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Dude, quit your job, work at a coffee shop This is bad advice.
by mynameishere 18y ago
Dude, quit your job, work at a coffee shop
This is bad advice.
- aaronblohowiak 18y agoDisagreement is not refutation.
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- astrec 18y agoSure. But Dude, quit your job, work at a coffee shop, and build things because you want to build them. is stellar advice. Seriously. The sabbatical is the instrument of champions.
- mynameishere 18y agoNo, it's bad advice. Without knowing a lot more about this guy, you can't just say, "quit your job" just because it sounds romantic. It's cheap advice. I notice that every time someone complains about his job the advice coming from the internet is always the same, "Quit". The world doesn't work that way for 99 percent of the population. Decent jobs are no one's birthright, and the poster may be an ordinary, mediocre person who will never make a marketable app. If he's capable of great things, he's not going to need prodding from Mr. Anonymous. In the meantime, keep your job and do what you can after hours. If you get a good idea and a year's worth of savings, then maybe think of quitting... http://www.theonion.com/content/node/39174 http://www.theonion.com/content/node/39174
- sutro 18y agoGreat link. Should be required reading for everyone on HN.
- astrec 18y agoThe purpose of a sabbatical need not be to create a marketable app, nor perform any great deed. In the corporate world it is literally a career break.
- wynand 18y agoForcing someone to do a job he hates is no-one's birthright either. We see "quit" everywhere we look because too many people are afraid to rock the boat, but wish they had the courage to do so. Quitting means nothing in itself. It is a vice when you back out of reaching good things because you lack the courage to do what is necessary. It is a virtue when used to eject soul-destroying things from your life. There is no virtue in voluntary suffering. There is no virtue in staying in a horrible job (I'm ignoring the complexities of having dependents).
- hugh 18y agoI would say that: Dude, quit your job, work at a coffee shop, and build things because you want to build them. is good advice only in response to I'm bored with my job AND I have an idea I really really want to work on. Here's the idea: [insert non-bad idea here] but it's not very good advice in response to I'm bored with my job and I'd kinda like to work on something different, dunno what though
- giles_bowkett 18y agoIt worked for me. I kinda wanted to work on something different, didn't know what though, and found out what when I stopped working on the stuff I didn't want to work on. I believe you've got it exactly backwards. The advice comes from exactly the experience this person describes, and the conditions which you think would make my advice better may actually worsen it. If you know exactly what you want to build, you don't need the open schedule factor, as you can scope it and schedule it around what you're already doing, or timebox the project between school years or between jobs. It's when you don't know what to do next that exploring different options pays off.
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- Tichy 18y agoWhy? I regret never having worked at a coffee shop. Now I am over 30 it doesn't feel so appropriate anymore, and I am spoiled by the IT money. But sometimes I still feel like just working in a coffee shop. Only for a while of course, the money just isn't good enough. But if it leaves you with enough energy to code on the side, it might be OK. Also, the experience might come in handy if you ever want to open your own cafe later in life...
- wynand 18y agoWhy? If kamme heeds the advice without thinking, it would be bad. But not because working in a coffee shop is bad. A mini breakdown caused by soul-grating work convinced me to stop wasting my life. Not everyone needs the same amount of money and security to be happy.