Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe you could stick CTOing but slack off a bit as the company becomes prosperous?
That's not me.
I don't know you, but you get my respect for that statement.
Why do we work so hard?
71–80 of 200 posts
Re: Why do we work so hard?
#72Re: Why do we work so hard?
#73This will sound moralistic, and I don't mean it that way, but I think this relates to our general lack of clear values as a society. With religion absent in many people's lives, not much has stepped in to take up the slack and say "what really matters is being a good person" or "what really matters is wisdom" or "what really matters is family". So we're left with the messages we ARE getting, which are from a combinat…
Nah, it's that folks who get their values from other folks are the only ones who bother to tell other folks how well they're doing at achieving their externally-gifted values. If your goal is to make a lot of money but you decided that was just your goal, why bother to tell anyone you've achieved it? (Indeed, it can be very counterproductive to tell other people.) If your goal is to be a good husband & father, then w…
Because there's a bit of a feedback loop with success. If others see you as being successful or impressive (on whatever axis they care about), this attracts them to you, and having a more admirers increases your social power and influence, which gives you more opportunities and better chances of success in your future efforts.
This also explains patio11's formula for career success, which is basically:
10 Make something awesome
20 Tell people about it
30 GOTO 10
Re: Why do we work so hard?
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why is "looking at houses in Denver" depressing?
To me, it represents a slower pace of life. EDIT: trust me, I'm not bored.
Is big city life that fulfilling? For me all the high end cuisine and art galleries started to blur into each other. It was like constant stimulation, very sugary, and I got burnt out. So I quit my job, moved into my truck and will just ski/climb/hike for a year.
Re: Why do we work so hard?
#75This will sound moralistic, and I don't mean it that way, but I think this relates to our general lack of clear values as a society. With religion absent in many people's lives, not much has stepped in to take up the slack and say "what really matters is being a good person" or "what really matters is wisdom" or "what really matters is family". So we're left with the messages we ARE getting, which are from a combinat…
Doesn't sound moralistic at all. It sounds like an appeal to analysis of sources of information. I don't see how you can go wrong.
We went from Eisenhower to Kennedy in a few years.
I think this, and the fact that people move too much are largely the whole story. See also Peter Whybrow for more on this.
Re: Why do we work so hard?
#76The only reason I work hard is to surround myself with people I respect. When I find myself pushed into situations where irritating people have crept into the mix, and no one seems to be willing or able to do anything about that, I look for an exit. Boss' nephews. Obnoxious assholes who constantly talk about getting laid. Bitchy careerist ladies who constantly demand bullshit, and seem to foment panic with every brea…
Yeah, I really can't understand this point of view. I find most people interesting, however different they may be. I'm lucky to be surrounded by talented people but I don't see it as a new stratum of goodness, people are shitty or great on every level. On the contrary I dislike negative people who can't see anything good in what surround them and have a cynical view of the world. I don't think I would have liked work…
Things are always more bearable when not forced. The same is true for having to stand in the presence of awful people who are saddled with awful circumstances, and suffer both them and the circumstantial misery simultaneously.
Jail, and places similar to jail, where presence and schedule are compulsory, are neither fun nor interesting. Such places bring out the worst in people. I don't feel a shred of guilt or shame for being negative.
Re: Why do we work so hard?
#77Some people thrive on "solving puzzles", which is sort of what engineering is. For better or worse, there are an infinite number of puzzles to solve.
The troubling thing, at least for me, is that as I get older I realize that most puzzles one encounters as a software engineer are related to non-problems.
When I was fresh out of college I would jump at any such puzzle that was presented to me and would not sleep until I had solved it. I never stopped to think about the larger picture where that puzzle was embedded in, and if it actually required solving or if a more pragmatic solution was at hand and would lead to the same outcome.
Now that I have some years of experience in the industry, I realize that 80% of the "puzzles" I face at work are bullshit. They are usually complicated situations generated by organic and uncontrolled growth in codebase complexity that lead to horrible scenarios requiring a lot of brain power to solve. The thing is, if things had been more properly thought out, those situations would have not occurred in the first place, because the code would have a lot more sound architecture. But because it was allowed to grow without thought and refactoring, it now offers many "puzzles" that the younger people in the team don't even question at a more fundamental level.
Sorry for the cynicism but it's honestly the way I feel about most of the work I do these days. Too much in terms of stability, maintainability and soundness is sacrificed for performance and for pushing things out the door asap.
Re: Why do we work so hard?
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting thoughts. To me, it has always seemed like, if I had something figured out, that had made me happy, i would WANT to share it, if it could help others. When people find a diet or an exercise regimen that works for them, they love to talk about it. I don't think it purely comes down to boasting. I agree that people with deeper wisdom will often be less eager to boast or force their values on others. But I a…
That works great until you realize that other people often have different value systems. What you're super proud of may be deeply offensive to another person. Just think about how saying "I'm a Googler, and proud of the work I do" might go over for a CS student vs. how it goes ever for the journalist who's struggling to make a living because Google has commoditized the news business. In practice, what usually happens…
I don't much socialize with the people I work with. The people I do socialize with are not from within my industry.
Re: Why do we work so hard?
#79The answer can be found in this excellent analysis of modern economics by E.F Schumacher from 1973:
Re: Why do we work so hard?
#80Competition. It's not that we really have to work that hard to produce a product or service. It's that we have to work really hard to beat the other people trying to do the same thing.
Increased productivity doesn't help, because everybody is still running flat out to compete, at a higher level.