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I am running two software companies. Extremely busy and got to deal with lots of negativities (unhappy people, firing, project delays etc). Yet the financials a

I am running two software companies. Extremely busy and got to deal with lots of negativities (unhappy people, firing, project delays etc). Yet the financials are better than ever. Sometimes I wish I just had a simpler life. Being a woodmaker or a electrician. I sometimes despise the life of ambitious posh people. Hate the world of VCs, diners and rich fake parties. Taking a step back is hard. Lots of pressure from the outside.

dghughes 6y ago
>Sometimes I wish I just had a simpler life. Being a woodmaker or a electrician. On YouTube I discovered a channel of a cobbler called Bedo's Leatherworks. It's relaxing to watch I thought this is a calming thing to watch during these crazy times plus my dad is ill (not making for less stress! I'm literally cracking my own teeth). I thought what a great job it's working with your hands, artistic, and useful. https://www.youtube.com/c/BedosLeatherworksLLC https://www.youtube.com/c/BedosLeatherworksLLC
jakupovic 6y ago
What makes you not do what you think you want to do?
frankydp 6y ago
Software dev is not posh in 99.999999% of the planet. Only in SF where they sell robberbaron-ism as a product. There is nothing posh about cat videos and hate speech on mass. Leave the Valley, get a real company/job. The rest of the world does not operate like Rome.
saiya-jin 6y ago
Imagine yourself being 80. Weight on your good and bad life choices, now that they are done and set in stone with all the consequences. What would matter to you most? Clue - what others think about you now (or ever) won't matter a dime. What kind of lifestyle you project externally won't either. Life is damn too short, and it gets 'faster' as we get older. Another clue - most people when old end up regretting at least some parts of their lives. Only you can know what it means not ending up like one of them.
- crispyporkbites 6y ago
  Why is happiness at 80 more important than happiness at 20, 30 or 40? If anything it’s less important as you’re less likely to see 80 than any preceding year.
- orzig 6y ago
  Counter-anecdata : I’m nowhere near 80 but even looking back to college, having the respect of people I respected was/is deeply satisfying. As with most human motivators, there is the cheap version (fame across everyone) and the sustainable one (respect among true, trusted peers)
simonebrunozzi 6y ago
Sell the two companies, or at least one. Edit: looks like you might enjoy reading "How will you measure your life?". Tweet summary here [0] - I made it this morning [1]. [0]: https://twitter.com/booktweets6/status/1330600066176880641 https://twitter.com/booktweets6/status/1330600066176880641 [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25180473 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25180473
igotroot 6y ago
I went from a manual machinist, meaning working with lathes and mills from WWII, to a career in Cybersecurity. During that transition I was also a plumber. The 'simple life' jobs are also taxing, but just in different ways. Bosses yelling at you to get work done ASAP, union bullshit, and reletivly low pay (unless you own your own business). While there are some days I wish I was doing some head math and watching a lathe make cuts on a electric motor shaft, in the end I'm happy with where I ended up. Just posted this so you know that the grass isn't always greener 100% of the time!
- kqr2 6y ago
  Just curious, how did you make the career transition?
  - igotroot 6y ago
    It was a winding road, but it went like this: In school for welding while also working at the machine shop. Making ~10.20/hr machining parts to repair electric motors. I start thinking about my future a bit more as I was making money (lol @ me thinking 10.20/hr was money but I was 19 and working more than I ever did). I started thinking about the doomsday scenarios where if this machine shop closed down, what would I do? The world was going more toward CNC machining. While today there is a place for a manual machinist, what place will it have when I'm 50? This fact, alongside the fact I could make more at Arby's, led me to quit. I decided to give another trade a shot, which was plumbing. A family friend was a solo plumber and I inquired about being a helping hand. I enjoyed the work, but my boss wasn't exactly pleasant to work for. I got a decent pay raise in comparison to my last job, but exactly 0 vacation or benefits. In the beginning I was fine with this as he was 'doing me a favor' by showing me the ropes, but in the end it didn't work out. When that job was winding down, I decided to go back to school for computers. I built computers in my day and I knew my way around which led me to pick this 'trade' up next. I started applying for L1 help desk jobs and got in with this company doing internal IT. Very thankful I ended up here as it was NOT a call center. We fielded maybe 10 calls a day, sometimes we had as little as 2, so I had a lot of downtime to study up on the next role. I signed up for LinuxAcademy and grinded courses. LinuxAcademy has cloud servers, where I learned Linux on. The corporate security team caught that (oops), which is where I met them. Eventually they had an opening for a SecOps Analyst and now I'm here :).

dghughes 6y ago

>Sometimes I wish I just had a simpler life. Being a woodmaker or a electrician. On YouTube I discovered a channel of a cobbler called Bedo's Leatherworks. It's relaxing to watch I thought this is a calming thing to watch during these crazy times plus my dad is ill (not making for less stress! I'm literally cracking my own teeth). I thought what a great job it's working with your hands, artistic, and useful. https://www.youtube.com/c/BedosLeatherworksLLC https://www.youtube.com/c/BedosLeatherworksLLC

jakupovic 6y ago

What makes you not do what you think you want to do?

frankydp 6y ago

Software dev is not posh in 99.999999% of the planet. Only in SF where they sell robberbaron-ism as a product. There is nothing posh about cat videos and hate speech on mass. Leave the Valley, get a real company/job. The rest of the world does not operate like Rome.

saiya-jin 6y ago

Imagine yourself being 80. Weight on your good and bad life choices, now that they are done and set in stone with all the consequences. What would matter to you most? Clue - what others think about you now (or ever) won't matter a dime. What kind of lifestyle you project externally won't either. Life is damn too short, and it gets 'faster' as we get older. Another clue - most people when old end up regretting at least some parts of their lives. Only you can know what it means not ending up like one of them.

crispyporkbites 6y ago
Why is happiness at 80 more important than happiness at 20, 30 or 40? If anything it’s less important as you’re less likely to see 80 than any preceding year.
orzig 6y ago
Counter-anecdata : I’m nowhere near 80 but even looking back to college, having the respect of people I respected was/is deeply satisfying. As with most human motivators, there is the cheap version (fame across everyone) and the sustainable one (respect among true, trusted peers)

simonebrunozzi 6y ago

Sell the two companies, or at least one. Edit: looks like you might enjoy reading "How will you measure your life?". Tweet summary here [0] - I made it this morning [1]. [0]: https://twitter.com/booktweets6/status/1330600066176880641 https://twitter.com/booktweets6/status/1330600066176880641 [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25180473 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25180473

igotroot 6y ago

I went from a manual machinist, meaning working with lathes and mills from WWII, to a career in Cybersecurity. During that transition I was also a plumber. The 'simple life' jobs are also taxing, but just in different ways. Bosses yelling at you to get work done ASAP, union bullshit, and reletivly low pay (unless you own your own business). While there are some days I wish I was doing some head math and watching a lathe make cuts on a electric motor shaft, in the end I'm happy with where I ended up. Just posted this so you know that the grass isn't always greener 100% of the time!

kqr2 6y ago
Just curious, how did you make the career transition?
- igotroot 6y ago
  It was a winding road, but it went like this: In school for welding while also working at the machine shop. Making ~10.20/hr machining parts to repair electric motors. I start thinking about my future a bit more as I was making money (lol @ me thinking 10.20/hr was money but I was 19 and working more than I ever did). I started thinking about the doomsday scenarios where if this machine shop closed down, what would I do? The world was going more toward CNC machining. While today there is a place for a manual machinist, what place will it have when I'm 50? This fact, alongside the fact I could make more at Arby's, led me to quit. I decided to give another trade a shot, which was plumbing. A family friend was a solo plumber and I inquired about being a helping hand. I enjoyed the work, but my boss wasn't exactly pleasant to work for. I got a decent pay raise in comparison to my last job, but exactly 0 vacation or benefits. In the beginning I was fine with this as he was 'doing me a favor' by showing me the ropes, but in the end it didn't work out. When that job was winding down, I decided to go back to school for computers. I built computers in my day and I knew my way around which led me to pick this 'trade' up next. I started applying for L1 help desk jobs and got in with this company doing internal IT. Very thankful I ended up here as it was NOT a call center. We fielded maybe 10 calls a day, sometimes we had as little as 2, so I had a lot of downtime to study up on the next role. I signed up for LinuxAcademy and grinded courses. LinuxAcademy has cloud servers, where I learned Linux on. The corporate security team caught that (oops), which is where I met them. Eventually they had an opening for a SecOps Analyst and now I'm here :).