4 ms·

The whole thing seemed weirdly condescending towards people with normal working and spending habits, especially because it's not obvious to me what was so great

The whole thing seemed weirdly condescending towards people with normal working and spending habits, especially because it's not obvious to me what was so great about what the author was doing. The dude hung out for a few years, failed to become a writer, and did some travel, bored his partner to tears, and ... "sucked down an awful lot of media — movies, video games, books", then learned the shit that normal people already know (that unexpected expensive things happens in life). "To me, these people on their exercise machines were standing still — nothing was happening in their lives". Um, ok. One of the richest and busiest people I have ever met - like serious 0.1%-percenter rich - is always off hiking in Papua New Guinea and spending shit-tons of money getting wells dug in crappy areas and fighting dysentery and improving the lot of young girls by funding schools and so on. If that person gave me shit for my materialistic lifestyle it'd be one thing. I also know plenty of broke people who do incredibly righteous and interesting stuff, and I'd happily cop the same line from them. This bozo? Not so much. It's like Holden Caulfield, but middle aged. He barely mentions anything outside himself aside from his partners, old and new (aside from the vague genuflection to CO2 as a justification for his lifestyle, which sits rather poorly with "A trip to Hawaii. Another to Portugal and France" if he's aiming for secular sainthood over an allegedly low-emission lifestyle). In a shocking development, life spent as a bizarrely young version of one of those old retired people who doesn't do anything beyond travel and putter around isn't that great.

mratzloff 6y ago
Calling someone who has made himself remarkably vulnerable and open a "bozo" because he doesn't have the same values or life experiences as you do is unkind and uncharitable. We all experience things in our own time and our own way, and while I have my own thoughts about his experiences and areas that he might examine more closely, I'm also not revealing personal details of my own life for public examination.
- glangdale 6y ago
  I called him a bozo not because we don't share values, but because: (a) he doesn't seem to have any particularly profound values aside from "avoid the discomfort of working" and "it's nice to travel", and (b) he devoted large amounts of his post to slag off most of the rest of the world (including his ex-wife - and there's of course even more to read, if you're a masochist) in astonishingly adolescent terms. If you're looking for "unkind and uncharitable" takes, you might try rereading the article.
- HappyTypist 6y ago
  When the subject of your blog post is about your personal life experience, I think that opens you up for public examination. It's not like GP is going around critiquing random HN commentators, or even random public figures.
mettamage 6y ago
You're leaving out that he mentioned that a lot of his friends weren't really into their work and used shopping as a way to alleviate that form of suffering, at least that's what he seems to believe. Maybe I read too much into that part, I've certainly seen it with some of my friends. Some of my friends hate their job, other friends of mine are okay with their job. In any case, it isn't hard to imagine a big group of his friends being unhappy with their job. After having read this, I kind of come to the realization that some serious research needs to be done to the psychological state of people in general and working. The results are all over the place [1]. For example, Pew Research Center seems to claim that Americans as a whole are pretty satisfied with their jobs [2], whereas an article about a Gallup poll claims that 85% isn't [3]. [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=statistics+us+people+unhappy+with+job&oq=statistics+us+people+unhappy+with+job&aqs=chrome..69i57.5296j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 https://www.google.com/search?q=statistics+us+people+unhappy... [2] https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2016/10/06/3-how-americans-view-their-jobs/ https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2016/10/06/3-how-a... [3] https://www.staffsquared.com/blog/why-85-of-people-hate-their-jobs/#:~:text=A%20global%20poll%20conducted%20by,are%20unhappy%20in%20their%20jobs https://www.staffsquared.com/blog/why-85-of-people-hate-thei....
- glangdale 6y ago
  The question of whether people say they like their jobs is, frankly, moot. As the Hungarian economist used to say, when asked "how are you?", "compared to what"? More important to this discussion is whether they would be happier if they could instantly retire, and whether this happiness would last. People like to complain about their jobs, but a lot of retirees subsequently complain about being bored.
- glangdale 6y ago
  Also, I wouldn't read too much into his commentary about other people. By a strange coincidence, he seemed surrounded by cardboard cutouts, designed to prove him right about things. If you were ever curious about the opinions of a Holden Caulfield who didn't really grow up, but worked in tech for 18 years, you could find a lot of answers on his blog. His blog is morbidly fascinating. His previous post is a long, very detailed assessment of the prospect of Trump ending Obamacare - couched 100% in terms of what it means for him and people exactly like him. Then there was a huge post doing amateur psychoanalysis of his ex, with a heaping helping of Myers-Briggs types and (I kind you not) the Houses from Harry Potter. That's as far as I got. Would love to hear his ex's version of all this... One can only wonder what the literary world has lost, given that he abandoned the project of being a writer.

mratzloff 6y ago

Calling someone who has made himself remarkably vulnerable and open a "bozo" because he doesn't have the same values or life experiences as you do is unkind and uncharitable. We all experience things in our own time and our own way, and while I have my own thoughts about his experiences and areas that he might examine more closely, I'm also not revealing personal details of my own life for public examination.

glangdale 6y ago
I called him a bozo not because we don't share values, but because: (a) he doesn't seem to have any particularly profound values aside from "avoid the discomfort of working" and "it's nice to travel", and (b) he devoted large amounts of his post to slag off most of the rest of the world (including his ex-wife - and there's of course even more to read, if you're a masochist) in astonishingly adolescent terms. If you're looking for "unkind and uncharitable" takes, you might try rereading the article.
HappyTypist 6y ago
When the subject of your blog post is about your personal life experience, I think that opens you up for public examination. It's not like GP is going around critiquing random HN commentators, or even random public figures.

mettamage 6y ago

You're leaving out that he mentioned that a lot of his friends weren't really into their work and used shopping as a way to alleviate that form of suffering, at least that's what he seems to believe. Maybe I read too much into that part, I've certainly seen it with some of my friends. Some of my friends hate their job, other friends of mine are okay with their job. In any case, it isn't hard to imagine a big group of his friends being unhappy with their job. After having read this, I kind of come to the realization that some serious research needs to be done to the psychological state of people in general and working. The results are all over the place [1]. For example, Pew Research Center seems to claim that Americans as a whole are pretty satisfied with their jobs [2], whereas an article about a Gallup poll claims that 85% isn't [3]. [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=statistics+us+people+unhappy+with+job&oq=statistics+us+people+unhappy+with+job&aqs=chrome..69i57.5296j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 https://www.google.com/search?q=statistics+us+people+unhappy... [2] https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2016/10/06/3-how-americans-view-their-jobs/ https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2016/10/06/3-how-a... [3] https://www.staffsquared.com/blog/why-85-of-people-hate-their-jobs/#:~:text=A%20global%20poll%20conducted%20by,are%20unhappy%20in%20their%20jobs https://www.staffsquared.com/blog/why-85-of-people-hate-thei....

glangdale 6y ago
The question of whether people say they like their jobs is, frankly, moot. As the Hungarian economist used to say, when asked "how are you?", "compared to what"? More important to this discussion is whether they would be happier if they could instantly retire, and whether this happiness would last. People like to complain about their jobs, but a lot of retirees subsequently complain about being bored.
glangdale 6y ago
Also, I wouldn't read too much into his commentary about other people. By a strange coincidence, he seemed surrounded by cardboard cutouts, designed to prove him right about things. If you were ever curious about the opinions of a Holden Caulfield who didn't really grow up, but worked in tech for 18 years, you could find a lot of answers on his blog. His blog is morbidly fascinating. His previous post is a long, very detailed assessment of the prospect of Trump ending Obamacare - couched 100% in terms of what it means for him and people exactly like him. Then there was a huge post doing amateur psychoanalysis of his ex, with a heaping helping of Myers-Briggs types and (I kind you not) the Houses from Harry Potter. That's as far as I got. Would love to hear his ex's version of all this... One can only wonder what the literary world has lost, given that he abandoned the project of being a writer.