411–420 of 434 posts
"If this resonated with you, message me on Twitter" That makes the post ring rather hollow to me. It sounds like they want to monetize their experience of quitting and rejoining nature. Which basically reads like another version of selling the secrets to a 5 hour work week kind of deal.
I might be a bit harsh, but this is a typical western le bon sauvage misunderstanding about what goes on in the wilderness. I also grew up in the mountains (of Eastern Europe), and I equally despise the eye-rolling fakery and the hustle and bustle of modern day Los Angeles. I love camping, and I surf, and kayak, scuba dive, offroad, and explore. But I don't make the category mistake of thinking the former is somehow…
When I wrote this, I had no idea it was going to receive so much attention. It was immediately after a call with my boss where I committed to leaving.
I have learned a valuable lesson: how important it is to be crystal clear with the words you choose and the message you convey.
Reading my post now, I agree it sounds like I'm naively planning on going to live in the mountains where I'll immediately die in a storm or get eaten by a bear. I also wrote "I'm the least fulfilled I've ever been". I should have written "this is the least fulfilling work I've ever done".
I am leaving an unfulfilling job, and an unfulfilling place, to move to a smaller settlement where I am a short walk from the seaside and a short drive from the mountains. I'll have a way higher quality of life, being able to do the things I love (hiking in the mountains and other general outdoor pursuits) at the cost of losing a significant amount of income.
This is a trade I'm willing to make, and it reverses the decisions I've made over the last few years. This is an important learning I hoped to share with others who may be in a similar predicament.
I don't have FU money, I still want to work as a software engineer and will have to very soon. The difference is that I will not trade quality of life for money, and I will try to find or create work on the terms that maximise happiness for me. These terms are different for everybody, so my solution is unique to me.
The TL;DR of my original post is "don't optimise for income over quality of life".
What I feel is perhaps missing here is some sort of a plan, so the author can either generate enough income or control the spending well enough not to become homeless. It's nice to (hopefully) have savings for these sorts of situations, but for many out there the end result of something like that would be eventual financial peril. I recently also submitted my own resignation, except I've figured out that my current s…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Hey, if being in nature makes you happy good for you but your outlook on the rest is kind of crap. It reads like you are stating a fact, but really, it is a matter of opinion. Perhaps, you can just say what you like without invalidating what others prefer.
They have opinions. One is nature rules. The other is the city sucks. I think their opinion of that the city sucks is wrong, full stop, and that a change in attitude would see all the great things a city provides that nature does not so that then you can appreciate both. To me, enjoying the good parts of both the city and nature is a better POV than shitting one one of them.
I actually don't dislike cities and I didn't generalise that they are terrible.
London is one of the busiest and largest mega cities on the planet. It's incomparable to a city of ~400k people where you can walk in 45 minutes from the city centre to the boundary where the urban environment becomes a more natural environment.
The mega city is not for me, and I regret sacrificing quality of life for income. This decision is about rebalancing those two.
Posts like this frustrate me. "I'm quitting! But I'm not telling you anything about how I plan to pay for life." The message mostly resonates with me, right up until they leave out the most crucial part of the post. How do you escape the rat race, and still pay for things like health care, food, rent, etc. Even if you're making $100k+ a year, those costs aren't insignificant. No how do you handle them making $0k a ye…
Please see this comment where I've hopefully answered your questions: https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=34426360&goto=item%3Fi...
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Have a lot to say, it was an emotional journey with highest highs and lowest lows of my life. But can't type it all out. Happy to answer any particular question. In short: I saved up enough not to quit rat race forever, but to see what life was like without the obligation to work for an open ended amount of time. I did whatever the hell I wanted at any moment. Which was euphoric, but it's really really hard to accomp…
Wow, we actually have very similar trajectories. Except I'm still at the point of doing part-time work + coding side-projects/startups on the side. I agree that the too much freedom can be disorienting. If you don't mind me asking, how did you end up deciding that getting a job again was the right move? How did that compare to keeping doing 20hr/wk contract work and then spending the rest of your time doing non-codin…
Contract work for me was boring toil that the companies I worked for couldn't convince someone to join full time to do.
Perhaps it's my personality, but no amount of non-professional endeavors/hobbies make up for an empty professional life. I equally burned out of 20h/week + startups because they were unfulfilling.
So which peak is pictured here? I’m visiting the UK this summer. Might want to check that out…
It's one of the most beautiful places I've seen. If you have the opportunity to visit, I recommend it highly.
It’s a short piece, but it resonates with me, specifically this part: > I’m earning the most money I’ve ever made and yet I’m the least fulfilled I’ve ever been. I’m making the most I’ve ever made and I’ve never been less happy and more depressed. I despise being a cog in a huge corporate machine, it’s like the job was designed to be as unappealing as possible. At the same time I can’t get over the fact that I have i…
If you don't mind and sorry for being insensitive, why can't you just quit?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have a lot to say, it was an emotional journey with highest highs and lowest lows of my life. But can't type it all out. Happy to answer any particular question. In short: I saved up enough not to quit rat race forever, but to see what life was like without the obligation to work for an open ended amount of time. I did whatever the hell I wanted at any moment. Which was euphoric, but it's really really hard to accomp…
This is a very helpful realistic antidote to all the blogs telling people their life will be just endlessly incredible and. "happy ever after" if they'd save up then quit, buy a camper van etc etc. Mountains are fantastic . I love 'em. But they do indeed wear off if that is all one does.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow, we actually have very similar trajectories. Except I'm still at the point of doing part-time work + coding side-projects/startups on the side. I agree that the too much freedom can be disorienting. If you don't mind me asking, how did you end up deciding that getting a job again was the right move? How did that compare to keeping doing 20hr/wk contract work and then spending the rest of your time doing non-codin…
I didn't know it was the right move (and still don't? There is no right move?). I was severely depressed, unhelped by the professionals in my ring, and really really did not want a job. But rationally I knew that what I thought was "freedom" was not and was hurting me, so I picked up a decent set of nearby chains to make myself a more useful person and occupy 8h of my day (that was otherwise spent moping about) Contr…