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Quitting the rat race

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Re: Quitting the rat race

#81

Post by vernon99 »

BizarreByte wrote: post #8

It’s a short piece, but it resonates with me, specifically this part: > I’m earning the most money I’ve ever made and yet I’m the least fulfilled I’ve ever been. I’m making the most I’ve ever made and I’ve never been less happy and more depressed. I despise being a cog in a huge corporate machine, it’s like the job was designed to be as unappealing as possible. At the same time I can’t get over the fact that I have i…

A quick comment: it doesn’t make sense to compare your life and level of happiness with other people. Why not to compare with ancient doom and gloom times? What would it change to realize that you are better off than 100% of roman empire citizens? Why does it even matter? This sounds like a very weak argument meant to give you an alibi against another part of you that is unhappy, but - it just doesn’t.

The ONLY thing that is real is how YOU feel.

Re: Quitting the rat race

#82

Post by lapcat »

BaseballPhysics wrote: post #67
BizarreByte wrote: post #8

It’s a short piece, but it resonates with me, specifically this part: > I’m earning the most money I’ve ever made and yet I’m the least fulfilled I’ve ever been. I’m making the most I’ve ever made and I’ve never been less happy and more depressed. I despise being a cog in a huge corporate machine, it’s like the job was designed to be as unappealing as possible. At the same time I can’t get over the fact that I have i…

Bluntly, every person I know who's expressed these kinds of sentiments is guilty of the same mistake: externalizing their happiness. They inevitably move, only to find the new place they're in sucks, just in different ways. Or they find another job, but just discover more things they hate there. Or they find a new partner, only to discover a new set of annoyances. The same psychology leads people to think they'll be…

> I think I'm old enough now to confidently say that, yes: Happiness really does start from within.

What does age have to do with it? You're one person. It's anecdotal data.

I'm old enough now (5 years later) to confidently say that, yes: Quitting my last job really did make me happier.

Re: Quitting the rat race

#83

Post by tppiotrowski »

metadat wrote: post #41
nine_k wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it the classics of downshifting? Move to a cheap place, do some remote work, maybe time to time. Plan not to need much health care %)

How do you plan to not need healthcare. "Just don't get sick?" ???

I think insurance policies cap maximum out of pocket costs. I'm on a cheap policy ($300/month) that caps annual out of pocket costs at $12K. I have that $12K on standby if something really bad happens but it's been years and no issues yet.

Re: Quitting the rat race

#84

Post by fsckboy »

itisit wrote: post #74
fsckboy wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> too brief of a blog post the author kept it brief by relying on cliche after cliche, telling us to make sure we watched a completely cliche video. Why do people who have a critique of society think that they're the only ones who ever thought of this stuff? can't get enough of it? here, enjoy https://youtu.be/n-sQSp5jbSQ?t=28

> Why do people who have a critique of society think that they're the only ones who ever thought of this stuff? Where did you get that from?

did you need to watch the video to grasp the idea of what a rat-race is? The author thought you did, OP thought you needed "dropping out of the rat race" explained to you, meaning thta OP thought you never thought of it before.

Re: Quitting the rat race

#85

Post by larrymyers »

geraldwhen wrote: post #57
divbzero wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember that there are a range of options between highly-paid cog and financially-independent early retiree: jobs that pay less or jobs with higher uncertainty that care more fulfilling than the huge corporate machine. You could potentially find a better situation without quitting altogether.

Or you go full corporate but cut your hours by interleaving things you enjoy, like hobbies or gym time. What happens if you take a 90 minute bike ride each day without changing your hours at all? Would anyone notice? Would they care? Work is about dollars per hour. Salary is a trick.

That's kinda the whole point of being salaried though isn't it? (At least for those of us in the US.) You are an exempt employee as defined by US labor law. You aren't required to receive overtime pay, and you are evaluated on your expertise and the results you deliver.

So if you can get in daily rides and still meet the expectations of your employer, awesome, you're doing it right.

You're likely also doing right by your employer, since the daily exercise is giving you lots of health benefits and keeping you performing at a high level mentally.

Re: Quitting the rat race

#87

Post by cpsns »

BaseballPhysics wrote: post #67
BizarreByte wrote: post #8

It’s a short piece, but it resonates with me, specifically this part: > I’m earning the most money I’ve ever made and yet I’m the least fulfilled I’ve ever been. I’m making the most I’ve ever made and I’ve never been less happy and more depressed. I despise being a cog in a huge corporate machine, it’s like the job was designed to be as unappealing as possible. At the same time I can’t get over the fact that I have i…

Bluntly, every person I know who's expressed these kinds of sentiments is guilty of the same mistake: externalizing their happiness. They inevitably move, only to find the new place they're in sucks, just in different ways. Or they find another job, but just discover more things they hate there. Or they find a new partner, only to discover a new set of annoyances. The same psychology leads people to think they'll be…

> assuming that happiness is something you can find by simply changing your circumstances.

Thankfully I learned years ago this doesn’t work and got past this mindset. Changing circumstances has never significantly improved things for any length of time.

> Happiness really does start from within.

I’ve also never had any luck with this and am increasingly convinced some people aren’t destined to be happy.

Re: Quitting the rat race

#88

Post by alecbz »

ablatt89 wrote: post #24

It's a rat race if you never enjoyed software engineering and computer science from the start, and joined due to the growing SWE hype in the 2010s. Most people in the world have to work 40+ hours a week, and on weekends. It's kinda crazy to not take your career choice in perspective, which is relatively cushy, good perks, good pay, often wfh or decent offices, and call it a rat race because... you think you deserve t…

I still love programming but often feel burnt out at my SWE job. Things like:

   - coworkers
   - working culture
   - autonomy
   - sense of ownership
   - sense of impact
   - how much you actually get to code
   - whether the coding you're doing is interesting
can make you hate your job even if you still like programming itself.

Re: Quitting the rat race

#89

Post by outside1234 »

> When I cycle I need to cycle through kilometre after kilometre of urban jungle before I see anything resembling a field.

This is the exact realization I had that lead me to quit London as well.

Re: Quitting the rat race

#90

Post by serjester »

dinobones wrote: post #12

I am in my mid 20s. I have about $200k saved and I think about quitting everyday, even though it would probably be disastrous for my career. I look up and I see colleagues in their 40s-50s. 20-30 years of experience in the industry, with the performance of their RSUs they probably easily have $2m+ net worth. I really don't understand why they don't quit. Just a naive example: Buy a cheap house ($250k) and live off of…

In my mid 20’s I had an order of magnitude less savings and quit my job to backpack Europe. My career wasn’t remotely impacted in the process and I genuinely think this is one of the best decisions I ever made.

The 4 hour work week has a far better treatise on this than I could ever write and I highly recommend reading it. You’re incredibly resilient in your 20’s. I’d rather be coming out of prison as a 20 something than be a millionaire in retirement.

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