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I will chime in here as I did something along these lines. It's not worth it. If you/anyone wants to do meaningful work. Make lots of money, use the extra money

I will chime in here as I did something along these lines. It's not worth it. If you/anyone wants to do meaningful work. Make lots of money, use the extra money for things that matter to you. It's a hard learned lesson. But everything improves when you are getting paid more. Your colleagues, the opportunities, literally everything

navigatesol 7y ago
>Make lots of money, use the extra money for things that matter to you. "I'll fix it later." I suppose this is how the people building our surveillance state justify the work they're doing?
- negamax 7y ago
  I don't know how you reached to that conjecture. This whole "state is evil" idea is very mass market now. And I hear even people just entering the workforce holding such views. I personally think it's just mass consumption gone crazy. Where people are completely detached to reality. They don't really think how governments work and why they take some decisions. It's some netflix series, movie, some article that has slowly turned entertainment into their reality.
sbergot 7y ago
This is incorrect. I took a 10% pay cut to join another shop with a better work culture. In this case it was not that the new domain was more meaningful but rather the way everyone worked. When you can feel the impact of your work on your clients a lot of things also improve.
- negamax 7y ago
  I am glad it worked out for you. But give it time. Everything compounds. The firm that's paying you more is signalling that it's financially healthy and taking right business decisions. Of course pay cut for a startup adventure that's compensated by possible rewards using stock grants, is not comparable
  - marcinzm 7y ago
    >The firm that's paying you more is signalling that it's financially healthy and taking right business decisions. I care why exactly about any of that? If the firm goes under then I move to another one. I have no vested interest except in my own level of happiness.
  - badpun 7y ago
    Or, as is often the case in banking for example, they're signalling that they're especially fucked up and no one any good would work there if they "only" paid market rate.
  - sbergot 7y ago
    I have witnessed multiple situations where a high paying company had a very poor management team and a terrible work culture. People did stay here mainly because the pay was good. The 10% pay difference was because the first company was in the financial domain and the other was not. I have witnessed other case of people moving out of a financial software shop with similar results (better work/life balance, better satisfaction, slightly lower salary at the beginning).
mdorazio 7y ago
"everything improves when you are getting paid more" This is demonstrably not true, as shown by a slew of studies on happiness. Past a certain point, more money does not meaningfully impact your life and make things better. That point is different for different people in different locations, but signing up for golden handcuffs is a fantastic way to make yourself miserable. If you've got a choice between 10% more pay to work with people who make everything suck, and 10% less to work at a place with interesting projects and people you like, take the pay cut. From personal experience, no amount of hobby funding will make up for you hating your job.
- 1123581321 7y ago
  Often, the pay at the more meaningful job is under that happiness threshold.
  - mdorazio 7y ago
    Outside of the likely salaries for people on HN I would agree with you. However, I'm fairly confident tech worker salaries start at or above the threshold in most locations.
    - majewsky 7y ago
      Also, tech workers often have the luxury of working remotely, so there may be the option of relocating to a place with lower cost of living (if the meaningful workplace allows remote work).
ken 7y ago
Money can buy almost anything but time. No salary can give me back the 8+ hours every day it took to get it. Why not just spend my time doing the work I want to do in the first place? More money for the same job is always better, but if it means I have to take a job doing something that doesn’t contribute to my goals, it’s a poor trade. I can always make more money. I can never get back spent time.

navigatesol 7y ago

>Make lots of money, use the extra money for things that matter to you. "I'll fix it later." I suppose this is how the people building our surveillance state justify the work they're doing?

negamax 7y ago
I don't know how you reached to that conjecture. This whole "state is evil" idea is very mass market now. And I hear even people just entering the workforce holding such views. I personally think it's just mass consumption gone crazy. Where people are completely detached to reality. They don't really think how governments work and why they take some decisions. It's some netflix series, movie, some article that has slowly turned entertainment into their reality.

sbergot 7y ago

This is incorrect. I took a 10% pay cut to join another shop with a better work culture. In this case it was not that the new domain was more meaningful but rather the way everyone worked. When you can feel the impact of your work on your clients a lot of things also improve.

negamax 7y ago
I am glad it worked out for you. But give it time. Everything compounds. The firm that's paying you more is signalling that it's financially healthy and taking right business decisions. Of course pay cut for a startup adventure that's compensated by possible rewards using stock grants, is not comparable
- marcinzm 7y ago
  >The firm that's paying you more is signalling that it's financially healthy and taking right business decisions. I care why exactly about any of that? If the firm goes under then I move to another one. I have no vested interest except in my own level of happiness.
- badpun 7y ago
  Or, as is often the case in banking for example, they're signalling that they're especially fucked up and no one any good would work there if they "only" paid market rate.
- sbergot 7y ago
  I have witnessed multiple situations where a high paying company had a very poor management team and a terrible work culture. People did stay here mainly because the pay was good. The 10% pay difference was because the first company was in the financial domain and the other was not. I have witnessed other case of people moving out of a financial software shop with similar results (better work/life balance, better satisfaction, slightly lower salary at the beginning).

mdorazio 7y ago

"everything improves when you are getting paid more" This is demonstrably not true, as shown by a slew of studies on happiness. Past a certain point, more money does not meaningfully impact your life and make things better. That point is different for different people in different locations, but signing up for golden handcuffs is a fantastic way to make yourself miserable. If you've got a choice between 10% more pay to work with people who make everything suck, and 10% less to work at a place with interesting projects and people you like, take the pay cut. From personal experience, no amount of hobby funding will make up for you hating your job.

1123581321 7y ago
Often, the pay at the more meaningful job is under that happiness threshold.
- mdorazio 7y ago
  Outside of the likely salaries for people on HN I would agree with you. However, I'm fairly confident tech worker salaries start at or above the threshold in most locations.
  - majewsky 7y ago
    Also, tech workers often have the luxury of working remotely, so there may be the option of relocating to a place with lower cost of living (if the meaningful workplace allows remote work).

ken 7y ago

Money can buy almost anything but time. No salary can give me back the 8+ hours every day it took to get it. Why not just spend my time doing the work I want to do in the first place? More money for the same job is always better, but if it means I have to take a job doing something that doesn’t contribute to my goals, it’s a poor trade. I can always make more money. I can never get back spent time.