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On loyalty to your employer (2018)

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Re: On loyalty to your employer (2018)

#71

> “When I’m on my deathbed, I won’t look back at my life and wish I had worked harder. I’ll look back and wish I spent more time with the people I loved.” I saw a Reddit thread the other day on r/startups or r/entrepreneur where the OP was talking about how they'll be working until the day he or she dies. I immediately wondered if this individual had a family, friends. Had this person already seen the world and its m…

Speaking as a person who can’t see themselves stop working, I think an important factor is how one derives meaning from their life. For some it might be living amazing experiences, and for others it can be in helping others (which could qualify as work). The healthiest seems to be a combination of the two, with a different ratio depending on the person. Here in the Netherlands it’s common to see retired people do vol…

I wish I could do unpaid volunteer work and still afford live. By which I mean, I really hate that certain kinds of work are not deemed worthy enough of financial compensation, yet are still beneficial to people and society at large.

Re: On loyalty to your employer (2018)

#72
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw an interview with Cesar Milan a few years back where he talked about how he survived after first coming to the US. He said something to the effect of (paraphrasing) > "America is amazing, you could get two hotdogs for $1 at 7-11. That's all I needed to survive." When we visited Tokyo last year, we ended up eating a lot of 7-11 onigiri for breakfast as there weren't many places open when we were up and heading o…

> That's all I needed to survive. That sounds like a pretty grim way to live. As a tech worker, I’d rather “live” than survive. Each to their own. > It's about what you value and then how you exchange your time on Earth. I think you should take a look at this thread with this comment in mind - not everyone else values the same things as you and that’s ok.

$2 7-11 onigiri is surprisingly good!

Re: On loyalty to your employer (2018)

#73

> “When I’m on my deathbed, I won’t look back at my life and wish I had worked harder. I’ll look back and wish I spent more time with the people I loved.” I saw a Reddit thread the other day on r/startups or r/entrepreneur where the OP was talking about how they'll be working until the day he or she dies. I immediately wondered if this individual had a family, friends. Had this person already seen the world and its m…

This is such a retarded modern take on things, not everyone derives meaning from checking off a bucket list they read about on some internet listicle. For some of us, creating and contributing is the goal.

Re: On loyalty to your employer (2018)

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a tough trade off. On the one hand, having a child in your 20's is how our biology is wired. On the other hand, in the modern age, those are also prime years for work and professional growth; I get it. Last year, I (in my 40's) did a trip to Terceira[0] and after a few days of hiking, had shooting pain in my knee. I immediately wondered if I had torn something! It would be quite the pickle since I had traveled w…

20s in tech is basically show up, do your work, and get paid a pittance of the value it generates.

That's just "employment", or at least "not realising how many other people contribute to that value".

Re: On loyalty to your employer (2018)

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Work" here I would define as exchanging time for money. Volunteering is not work. For me personally, I make a distinction between "working" and "creating". I will always want to create (a very broad term), but I will not always want to work. In fact, I don't want to work now; I only want to create. The best is when I can exchange my creation for money -- then it is no longer work.

No, work is effort expended to achieve a result. Whether it's paid or not is irrelevant, and many people work harder for free than they ever do in employment, because the incentives are right.

> No, work is effort expended to achieve a result

By this definition, going to the toilet is "work". If that's the case, I never want to get to a point where I stop working.

Re: On loyalty to your employer (2018)

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Work" here I would define as exchanging time for money. Volunteering is not work. For me personally, I make a distinction between "working" and "creating". I will always want to create (a very broad term), but I will not always want to work. In fact, I don't want to work now; I only want to create. The best is when I can exchange my creation for money -- then it is no longer work.

You might enjoy a fella named marx. Labor is labor, my friend. It should be mostly devoted to things that enrich the lives of us and those around us. It is normal to want to work. It is the alienating nature of selling our labor for a pittance that ruins our lives.

Then sell your labour for more than a pittance, if you're just haggling over the price.

Re: On loyalty to your employer (2018)

#77
post #73

> “When I’m on my deathbed, I won’t look back at my life and wish I had worked harder. I’ll look back and wish I spent more time with the people I loved.” I saw a Reddit thread the other day on r/startups or r/entrepreneur where the OP was talking about how they'll be working until the day he or she dies. I immediately wondered if this individual had a family, friends. Had this person already seen the world and its m…

This is such a retarded modern take on things, not everyone derives meaning from checking off a bucket list they read about on some internet listicle. For some of us, creating and contributing is the goal.

That wasn't the point and you've completely misread it. The very first point was "family and friends" and for me, travel is something that helps me experience the broader world. It's not a bucket list, it's the fact that this world is immense, filled with experiences and that we only have one lifetime to find those experiences that enrich our short time here.

The hypothetical question is is whether this individual has already experienced everything there was to experience and decided "No, working 9-9 is what I value in life!"

Re: On loyalty to your employer (2018)

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're missing the forest for the trees. You have one lifetime on this Earth and it is a big place with many experiences and sights. Do not regret in the end that you exchanged too much of that one lifetime for money rather than enriching it with many experiences be it with family, friends, or even by oneself.

Your trees are not someone else’s trees. Is someone who climbs snowy mountains for a living (but who loves working on spreadsheets) trading too much of their one lifetime for money? Different things enrich different people’s lives. Can you not imagine that what you call “work” is the experience that gives this person enrichment? To be honest from what I can see it seems like you are the person with a narrow worldview…

    > Your trees are not someone else’s trees
I never said they were; only that life is short -- find your forest. Quoting myself:

    > Had they already experienced everything good there is to experience in this one lifetime that they were so bored of it that they would prefer to work instead?
And I'm pretty certain that forest isn't exchanging your limited time in life for money. I'm giving concrete examples, not exclusive examples.

Touch grass, my friend, and find your forest.

Re: On loyalty to your employer (2018)

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your trees are not someone else’s trees. Is someone who climbs snowy mountains for a living (but who loves working on spreadsheets) trading too much of their one lifetime for money? Different things enrich different people’s lives. Can you not imagine that what you call “work” is the experience that gives this person enrichment? To be honest from what I can see it seems like you are the person with a narrow worldview…

> Your trees are not someone else’s trees I never said they were; only that life is short -- find your forest. Quoting myself: > Had they already experienced everything good there is to experience in this one lifetime that they were so bored of it that they would prefer to work instead? And I'm pretty certain that forest isn't exchanging your limited time in life for money. I'm giving concrete examples, not exclusive…

You’re changing your tune pretty quick here and have artfully dodged essentially all of my questions.

> I'm pretty certain that forest isn't exchanging your limited time in life for money

A simple question — what if your forest happens to hand you money back? Are you still “pretty certain” of this?

Re: On loyalty to your employer (2018)

#80
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Travelling isn’t the be all and end all of things either remember. That might be something that you prioritise but isn’t as important to other people. They might value time with family and friends, and that’s ok too. A bit like with food, “variety is the spice of life”

> Travelling isn’t the be all and end all of things either remember. I think you're missing the whole point. For you, traveling might not be that fun. For OP's uncle, apparently it was. He had to forego that because of reasons. I do a fair share of traveling. I love it, and a few of my most cherished memories come from trips I did. This might come as a surprise to you, but the whole point of traveling is not to go fr…

Yup, many of the folks responding are glossing over this line in my OP:

    > Had they already experienced everything good there is to experience in this one lifetime that they were so bored of it that they would prefer to work instead?
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