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Ask HN: Are you ok?

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Re: Ask HN: Are you ok?

#791
post #604

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maybe I'm just weak, for not being willing to throw it all away and go live in a barrel up in the mountains. It's unclear to me if this is a weakness or a strength. I don't know which way is up. Are you a stronger person if you're willing to say fuck it and go do your own thing and not be concerned with things like health care and financial stability? Or are you a stronger person by steadfastly holding your station…

The problem is you can't really choose. As someone with a spouse and kids and possibly other people depending on you (aka your income), the pressure to acquire a monthly payment is astounding. There really is no simple or quick way out of this rat race.

To be fair, there are plenty of destitute people with dependants. Yours can probably stand to lower their material standards

Re: Ask HN: Are you ok?

#792

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, jeez. Yeah, it seems fairly obvious that spending that much time in front of a screen isn't the path to happiness. If that's what he did with his time off no wonder he was unhappy with it. I need to at least do something physical to be happy.

That's the exact opposite of what he said.

"I took a week off to play Classic, but I was tearing my eyes out after three days, bored out of my mind."

Re: Ask HN: Are you ok?

#793

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Despite all of this, I still just feel like I want jump in my car and drive around the country for a few months. I want to get out. I miss having adventures. If you don't have any responsibilities besides yourself, then why not. If you're good at what you do I'm sure they would give you a 3 month leave, or let you work remote on the road. I did it when I was 27. No ragrets. Bought an RV and saw 36 states in around…

I have a girlfriend/soon to be wife that can't really go with me and I'd feel really bad stepping out of her life for a few months. I guess it could be something where I take a few months off and do a few days at home and then a week or so on the road and then a few days at home, etc.

What stops her going with you? If work, can she get any time off? Roughly where are you based?

Re: Ask HN: Are you ok?

#794
post #53

I am 'OK' in the sense that I like all of my colleagues and really do enjoy my work as a technical product manager. What's not 'OK' is that a snake-oil salesman/professional bullshitter who calls himself an 'Agile Consultant' has embedded himself in the organization. He's an all-talk arrogant blowhard with a savior complex centered around rescuing us from 'Waterfall'. What's not 'OK' in my personal life: I've been ha…

I recently took a week in the Carolinas and Tennessee. After twenty years in the Bay Area the difference in the presence of young women everywhere was so remarkable that my wife remarked on it and asked if the place was heavily skewed female.

The Bay Area is hell for straight men dating. If I ever ended up single again I would move.

Re: Ask HN: Are you ok?

#795
post #29

Nope. I hate my current job and am trying to pick up some new skills in my spare time so I can switch, but its very hard to come home from my 9-5 and feel motivated to study a new subject. Progress is extremely slow and often feels hopeless. Any time I'm not studying I feel paralyzed by the stress of knowing that I should be doing that instead, and yet I'm so far from being done that I get no reprieve if I actually d…

Are you in a position to quit or take unpaid leave to focus on the study for a few weeks?

Re: Ask HN: Are you ok?

#796
Exhausted. I don't work in IT, but I suspect my job has a lot of parallels. I make my living running live sound for bands and small music venues, while also doing corporate AV for a large AV contractor. Despite what outsiders may think, working in the music industry is murder on your social life. Sure, you get to go to neat concerts and meet awesome artists, but it also means you're working most weekends and many evenings. During the day, there's a good chance you're sleeping. I often don't get home until 3 or 4 in the morning. The lows are low. I'm often so nervous before a show that I almost vomit. The highs are great though, I often go home after a good show in a state of ecstasy. It's amazingly satisfying on the rare occasion when I'm able to enter a flow state while mixing.

The corporate side is probably about what you'd expect. The hours are long, the pay is low, and most of the work is boring and/or ethically challenging. While some of the events are interesting, (I had a blast working with the guys from Earth Science Information Partners) I've also worked back to back 4 hour Amway pitches and helped set up mics and projectors for boiler-room style real estate schemes. It's the kind of job where your coworkers are really important. I really enjoy working with my normal team, but one day with a bad team can really undermine my self confidence for days afterwords. There's a lot of really crappy political stuff that I'm trying to navigate.

Personal life? I'm financially stable, I have a few friends, no romantic relationships nor prospects. The latter is sad to me, but I'm a tough sell. I really enjoy being alone and highly value my privacy, probably to a fault. My schedule is so variable and full that the very idea of coordinating that with another person makes my brain hurt. My dad died recently, which was rough. At first I was a bit numb to it, and really threw myself into work and keeping busy. Now, I feel like it's all catching up to me. The flood of feelings and nostalgia are beginning to creep over the spillway of my hastily constructed dam. The overwork is beginning to take a toll physically and mentally. I've had to dial back on a lot of the live music stuff.

I sympathize with those who want to move to a cabin in the woods. I'd take that life, provided I had a well stocked library and some musical instruments with the means to record them. My fantasy is to just disappear. Quietly and carefully I'd made the arrangements in advance, and then one day I and all my stuff would be on the road to some distant city, without so much as a note. I don't know why that idea appeals to me, but it may come from the same part of the brain that nags you to delete your entire source tree and start from scratch.

PS protect your hearing folks. You can get earplugs with a relatively flat frequency response for about $20. PPS no, you can't charge your phone

Re: Ask HN: Are you ok?

#797

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The collapse of American education might have something to do with this.

Australian here; it's the same here. "Oh Software Engineer..." cue vacant look

Yep, it's a bit frustrating. I often talk to people in careers I know nothing about, so I ask questions. Then you have a conversation going. Sometimes it feels like people are afraid to be curious about software engineering, lest they get infected with nerdiness.

Re: Ask HN: Are you ok?

#798
post #783
post #747

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe you tried meditation but I don’t buy the “it doesn’t work for me” That’s like saying exercise doesn’t work for you. Maybe you are going too hard too fast and getting injured or any number of things that make it difficult. But meditation works, even if it’s (like exercise) a difficult habit to pick up.

No. Meditation does not "work for everyone" no matter how hard you no-true-scotsman it and I'm sick and tired of reading this. Source: Dad was massively into all that woo, spent my whole teens trying, even spent a week at an ashram in India. No, meditation is not for everyone.

30 minutes of cardio everyday isn’t for everyone. But anyone who does it will have adaptations as a result.

Re: Ask HN: Are you ok?

#799
post #768

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meditation is different because it requires sitting still and doing nothing for a period of time. I have probably gone months without doing this to any degree. I don't sleep without listening to something. I can rarely sit down and just watch TV. Etc. I am fairly sure the issue isn't medical: I can code, drive, and read for hours at a time without losing focus. But meditation is still torture (as is having to sit dow…

With all due respect your exact same line of reasoning would work for exercising. Why would it be unwise to think it works for everyone? Does doing sit-ups make everyone’s core stronger? Does doing squats make everyone’s legs stronger? I have no idea what you were doing when you were meditating, but having anxiety about it is certainly not proof that it doesn’t work. Maybe you didn’t have good guidance? Maybe you wer…

The scientific research supporting exercise is vastly stronger than the scientific research supporting meditation. The proven benefits of exercise are in order of magnitude different than the benefits of meditation.

Re: Ask HN: Are you ok?

#800

I'll add to the list here. No. I see a therapist but it doesn't help. Ultimately I'm burnt out. The startup I'm working at doesn't have good numbers anymore (not like any startup I've been at ever has). I can't get a job at FAANG (I've done their onsites about a dozen times). I live in the most expensive region in the USA. I only receive a salary from a startup and stock is obviously worthless. My SO is committed to…

Get far away from this narcissistic girl. Now. Then get some mental distance, and recover from the abuse you have suffered. Get a different (better) therapist. Do not delay. Much luck!
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