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Overall this is a great article, one of the best I've seen on HN for a while. One part struck me though: _It’s nice to work for a good company with a good env

Overall this is a great article, one of the best I've seen on HN for a while. One part struck me though: _It’s nice to work for a good company with a good environment and a fun team, but at the end of the day it’s not worth leaving tens of thousands of dollars on the table just to stay there._ I dunno, spending 8+ hours a day in a bad environment with a soul sucking team is pretty bad. How will tens of thousands of dollars make up for that? By letting you buy a really big screen TV and sound system?

jasonkester 16y ago
I guess since I wrote the quote you're referencing, it's my duty to defend it... In the case I had in mind when I wrote that, I used a small portion of those extra tens of thousands of dollars to take 5 months off and work on my surfing in Australia. The rest I kept in reserve to ensure that I could take a few unpaid months off every year since. As you say, money can't buy happiness. But it can be exchanged directly for free time, which I tend to value quite highly.
- rdtsc 16y ago
  There is a problem though -- most places don't let you take sabbaticals. You get a couple of weeks off for vacation and the rest of the time you are expected to be there. So the original question still stands. Please answer that: > I dunno, spending 8+ hours a day in a bad environment with a soul sucking team is pretty bad. How will tens of thousands of dollars make up for that? I guess you have to always write a footnote when you discuss this and mention how you'd really need to have a place that also gives you enough time to enjoy all that extra money you'd be making. The older I get the more I realize that time is becoming more and more expensive. At some point it qualitatively crosses beyond being arbitrarily translated into money. Is another $30k/year worth working crazy hours in a noxious high pressure environment? When I was 20 I would have said "hell yeah", now, not so much. Driving 2 hours every day to get to a job that pays another $10k, nope, thanks, I'll pass. I'd rather have the extra time for family or do whatever else I want to do.
  - jasonkester 16y ago
    Personally, I find any job requiring me to sit in a cube for 40 hours a week to be pretty taxing, regardless of how fun the tech or the people are. It's the sort of activity that I try to minimize my time doing. With that in mind, I'd much prefer to make my year's salary in, say, eight months, and spend the rest of the year doing things I actually enjoy. Sabbaticals don't actually require approval if you're genuinely not interested in job security. The only real thing in question is whether the place would like to have you back when you return. One interesting side effect of working lots of 6-18 month stints at various companies is that you get exposed to lots of technologies and get lots of things out in the wild that you can point to and say "I did that". That actually makes you more valuable, and therefore more likely to land the sort of higher money, short term contract that you're looking for.
    - rdtsc 16y ago
      I definitely envy your position. Unfortunately in US insurance is tied to employment. The moment I go on sabbatical my whole family loses health insurance. It is something that ties my hands behind my back. I do get a month and half of vacation and a 5 minute commute to work, so I try to make the best of it.
      - jasonkester 16y ago
        Sounds like a pretty sweet gig, actually. Long vacations and no commute. You're right. Health care is the tough one. Catastrophic Coverage will run an individual about $100/month, which is fine when you're young and healthy. But I don't want to think about what Blue Cross Blue Shield would want for full coverage on a family of 4. Given how much extra money you bring home consulting vs. salary (roughly 2x), you're fine while you're working. But keeping it all going when you're not might be a bit of an issue.
deleted 16y ago
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jasonkester 16y ago

I guess since I wrote the quote you're referencing, it's my duty to defend it... In the case I had in mind when I wrote that, I used a small portion of those extra tens of thousands of dollars to take 5 months off and work on my surfing in Australia. The rest I kept in reserve to ensure that I could take a few unpaid months off every year since. As you say, money can't buy happiness. But it can be exchanged directly for free time, which I tend to value quite highly.

rdtsc 16y ago
There is a problem though -- most places don't let you take sabbaticals. You get a couple of weeks off for vacation and the rest of the time you are expected to be there. So the original question still stands. Please answer that: > I dunno, spending 8+ hours a day in a bad environment with a soul sucking team is pretty bad. How will tens of thousands of dollars make up for that? I guess you have to always write a footnote when you discuss this and mention how you'd really need to have a place that also gives you enough time to enjoy all that extra money you'd be making. The older I get the more I realize that time is becoming more and more expensive. At some point it qualitatively crosses beyond being arbitrarily translated into money. Is another $30k/year worth working crazy hours in a noxious high pressure environment? When I was 20 I would have said "hell yeah", now, not so much. Driving 2 hours every day to get to a job that pays another $10k, nope, thanks, I'll pass. I'd rather have the extra time for family or do whatever else I want to do.
- jasonkester 16y ago
  Personally, I find any job requiring me to sit in a cube for 40 hours a week to be pretty taxing, regardless of how fun the tech or the people are. It's the sort of activity that I try to minimize my time doing. With that in mind, I'd much prefer to make my year's salary in, say, eight months, and spend the rest of the year doing things I actually enjoy. Sabbaticals don't actually require approval if you're genuinely not interested in job security. The only real thing in question is whether the place would like to have you back when you return. One interesting side effect of working lots of 6-18 month stints at various companies is that you get exposed to lots of technologies and get lots of things out in the wild that you can point to and say "I did that". That actually makes you more valuable, and therefore more likely to land the sort of higher money, short term contract that you're looking for.
  - rdtsc 16y ago
    I definitely envy your position. Unfortunately in US insurance is tied to employment. The moment I go on sabbatical my whole family loses health insurance. It is something that ties my hands behind my back. I do get a month and half of vacation and a 5 minute commute to work, so I try to make the best of it.
    - jasonkester 16y ago
      Sounds like a pretty sweet gig, actually. Long vacations and no commute. You're right. Health care is the tough one. Catastrophic Coverage will run an individual about $100/month, which is fine when you're young and healthy. But I don't want to think about what Blue Cross Blue Shield would want for full coverage on a family of 4. Given how much extra money you bring home consulting vs. salary (roughly 2x), you're fine while you're working. But keeping it all going when you're not might be a bit of an issue.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]