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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

#71

Post by mtlynch »

dwoot wrote: post #61
mtlynch wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 responsibilit…

Most of my time was on Google Maps.

The reason it was hard to slow down and learn was that promotions were so difficult to get. You can only apply every six months, and so many stars have to align in your favor to get promoted and so many things can derail it. Your project can get cancelled. Your project can flop even if you personally did everything right. One of your senior teammates (whose word carries a lot of weight with the promotion committee) can leave the company.

It was so hard to get promoted when I was trying to get promoted that I felt like if I wasn't focused on promotion, I'd just never get a promotion.

I wrote a longer post about this a few months ago:

https://mtlynch.io/why-i-quit-google/

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

I theoretically had freedom to learn and apply ML, but it would have been at the expense of my career. For example, my last major project was to launch a new ML pipeline in six months (it sounds like a long time, but it's really hard to do this with all of Google's bleeding edge infrastructure and bureaucracy). I was leading a team with two other developers, both of whom had graduate degrees in ML-focused subjects. I could theoretically have assigned myself more of the ML work, but the most likely way for us to meet our deadline was to let my teammates handle the deep ML work while I did more infrastructure work.

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

#72

Post by qop »

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…

Not if it's got substance to it.

If it's sarcastic and rude, then yeah, but this wasn't that.

The other side of a coin is always bound to be the same size as the first side. A counter point to a point is necessarily similar, rhetorically, to the original point it's refuting.

Also, if you're wishing Internet conversations were more real, perhaps looking somewhere besides the Internet may benefit you Makerspaces have hackers, as do hackathon meetups, conventions, hell, sometimes libraries have resources for computer scientists or enthusiasts.

I like the hn format because of the density and accessibility. If I want to talk to another hacker in meat space I gotta go out, make an appointment with them, inevitably buy them coffee, survive the subway, it's inevitably late, so now this guy thinks I'm a jackass, and I have a urge in the back of my head to check my phone for hn while we are small talking before we can appropriately arrive at the twenty minute chat about whatever before doing the entire routine in reverse.

Or I can just read hn.

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

#73

Post by blunte »

matte_black wrote: post #68
willbw wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It is quite possible that one may judge a statement as being superior when in fact it was not written as such. In that case, the reader could perhaps have some other emotion (inferiority?) coloring their perception.

Who is to say how the echo style of reply is generally seen, but I find it snarky. It seems less like saying, "I have a quite alternate point of view" and more like saying, "the originally presented view is backwards - here let me show you".

But this is all meta, and HN isn't a forum for us to be debating communication skills. Doing so is more futile amongst a group often known for lacking in communication skills in inverse proportion to their intellectual skills.

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

#74

Post by greggman »

I glad it worked out for the author but so far it hasn't worked out for me. It's been 5 years which wasn't my plan. I thought it would be 6 months until I figured out what I want to do. Things that happened.

Travelled: found it mostly extremely lonely to travel alone. Got sick of seeing the same things (this place's contemporary art museum, that place's famous church). Of course I saw some amazing things but I now think I agree with some happiness researcher who claims travel is best in short Worked on personal projects. I do get some feeling of accomplishment but mostly I just feel lonely and isolated. At good jobs I had the camaraderie of close co-workers who became close friends and we really collaborated. I tried hanging out at cafes and coffee shops and that's better than staying home but not all that less isolating. The random people that show up are not people I talk to or become close to.

I don't feel "free" at all. I'm sure it's partly in my mind. I might also be age differences. I'm older and need to think about retirement I realize I can't just make any random decision because there isn't time to correct. I tell myself I don't feel free because I don't have enough money to never work again. I do have to do something that earns significant income (enough to retire in 10-12 years). If I did have enough to retire maybe I'd still not feel free like not having enough to do X where X is whatever (fund that project, whatever...) though maybe I'd feel free to do things and never worry about income (volunteer for various things?). Now I don't volunteer because that's not going to help me earn money to retire. I'm not sure I'd volunteer or not.

I'm pretty much completely lost at this point. No idea what I want to do anymore. I waste my days reading HN and browsing the net and working on personal projects that have no future prospects and answering questions on SO. I go to a meet up or 2 a week and that's about it.

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

#75

Post by bradlys »

matte_black wrote: post #53
blunte wrote: post #44

Once you finally break free of the office/corporate mentality, suddenly the world opens up. The possibilities are so vast (but not all possibilities mean income). Breaking free from the golden handcuffs (or in my case, aluminum handcuffs), you start to realize that high income and lots of stuff really doesn't matter as much as experiences. And then you might even consider doing work that doesn't leverage your brain a…

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…

I feel this. This is my viewpoint as someone who cannot realistically afford an "entrepreneurial" lifestyle. Similarly, I'd rather not see my savings dwindle every month rather than grow. I feel that concern only goes away when you are practically-speaking rich or FIRE.

When I see people talking about entrepreneurship on HN or quitting their X job to do Y project, I feel no different than it being the "minimalist lifestyle" of tech. All this talk about how it's freeing you of all these things that tie you down and what not but it's only "freeing" because you're rich AF.

This article read like: "I'm a rich dude who worked at Big X and went to an Ivy League university. Fuck being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. I live in one of the most expensive and desirable cities in the world. I'm gonna do whatever I want with my ridiculously large savings and I hope to make even more money with whatever I come up with! I'll probably go back to another FAANG if this doesn't pan out in a year and say I did some seriously cool stuff on my resume. I'll get an even bigger package. Wooooo!"

Ugh.

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

#76

Post by coastal-fiesta »

greggman wrote: post #74

I glad it worked out for the author but so far it hasn't worked out for me. It's been 5 years which wasn't my plan. I thought it would be 6 months until I figured out what I want to do. Things that happened. Travelled: found it mostly extremely lonely to travel alone. Got sick of seeing the same things (this place's contemporary art museum, that place's famous church). Of course I saw some amazing things but I now th…

>I agree with some happiness researcher who claims travel is best in short Got a link to that?

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

#77

Post by marcandre »

coastal-fiesta wrote: post #76
greggman wrote: post #74

I glad it worked out for the author but so far it hasn't worked out for me. It's been 5 years which wasn't my plan. I thought it would be 6 months until I figured out what I want to do. Things that happened. Travelled: found it mostly extremely lonely to travel alone. Got sick of seeing the same things (this place's contemporary art museum, that place's famous church). Of course I saw some amazing things but I now th…

>I agree with some happiness researcher who claims travel is best in short Got a link to that?

Dan Ariely's research for example shows that duration has little effect on our memory of an event. Check his TED talks.

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

#78

Post by joremeyieha »

matte_black wrote: post #53
blunte wrote: post #44

Once you finally break free of the office/corporate mentality, suddenly the world opens up. The possibilities are so vast (but not all possibilities mean income). Breaking free from the golden handcuffs (or in my case, aluminum handcuffs), you start to realize that high income and lots of stuff really doesn't matter as much as experiences. And then you might even consider doing work that doesn't leverage your brain a…

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…

I'd say that breaking free of either mentality is equally important. Everyone should recognize the choices they have in their careers, and in tech we have quite the choices indeed. At least for the time being, it's possible for skilled workers to join a company paying extremely high wages, but also to leave said company to pursue a big idea or to take a sabbatical.

While we praise companies for effectively pivoting after building a product that didn't seem right, we should also recognize that we too can pivot if we feel dissatisfied spending time in an office or if we feel a desire to join a team taking on a hard problem.

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

#79

Post by blunte »

bradlys wrote: post #75
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…

I feel this. This is my viewpoint as someone who cannot realistically afford an "entrepreneurial" lifestyle. Similarly, I'd rather not see my savings dwindle every month rather than grow. I feel that concern only goes away when you are practically-speaking rich or FIRE. When I see people talking about entrepreneurship on HN or quitting their X job to do Y project, I feel no different than it being the "minimalist lif…

Trust me, there are a whole lot of entrepreneurs not like the ex-Google "I'm self-funded for several years" types.

I'm definitely not rich, and there are some months when I'm not sure I'll make it; but somehow I do, and then there are other months where things work out better than I expected.

But when I walk out of my house and go where I want, when I want, while most of the rest of the people are told when and where to be, I feel free. And when I do work for a client from a hotel room in the Caribbean, after my day of scuba diving, I feel pretty great.

If I continued with my old way of "every job must pay more than the last", I would still be in the oil business, in an office every day. Instead, I now see how much I was wasting on a new car, daily driving commute (time and gas), eating out because I'm too exhausted after a day in the office to cook when I get home, etc... turns out I don't need nearly as much money to live on as I did when I was working for $$.

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

#80

Post by jaypaulynice »

greggman wrote: post #74

I glad it worked out for the author but so far it hasn't worked out for me. It's been 5 years which wasn't my plan. I thought it would be 6 months until I figured out what I want to do. Things that happened. Travelled: found it mostly extremely lonely to travel alone. Got sick of seeing the same things (this place's contemporary art museum, that place's famous church). Of course I saw some amazing things but I now th…

Pick up the guitar like I have been doing. I even wrote a quick article on how easy I’ve found it:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/learning-play-guitar-jay-paul...

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