3 ms·

Don't take this the wrong way, but from one regular dude to another, both ~20 year old me and the current version of me emphatically do _not_ want to impress so

Don't take this the wrong way, but from one regular dude to another, both ~20 year old me and the current version of me emphatically do _not_ want to impress someone who seemingly has such a high opinion of themselves. Like, dude. It's a job. You have what seems like a bog standard middle class existence - just like countless others. You have a blog post about how you've gone on a single proper holiday in your entire working career, for example. It feels like you're holding other people to a standard higher than yourself, albeit not in precisely the same categories. I've done it in the past too, and I'm not proud of it. The Stallman bashing is also completely unnecessary and I wonder if it's in there as a sort of unclear "</sarcasm>" tag.

BeetleB 7y ago
>Like, dude. It's a job. You have what seems like a bog standard middle class existence - just like countless others. Yes - the post seems to be ignorant of market forces. My cool project you want to see? Likely more interesting and sophisticated than what most entry level jobs will have me do.[0] I don't want to show you my "brilliance" and end up with a job full of tedium - but that's how most entry jobs are. Yes, there are always a few companies who will allow you to do interesting work. And 80% of them are small/tiny companies who can't pay much even though they genuinely do interesting work. They are not startups - they are simply niche businesses who have reached their steady state size. [0] I solved more challenging HW problems as an undergrad at an average university than in my first 8 years in industry. As is the case for most engineering undergrads.
owyn 7y ago
Yeah, I just found the post you are referring to [1] and wow it's depressing. At the age of 30 the first real vacation he's ever had is an unpaid 10 week vacation where he had to be prepared to quit-or-else AND pay his own health insurance costs for the gap, and paying to stay on the company health care plan evokes a "woohoo". This is where we've come to folks. I've worked for a company with a remote development office in Poland, and they get a mandatory 4 weeks plus another 3 weeks or so of paid holidays and a +1 week after 10 years of working (anywhere, including grad school)... so by the time you're in your 30's that's 8 weeks. Every year! And you know what, those guys worked really hard and were plenty productive and we in the US never noticed it because they managed it just fine. [2] And this is a guy at a presumably relatively well compensated and respected engineering position. Everyone else has it even worse! We're doing great folks, everyone just keep doing what you're doing, woohoo! [1] http://cushychicken.github.io/leave-of-absence/ http://cushychicken.github.io/leave-of-absence/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_annual_leave_by_country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_annual_leave_b...

BeetleB 7y ago

>Like, dude. It's a job. You have what seems like a bog standard middle class existence - just like countless others. Yes - the post seems to be ignorant of market forces. My cool project you want to see? Likely more interesting and sophisticated than what most entry level jobs will have me do.[0] I don't want to show you my "brilliance" and end up with a job full of tedium - but that's how most entry jobs are. Yes, there are always a few companies who will allow you to do interesting work. And 80% of them are small/tiny companies who can't pay much even though they genuinely do interesting work. They are not startups - they are simply niche businesses who have reached their steady state size. [0] I solved more challenging HW problems as an undergrad at an average university than in my first 8 years in industry. As is the case for most engineering undergrads.

owyn 7y ago

Yeah, I just found the post you are referring to [1] and wow it's depressing. At the age of 30 the first real vacation he's ever had is an unpaid 10 week vacation where he had to be prepared to quit-or-else AND pay his own health insurance costs for the gap, and paying to stay on the company health care plan evokes a "woohoo". This is where we've come to folks. I've worked for a company with a remote development office in Poland, and they get a mandatory 4 weeks plus another 3 weeks or so of paid holidays and a +1 week after 10 years of working (anywhere, including grad school)... so by the time you're in your 30's that's 8 weeks. Every year! And you know what, those guys worked really hard and were plenty productive and we in the US never noticed it because they managed it just fine. [2] And this is a guy at a presumably relatively well compensated and respected engineering position. Everyone else has it even worse! We're doing great folks, everyone just keep doing what you're doing, woohoo! [1] http://cushychicken.github.io/leave-of-absence/ http://cushychicken.github.io/leave-of-absence/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_annual_leave_by_country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_annual_leave_b...