far easier to get it back.

I've had multiple times when, for whatever reason, I ended up not coding for months or years. It always takes at least a few days (and honestly, it's getting longer as I get older) to get my head back into it, but after month or so of full time coding I'm making progress again. And honestly, I feel like these breaks have made me a better software developer, because each time I come back with broader experience and a wider view of what I'm trying to accomplish.

Arguably I'm not as good a computer scientist as I would have been if I'd stuck just with coding for my whole life, but I feel like I'm a far better maker-of-useful-things.

Re: I Wasn’t Prepared for Work (2013)

#45

Post by tempsolution »

I am curious to why you think working at Google is reserved only for the very best of the field? I don't have good visibility into normal companies, but honestly all FAANG companies essentially employ armies of average developers, although they might have a higher density of exceptional developers than other companies. Mostly they are distinguished by two things:

* They work with economies of scale. What may be viable for a startup might be useless for Google. What might be viable for Google might be absolutely disastrous for a startup.

* They use a management style that fosters innovation and learning.

The interviews can be tough, yeah, but all it takes is practice and given that you seem to have good mathematical skills, hiding a few weeks or months in the basement with an algorithms book and a laptop, should make it easy for you to pass a Google interview.

Re: I Wasn’t Prepared for Work (2013)

#46

Post by redis_mlc »

calderarrow wrote: post #40
desc wrote: post #18

My advice would be: rigorously eliminate everything from your life which doesn't fit inside your top X critical priorities. Where X is as small as possible, and seek to cull it further by combining equivalents and trying to identify why some 'important' things might actually be utter wastes of time in the first place. The world generally uses a ratchet approach to conquer your attention. Use a ratchet to take it back…

This is excellent advice which has even been echoed by Warren Buffet [0]. Time is a finite resource and therefore everything we do is a trade-off between depth and breadth. In a given day, you could spend 1 hour learning 24 subjects, or 24 hours learning 1 subject. One isn't necessarily better than the other, but it's a constraint we all operate around. Learning 24 subjects may be interesting and fulfilling to some,…

This.

Delegating social media and other trivial pursuits to family and friends can free up an additional 10-15 hours per week for HN! :)

More seriously, to get the most out of HN:

1) skip the aviation and database threads and just read my posts. (There are very few qualified commenters on those topics.)

2) for other topics, read a few posts and if it looks interesting, find an in-depth article or blog on that topic.

Re: I Wasn’t Prepared for Work (2013)

#47

Post by buzzkillington »

vageli wrote: post #33
buzzkillington wrote: post #32

>Even my programming has taken a toll even though I do it every day. I find myself abstaining from studying advanced topics in programming and computer science, and instead sticking to this comfort zone of what I know. I contemplate blaming this last issue on the fact that Silicon Valley is quietly cutthroat; you need to be the best at what you do in order to land jobs at e.g. Google. If I stay in my comfort zone, I…

From your post it sounds like you do consulting or freelancing. If I may, how long do these engagements typically last? I've flirted with the idea of short periods off in between jobs (FTE though) but have typically kept up ~2 year engagements.

I'm somewhere between consulting and contracting. Ideally between 6 months and 1 year. My last gig lasted 18 months which was too long, I've also had 8 week stints but those drain you with all the hustling you need to do between jobs.

My partner and I own our own company and optimizing taxes is the main reason why we can afford buying $50k in equipment. That we have similar interests also helps.

Re: I Wasn’t Prepared for Work (2013)

#48

Post by IIAOPSW »

reikonomusha wrote: post #34

It’s always a little bit risky to write something personal that will inevitably come across as something other than humble. Especially when it’s also mixed with something that comes across very first-world-problemy. Mind you that showing that one can do a little bit of calculus isn’t a testament to being a genius or anything like that. The examples the story describes might as well be equivalent to something more obv…

For me the waybackmachine rendered all the equations as boxes and I couldn't read any. In a certain way having the detail missing and just having a taste from the descriptions somehow made it better. You can fill in whatever blank you want.

I feel the same as this guy in many ways. I dread to say it, but maybe it isn't the lifestyle (I didn't follow his path). Maybe this is what getting older does to us.

Re: I Wasn’t Prepared for Work (2013)

#49

Post by JohnBooty »

I'd hesitate to call the solution to his problems "obvious" but it seems one obvious thing he should do is look for remote work, or at least work someplace with a lesser commute so that he can get 4 hours a day back from his commute.

He should take a less-challenging job, perhaps, and get his work done quickly so that he can have lots of time left over for his own pursuits. I've had jobs in the past where I was able to do this with some success.

The idea that your job should challenge you is, perhaps, BS.

For so many jobs, the "challenges" consist mainly of dealing with political forces and/or forcing yourself to do other things you may not necessarily care about.

I would guess only a tiny percentage of us have jobs that are truly fulfilling. And maybe that's fine. Maybe we should go back to the days where we just punched the clock, figuratively speaking, and ditch the idea of getting fulfillment from our jobs. It's hurting our ability to find fulfillment elsewhere.

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