Building from zero after addiction, prison, and a felony • Hacker News Board

Re: Building from zero after addiction, prison, and a felony

#421

Post by zuzululu » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 9:31 PM UTC

ivell wrote: post #420

zuzululu wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No they don't know and if they did I would get fired obviously. Thus 3 laptops and sometimes there are meetings which can overlap and that is always a challenge. Yes nobody is complaining about the output and they are getting their money's worth. I just think that as a modern day salaryman its silly to rely on one employer now or have any sort of loyalty. It's okay to ** over the average working guy but not okay when…

> No they don't know and if they did I would get fired obviously. This already shows the problem. They assume they are paying for your time exclusively, while you are doing just enough to satisfy them. The fact you go such lengths to hide the fact that you are three timing them also shows that you know what you are doing is not acceptable. Most likely you are in breach of the employment contract. You are also somehow…

I don't see an issue since they are happy with my output. Who's getting hurt here ? That I'm working more efficiently then someone hired to do the job 9-5 ?

so you want me to make less money, couple myself to an employer who doesn't offer any upward mobility or job stability because you think its immoral that finally the dynamics have tipped the balancing pole in the workers favor?

are you not speaking out of jealousy here?

Re: Building from zero after addiction, prison, and a felony

#422

Post by zuzululu » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 9:37 PM UTC

smithoc wrote: post #419

zuzululu wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No they don't know and if they did I would get fired obviously. Thus 3 laptops and sometimes there are meetings which can overlap and that is always a challenge. Yes nobody is complaining about the output and they are getting their money's worth. I just think that as a modern day salaryman its silly to rely on one employer now or have any sort of loyalty. It's okay to ** over the average working guy but not okay when…

> No they don't know and if they did I would get fired obviously And yet, above, you're still asking where the fraud is. You clearly know you're violating the terms of your employment agreement. That's the fraud. It's not complex.

contract violation != fraud

A breach of contract, if there even is one, is not magically fraud because you dislike it or find it offensive. Fraud requires damages. So be specific:

What damages occurred if the work was delivered and accepted and both parties are satisfied?

the employer would be upset if they knew thats your assumption. But that’s not fraud that’s you projecting your own morals here over and over out of jealousy

Re: Building from zero after addiction, prison, and a felony

#423

Post by ProllyInfamous » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 10:07 PM UTC

Esophagus4 wrote: post #118

ProllyInfamous wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I haven’t ridden on the road since. It's laughable how proud some cyclists become when they think a painted stripe will somehow protect them from cellphoned sharks. Obviously US bicycling infrastructure is laughably dangerous , and nobody deserves full-blame for exercising their legal rights upon roadways -- but e.g: biking up Lookout Mountain's shoulderless 2-lane highway is. stupid.ly common. These are tourist roa…

Indeed. I sometimes lament that I wish I could ride in a group again, but it’s such a hurdle to get over mentally for me. It is a lot of fun having camaraderie with similarly skilled riders hammering it out in the big ring for two hours, but just never have been able to get back to that place where I’m comfortable enough to do it. Edit: oh, rereading your comment… my friend was not at fault in her crash. She was a ca…

>that is all it took to end her life.

#RIP – life is too precious to text-and-drive

Re: Building from zero after addiction, prison, and a felony

#424

Post by tasuki » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 11:18 PM UTC

thisoneisreal wrote: post #220

Aurornis wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I could've never imagined long-term-thinking like this from a former addict. I know a couple people who recovered from addiction (and lost a few who sadly couldn’t). They’re just people from all walks of life. There are a lot of stereotypes about addicts, but drug addiction can hit anyone. The first few people I knew who became addicts were actually from good families, were educated, had good career prospects, and…

I grew up solidly middle class, even went to a good private school. A couple of my friends got ripped off by an addict that ran in our social circle who had the same background. They couldn't find the person, but they were so angry that they looked up the parents' address and went to confront them, assuming they'd be like bad people or something or had failed to raise their kid right. Instead both parents were incred…

I'm a parent. Is there really no useful prevention?

Re: Building from zero after addiction, prison, and a felony

#425

Post by bigiain » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 11:24 PM UTC

red-iron-pine wrote: post #393

emmelaich wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, you can even get a government security clearance. They hold financial debts, gambling history, and dubious associations against you much more. *Providing the drug use was short lived.

drug use will definitely be a problem, esp. if it was within the last couple of years. you're ~35 and admit to smoking a buncha weed and maybe some other stuff in your college frat 10+ years ago? not much of a discussion topic, esp. if you've had a steady job, house, family, etc. since then. doesn't have to be short, you could have been called Mikey Pipes for all 4 years of school... just that it was a phase, and it'…

> smoke weed and pop some lsd 1.5 year ago? that could be a problem, esp. if you're still living the same life essentially as then.

Given the huge numbers of bay area tech people at Burningman, its clearly a bit more nuanced than that. Partying with Zuck or Sergey and Larry would be a very positive career move I suspect.

Re: Building from zero after addiction, prison, and a felony

#426

Post by gerdesj » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 11:30 PM UTC

theonething wrote: post #225

gerdesj wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm from the UK and another age 8) I applied for about 50+ jobs as a graduate engineer in 1991. Back then you wrote letters. Hmmm: You printed letters - mail merge was a thing. You signed each one by hand, with a quill pen and used a wax seal and cast a Spell of Engagement. OK, you signed your covering letter with a pen (might be a Biro but I did use a Parker and Quink, myself) You also had to put your covering lette…

Don't forget the specialty resume paper.

Not around these parts. We write on Basildon Bond 8)

Re: Building from zero after addiction, prison, and a felony

#427

Post by incompatible » Mon, Jun 08, 2026, 11:51 PM UTC

himata4113 wrote: post #361

incompatible wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find the downvotes excessive for this kind of thing. They are basically a censorship mechanism, enough downvotes and a comment will basically disappear. I've used it about twice since I got the ability several years ago, and both times it was somebody promoting a Trump-related conspiracy theory.

bad takes usually cap at around ~2-3, horrible takes or spam go all the way to -5 and die.

Maybe in some cases it stalemates at this 2-3 point, people downvoting because they disagree and people seeing it turn grey and upvoting.

Re: Building from zero after addiction, prison, and a felony

#428

Post by incompatible » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 12:02 AM UTC

gavinray wrote: post #339

Vaslo wrote: post #207

As a libertarian right leaning guy I opened your story with pessimism but I really enjoyed it and greatly appreciated the personal responsibility you took in your situation. People should be inspired by this - it’s precisely because of personal responsibility that you are so successful.

I was fortunate to have the help of others ("No man is an island unto himself") but I do think that having the mindset of not being owed anything helped me keep a positive perspective when things were their worst. I'm not political, but I would consider myself left-leaning Libertarian. My mother is an Ayn Rand-loving die-hard Libertarian that was very active in politics. She gave me a lot of her books that I read in…

The original libertarians were anarchists, which is as far to the left as you can get. They adoption of the term on the right seems to date from the 1970s. Anarchists would typically see this version as rule by the rich, privatized tyranny.

Re: Building from zero after addiction, prison, and a felony

#429

Post by trumpdong » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 1:33 AM UTC

ivell wrote: post #420

zuzululu wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No they don't know and if they did I would get fired obviously. Thus 3 laptops and sometimes there are meetings which can overlap and that is always a challenge. Yes nobody is complaining about the output and they are getting their money's worth. I just think that as a modern day salaryman its silly to rely on one employer now or have any sort of loyalty. It's okay to ** over the average working guy but not okay when…

> No they don't know and if they did I would get fired obviously. This already shows the problem. They assume they are paying for your time exclusively, while you are doing just enough to satisfy them. The fact you go such lengths to hide the fact that you are three timing them also shows that you know what you are doing is not acceptable. Most likely you are in breach of the employment contract. You are also somehow…

Breach of contract is a civil issue, they could probably fire you without recourse (contract is void) but that's the extent of it if you didn't do anything else wrong.

Re: Building from zero after addiction, prison, and a felony

#430

Post by trumpdong » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 1:34 AM UTC

smithoc wrote: post #419

zuzululu wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No they don't know and if they did I would get fired obviously. Thus 3 laptops and sometimes there are meetings which can overlap and that is always a challenge. Yes nobody is complaining about the output and they are getting their money's worth. I just think that as a modern day salaryman its silly to rely on one employer now or have any sort of loyalty. It's okay to ** over the average working guy but not okay when…

> No they don't know and if they did I would get fired obviously And yet, above, you're still asking where the fraud is. You clearly know you're violating the terms of your employment agreement. That's the fraud. It's not complex.

Fraud is a specific thing. Failing to uphold a contract, even deliberately, isn't automatically fraud.