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What I’ve Been Doing Since Quitting My Job

mtlynch.io

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

#61

Post by dwoot »

mtlynch wrote: post #45
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,…

Hey Michael - if you don't mind sharing, which team did you work on and why did you feel the pressure to lean into strengths instead of learning something new? Could it be that this was just your perspective on it at the moment? The alternate perspective that I see is that learning something new pays off into the future even though it may not feel like you're moving somewhere at the moment. Did existing responsibilities require too much bandwidth that it made attempts at fitting in any learning a daunting endeavor?

Additionally, did you feel that you had the freedom to learn and apply ML?

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

#62

Post by lazyasciiart »

txcwpalpha wrote: post #50
lazyasciiart wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Oh, I think I misread it. In this case I think the comment is actually saying that a plan to retire at 40 might be derailed by spending a couple years out of work in hospital at 28, thus losing your income at least temporarily and possibly spending your savings. A lot of this can be mitigated by having the right insurance, but once you aren't working it can be harder to afford insurance that will cover really good care.

What I was thinking of was that many people don't want to work very hard now to gain rewards later when there is a risk they won't live until later to enjoy it. So they do things like take a few years off at 27 and then go back to work until, say, 38, instead of working straight through until 34 and retiring permanently then.

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

#63

Post by lazyasciiart »

ams6110 wrote: post #47
ceejayoz wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's certainly the end of the "hey I have so much money I don't even need to work" feeling of financial independence, though.

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

#64

Post by djrogers »

Buttons840 wrote: post #48
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…

That's kinda like talking yourself out of going on vacation because when you come back you won't be on vacation anymore. Do it for the experience, for the learning, for the growth - don't do it for what happens after.

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

#66

Post by chrisbennet »

willbw wrote: post #58
matte_black wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once you finally break free of the startup/entrepreneurial mentality, suddenly the world opens up. The possibilities are so vast (but not all possibilities mean freedom). Breaking free from the gold rush (or in my case, app rush), you start to realize that huge exits and lots of users really doesn't matter as much as comfort and stability. And then you might even consider doing work that doesn't give you equity or ha…

Is it just me or is this style of comment, where you replicate someone else's comment and change some words to make them appear foolish, tremendously irritating and not conducive to good discussion? Imagine having a conversation in person where someone parrots back your phrases changing a few nouns. Would you do that? It is also such a derivative style of commenting, I've seen it many times on HN and I wish people wo…

I don’t thunk it makes the OP appear foolish. The replace-the-word technique facilitated seeing the argument from a different perspective.

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

#68

Post by matte_black »

willbw wrote: post #58
matte_black wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once you finally break free of the startup/entrepreneurial mentality, suddenly the world opens up. The possibilities are so vast (but not all possibilities mean freedom). Breaking free from the gold rush (or in my case, app rush), you start to realize that huge exits and lots of users really doesn't matter as much as comfort and stability. And then you might even consider doing work that doesn't give you equity or ha…

Is it just me or is this style of comment, where you replicate someone else's comment and change some words to make them appear foolish, tremendously irritating and not conducive to good discussion? Imagine having a conversation in person where someone parrots back your phrases changing a few nouns. Would you do that? It is also such a derivative style of commenting, I've seen it many times on HN and I wish people wo…

You need to use the right commenting style for the right situations.

This particular style of comment is best used when you want to emphasize that what a person just said is only one perspective and that there exists an equally valid opposing perspective. It works even better if the original post was written with a tone of superiority, though it’s not required. It wouldn’t be surprising to find it commonly used on HN.

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

#70

Post by BeetleB »

willbw wrote: post #58
matte_black wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once you finally break free of the startup/entrepreneurial mentality, suddenly the world opens up. The possibilities are so vast (but not all possibilities mean freedom). Breaking free from the gold rush (or in my case, app rush), you start to realize that huge exits and lots of users really doesn't matter as much as comfort and stability. And then you might even consider doing work that doesn't give you equity or ha…

Is it just me or is this style of comment, where you replicate someone else's comment and change some words to make them appear foolish, tremendously irritating and not conducive to good discussion? Imagine having a conversation in person where someone parrots back your phrases changing a few nouns. Would you do that? It is also such a derivative style of commenting, I've seen it many times on HN and I wish people wo…

>Is it just me or is this style of comment, where you replicate someone else's comment and change some words to make them appear foolish, tremendously irritating and not conducive to good discussion?

It is useful in some contexts, but pointless in this one. Where I think it is useful is where the original person is stringing together a set of statements which (s)he then claims leads to a conclusion (when it doesn't). So you then construct a similar set of statements, string them together, and make the opposite conclusion. Or string together the opposite statements and make the same conclusion. Presumably the original person will not agree with the conclusion, and the hope is that it becomes apparent that as a result, his original set of statements do not lead to his claimed conclusion. It's hard for that person to debunk your statement without pointing out the flaws in his own logic.

In this case, the original commenter wasn't trying to make a point - just expressing his opinion. It makes no sense to use the tactic here.

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