7 ms·

My take on it is that my life is divided into two realms: work and home. I spend maybe 40-45% of my waking hours at work, and the rest at home on nights and we

My take on it is that my life is divided into two realms: work and home. I spend maybe 40-45% of my waking hours at work, and the rest at home on nights and weekends. I can use extra salary to improve my home life (renting a bigger apartment, going to nicer restaurants, traveling to exotic places, etc), but there's not much I can do with it to improve my work life. If my boss suddenly gave me a 10-million-dolllar bonus tomorrow, my home life would change a lot, but my work life would be nearly the same. On the other hand, a $5 improvement to my work environment affect the nearly half of my life I can't otherwise improve on my own. This is why perks like free food, nice monitors, a cool office, etc have a value to employees that is decoupled from the financial impact of them to the company.

rpearl 11y ago
If you got $10M you'd keep working?
- JoshTriplett 11y ago
  I would. I like what I do. (Also, once you reach the level where that's a possibility, it doesn't tend to be a one-time thing either.)
  - will_pseudonym 11y ago
    What exactly do you do? How did you get to that point?
    - JoshTriplett 11y ago
      > What exactly do you do? I'm Intel's Chrome OS Architect; I serve as the technical lead for Intel Chromebooks, particularly on the software side. I particularly enjoy that I get to work on entire systems top-to-bottom: hardware, firmware, kernel, userspace, browser, apps/web... We get to work on problems like "How could this technology make Chrome OS or the web better?", or conversely "What technology could we create to solve this problem that Chrome OS or the web faces?". I've also found it awesome building up and working with several exceptional teams. (Note: on HN and elsewhere, I don't speak for Intel unless explicitly stated otherwise.) > How did you get to that point? I came in to interview for a completely different position, and found myself in the right place at the right time with the right skillset, and I was open to work on anything sufficiently interesting and challenging. It helped that I already had extensive experience in the Open Source community. Also, Intel as an employer values and rewards graduate education. Happy to talk more via email.
  - will_pseudonym 11y ago
    P.S. I live about 5 blocks from PSU! How are you liking the PhD program there? What are you studying? Mind if I pick your brain? I've considered grad school off and on so many times...
    - JoshTriplett 11y ago
      > P.S. I live about 5 blocks from PSU! How are you liking the PhD program there? My website is badly out of date; I graduated ~4 years ago. I found their PhD program excellent. > Mind if I pick your brain? I've considered grad school off and on so many times... Sure, no problem; I can offer various pros and cons for grad school. Let's continue via email.
- fishtoaster 11y ago
  Maybe or maybe not. This is really more about the situation where some people, when considering a new job, would rather have perks worth $X than $X in increased salary. In the $10m example, consider there to be an "assuming I didn't quit or change jobs" in there. :) As for whether I'd actually keep working, I'm not sure. I might take a break from employment for a bit, but I'd probably come back to somewhere like where I am. I have a great team, a great environment, and I'm working on something socially meaningful.
  - JoshTriplett 11y ago
    It's hard to define "perks worth $X"; in particular, the value of those perks is higher than the amount the employer spends on them. Not least of which because everyone else has them too, and thus everyone knows that. > As for whether I'd actually keep working, I'm not sure. I might take a break from employment for a bit, but I'd probably come back to somewhere like where I am. I have a great team, a great environment, and I'm working on something socially meaningful. Exactly. I might adjust my working hours, or take a leave of absence, but I can't see myself quitting. I don't want to live a life of leisure; I want to have an impact.
- Fomite 11y ago
  I would. The nature of how I would work would change, but not that I worked.
- fulafel 11y ago
  For most middle class people, increasing wealth by $10M does much less to their happiness than having a good job. Short term excitement nonwithstanding.
JoshTriplett 11y ago
> I can use extra salary to improve my home life (renting a bigger apartment, going to nicer restaurants, traveling to exotic places, etc), but there's not much I can do with it to improve my work life. You can use extra money to improve your work environment, but you shouldn't have to. That's a difference between working as a contractor and working as a salaried employee. As a contract employee, you get paid far more, but some of that goes to buying your own equipment (as well as benefits and myriad other things). As a salaried employee, you have the reasonable expectation of your employer supplying everything you need to do your job.
- a3n 11y ago
  I have one of those Logitek wireless keyboard and mouse that use the same usb dongle. I never even considered asking the company for one, I just bought it after work and brought it in. Because it was cheap, I wanted that exact thing, and I wanted it now. If I asked, it either would have been non-standard and denied, or it would have taken them months to figure out how to buy one, and it would have been a toaster or a potted petunia. I probably shouldn't have had to ask, but sometimes you have to ask yourself if the process is at all worth it.
  - driverdan 11y ago
    If that was the process I'd have to go through to get cheap hardware like a keyboard I'd be looking for a new job. That's absolutely ridiculous.
    - will_pseudonym 11y ago
      It's often the path of least resistance working at a billion dollar company. I'm currently on week 4 of waiting for the ordering of a $250 docking station so that I can use a gigantic external monitor instead of my tiny laptop screen. The amount I'm being paid per hour would pay off that cost in a day. P.S. I'm paying for the monitor... P.P.S. I'm going to end up paying for the docking station out of pocket too. It's that important to my workflow. It sucks, but it's better than the alternative, and there are things that are more important that this job does get right.
Nursie 11y ago
And I look upon some of that as quite foolish. Give me an extra few thousand to take home over a "nice monitor" any day. I can make do with whatever the company decides is best in terms of resources like that, that's up to them and has no value to me at all.

rpearl 11y ago

If you got $10M you'd keep working?

JoshTriplett 11y ago
I would. I like what I do. (Also, once you reach the level where that's a possibility, it doesn't tend to be a one-time thing either.)
- will_pseudonym 11y ago
  What exactly do you do? How did you get to that point?
  - JoshTriplett 11y ago
    > What exactly do you do? I'm Intel's Chrome OS Architect; I serve as the technical lead for Intel Chromebooks, particularly on the software side. I particularly enjoy that I get to work on entire systems top-to-bottom: hardware, firmware, kernel, userspace, browser, apps/web... We get to work on problems like "How could this technology make Chrome OS or the web better?", or conversely "What technology could we create to solve this problem that Chrome OS or the web faces?". I've also found it awesome building up and working with several exceptional teams. (Note: on HN and elsewhere, I don't speak for Intel unless explicitly stated otherwise.) > How did you get to that point? I came in to interview for a completely different position, and found myself in the right place at the right time with the right skillset, and I was open to work on anything sufficiently interesting and challenging. It helped that I already had extensive experience in the Open Source community. Also, Intel as an employer values and rewards graduate education. Happy to talk more via email.
- will_pseudonym 11y ago
  P.S. I live about 5 blocks from PSU! How are you liking the PhD program there? What are you studying? Mind if I pick your brain? I've considered grad school off and on so many times...
  - JoshTriplett 11y ago
    > P.S. I live about 5 blocks from PSU! How are you liking the PhD program there? My website is badly out of date; I graduated ~4 years ago. I found their PhD program excellent. > Mind if I pick your brain? I've considered grad school off and on so many times... Sure, no problem; I can offer various pros and cons for grad school. Let's continue via email.
fishtoaster 11y ago
Maybe or maybe not. This is really more about the situation where some people, when considering a new job, would rather have perks worth $X than $X in increased salary. In the $10m example, consider there to be an "assuming I didn't quit or change jobs" in there. :) As for whether I'd actually keep working, I'm not sure. I might take a break from employment for a bit, but I'd probably come back to somewhere like where I am. I have a great team, a great environment, and I'm working on something socially meaningful.
- JoshTriplett 11y ago
  It's hard to define "perks worth $X"; in particular, the value of those perks is higher than the amount the employer spends on them. Not least of which because everyone else has them too, and thus everyone knows that. > As for whether I'd actually keep working, I'm not sure. I might take a break from employment for a bit, but I'd probably come back to somewhere like where I am. I have a great team, a great environment, and I'm working on something socially meaningful. Exactly. I might adjust my working hours, or take a leave of absence, but I can't see myself quitting. I don't want to live a life of leisure; I want to have an impact.
Fomite 11y ago
I would. The nature of how I would work would change, but not that I worked.
fulafel 11y ago
For most middle class people, increasing wealth by $10M does much less to their happiness than having a good job. Short term excitement nonwithstanding.

JoshTriplett 11y ago

> I can use extra salary to improve my home life (renting a bigger apartment, going to nicer restaurants, traveling to exotic places, etc), but there's not much I can do with it to improve my work life. You can use extra money to improve your work environment, but you shouldn't have to. That's a difference between working as a contractor and working as a salaried employee. As a contract employee, you get paid far more, but some of that goes to buying your own equipment (as well as benefits and myriad other things). As a salaried employee, you have the reasonable expectation of your employer supplying everything you need to do your job.

a3n 11y ago
I have one of those Logitek wireless keyboard and mouse that use the same usb dongle. I never even considered asking the company for one, I just bought it after work and brought it in. Because it was cheap, I wanted that exact thing, and I wanted it now. If I asked, it either would have been non-standard and denied, or it would have taken them months to figure out how to buy one, and it would have been a toaster or a potted petunia. I probably shouldn't have had to ask, but sometimes you have to ask yourself if the process is at all worth it.
- driverdan 11y ago
  If that was the process I'd have to go through to get cheap hardware like a keyboard I'd be looking for a new job. That's absolutely ridiculous.
  - will_pseudonym 11y ago
    It's often the path of least resistance working at a billion dollar company. I'm currently on week 4 of waiting for the ordering of a $250 docking station so that I can use a gigantic external monitor instead of my tiny laptop screen. The amount I'm being paid per hour would pay off that cost in a day. P.S. I'm paying for the monitor... P.P.S. I'm going to end up paying for the docking station out of pocket too. It's that important to my workflow. It sucks, but it's better than the alternative, and there are things that are more important that this job does get right.

Nursie 11y ago

And I look upon some of that as quite foolish. Give me an extra few thousand to take home over a "nice monitor" any day. I can make do with whatever the company decides is best in terms of resources like that, that's up to them and has no value to me at all.