5 ms·

I always wonder how smart, driven people aren't able (willing?) to cope with these situations.

by pbreit 6y ago

bradlys 6y ago
Money isn’t usually enough. I walked away from a job paying more than $1m/yr (to be clear - I am not rich or financially independent, the stock is still illiquid atm and I live in a 400sqft in-law unit). You need satisfaction overall with your environment. I kept asking myself how much a year of my life was worth and it turns out - unless it’s fucking insane money ($10mil+ liquid) then I can’t suffer through something I disagree with or basically feel like I’m someone’s bitch. I think eventually to a person it feels like you’re living a dishonest life because you’re working on something you disagree with but you have to shove down those feelings to get paid. It grows resentment. But who knows, I’m really only speaking to my own experience.
- gassius 6y ago
  Unless we are talking about a job with inherently long term health risk and/or ilegal activity with prosecution risk I would be willing to put up a year or two in order to secure a life long financial independence. 2M USD is enough to confortable spend the rest of your life doing what you really want to do. But hey, maybe is me
  - knorker 6y ago
    Staff won't give you anywhere near a million per year in total comp. Not even before tax or living expenses. You'll be able to put away 100-200k a year on that at best, is my estimate. (This includes bonus and stock)
  - bradlys 6y ago
    Depends on where you want to live and the lifestyle you want. Personally for me, it’s not enough. I’d need $10mil+ to retire. Even then, I don’t want to retire. I’d prefer to keep learning and growing. I have goals of eventually running a large organization or doing my own startup. Also, again, you’re literally trading years of your life away.
    - gassius 6y ago
      Of course totally depends on location and lifestyle, but I guess that someone who is quitting a 1M/y is not really optimizing for a expensive lifestyle. In any case, there are a lot of places in EU and USA where you can have high quality of life with a warchest of 2M cash. And yeah lets clarify that I don't mean retiring when I said you can do what you want, and I was not thinking that you may not have any other income for the remainder of your life. For me is having the freedom to work on what interest you, with people that is interesting and not having to suffer any fools never again in order to make ends meet. We all trade time for money, I would just preffer the condensed version and be done with it.
- pbreit 6y ago
  I should have explained better: why are smart people so bad at navigating the workplace? Gebru’s email was insane.
  - fuzzfactor 6y ago
    >why are smart people so bad at navigating the workplace? Maybe the workplace just isn't made for them?
  - whoooooo123 6y ago
    Maybe they're not actually that smart? Or maybe it's about more than IQ?
  - pas 6y ago
    https://www.platformer.news/p/the-withering-email-that-got-an-ethical https://www.platformer.news/p/the-withering-email-that-got-a... this one? I'm not familiar with US (nor FAANG) workplace culture, could you please explain what's so insane about it and why?
    - pbreit 6y ago
      It's extremely poorly written and mostly nonsense.
      - pas 6y ago
        I agree it's poorly written - just like her twitter, and it even sounds nonsensical, but why is it nonsense? The basic point seems to be that she has been handled differently than others (discrimination), made to wait a lot; and that she has been handled a "final decision" without any explanation, which she tries to present as a big no-no and against any inclusion effort that Google officially virtue signals. Furthermore her point about how OKRs don't incentivize what officially is Google's policy (diversity, equity/egality, inclusion) seems like a solid point. Ironically Damore's memo tried to make the same "data driven" argument, and that made Google's blessed diversity team look pretty foolish, so he got fired because his style was also poor and nonsensical. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I always wonder how smart, driven people aren't able (willing?) to cope with these situations.

by pbreit 6y ago

I always wonder how smart, driven people aren't able (willing?) to cope with these situations.

Money isn’t usually enough. I walked away from a job paying more than $1m/yr (to be clear - I am not rich or financially independent, the stock is still illiquid atm and I live in a 400sqft in-law unit). You need satisfaction overall with your environment. I kept asking myself how much a year of my life was worth and it turns out - unless it’s fucking insane money ($10mil+ liquid) then I can’t suffer through something I disagree with or basically feel like I’m someone’s bitch. I think eventually to a person it feels like you’re living a dishonest life because you’re working on something you disagree with but you have to shove down those feelings to get paid. It grows resentment. But who knows, I’m really only speaking to my own experience.

gassius 6y ago
Unless we are talking about a job with inherently long term health risk and/or ilegal activity with prosecution risk I would be willing to put up a year or two in order to secure a life long financial independence. 2M USD is enough to confortable spend the rest of your life doing what you really want to do. But hey, maybe is me
- knorker 6y ago
  Staff won't give you anywhere near a million per year in total comp. Not even before tax or living expenses. You'll be able to put away 100-200k a year on that at best, is my estimate. (This includes bonus and stock)
- bradlys 6y ago
  Depends on where you want to live and the lifestyle you want. Personally for me, it’s not enough. I’d need $10mil+ to retire. Even then, I don’t want to retire. I’d prefer to keep learning and growing. I have goals of eventually running a large organization or doing my own startup. Also, again, you’re literally trading years of your life away.
  - gassius 6y ago
    Of course totally depends on location and lifestyle, but I guess that someone who is quitting a 1M/y is not really optimizing for a expensive lifestyle. In any case, there are a lot of places in EU and USA where you can have high quality of life with a warchest of 2M cash. And yeah lets clarify that I don't mean retiring when I said you can do what you want, and I was not thinking that you may not have any other income for the remainder of your life. For me is having the freedom to work on what interest you, with people that is interesting and not having to suffer any fools never again in order to make ends meet. We all trade time for money, I would just preffer the condensed version and be done with it.
pbreit 6y ago
I should have explained better: why are smart people so bad at navigating the workplace? Gebru’s email was insane.
- fuzzfactor 6y ago
  >why are smart people so bad at navigating the workplace? Maybe the workplace just isn't made for them?
- whoooooo123 6y ago
  Maybe they're not actually that smart? Or maybe it's about more than IQ?
- pas 6y ago
  https://www.platformer.news/p/the-withering-email-that-got-an-ethical https://www.platformer.news/p/the-withering-email-that-got-a... this one? I'm not familiar with US (nor FAANG) workplace culture, could you please explain what's so insane about it and why?
  - pbreit 6y ago
    It's extremely poorly written and mostly nonsense.
    - pas 6y ago
      I agree it's poorly written - just like her twitter, and it even sounds nonsensical, but why is it nonsense? The basic point seems to be that she has been handled differently than others (discrimination), made to wait a lot; and that she has been handled a "final decision" without any explanation, which she tries to present as a big no-no and against any inclusion effort that Google officially virtue signals. Furthermore her point about how OKRs don't incentivize what officially is Google's policy (diversity, equity/egality, inclusion) seems like a solid point. Ironically Damore's memo tried to make the same "data driven" argument, and that made Google's blessed diversity team look pretty foolish, so he got fired because his style was also poor and nonsensical. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯