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People look at me like I’m insane when I tell them I’m packing up and taking a year off. I’ve f’in had enough. And that’s me, the wife and our two kids- not qu
by amznbyebyebye 5y ago
People look at me like I’m insane when I tell them I’m packing up and taking a year off.
I’ve f’in had enough. And that’s me, the wife and our two kids- not quite school age. No I haven’t FIREd. No I’m probably passing up a raise and a promo (or maybe not). Super linear growth requires super linear decision making. You either follow the sheeple or decide enough is enough and make some drastic change. Im not getting these years back and for the life of me can’t understand those who say, I’m gonna work till I’m 55 and then I’m done.
Anyways HN fam- I’m already done.
Here’s to 2022
See y’all in Penang.
- balls187 5y agoWhy Penang?
- haihaibye 5y agoPenang has some of the best street food in the world.
- balls187 5y agoI'm aware, and I can eat my body weight in malaysian style satay, nasi lemak, roti chani, and muthrabak. But, eating that food for an entire year would get old quickly, especially for young kids who are (presumably) groomed on American food.
- thelittleone 5y agoDid the same but 1 year in Bali has now been 8. Couldn't be happier.
- mrkentutbabi 5y agoHow did you get the visa to stay in Bali for 8 years? Genuine question. What nationality are you?
- JCharante 5y agoIs it hard to stay there for that long? Most people just keep doing visa runs on 3 month tourist visas in SEA. The Bangkok visa run is a treasured pilgramage.
- weird-eye-issue 5y agoYou can't visa run in Thailand anymore, it's been like that for several years now and especially not recently with covid. Immigration won't let you in arbitrarily if they see you doing visa runs "too much". Too much is at their discretion so you can't rely on it
- JCharante 5y agoOh really? I must have not hit the limit before covid hit. I thought countries usually have a problem with stamping in and stamping out the entire length of your visa free stay and repeatedly doing it, but I didn't think they had an issue with visiting Thailand every 3 months for 1 or 2 days at a time.
- onlyrealcuzzo 5y agoYou only need 1Bn IDR (~$70k USD) for an investor visa. I would hope if you're planning to take an entire year off - you have AT LEAST $70k net wealth...
- passerby1 5y agoDo you need to actually pay/invest or just show that you own your 70k?
- onlyrealcuzzo 5y agohttps://visaagencybali.com/visa/investor-visa/ https://visaagencybali.com/visa/investor-visa/ You need to invest in a company - but IIUC you could just buy ~$70k shares of Indonesia Telecom (i.e.), live there for 3 years, collect dividends, and then cash out when you're done. Under normal conditions, I wouldn't want to invest ~$70k in some Indonesian large cap I know nothing about. But if I wanted to live in Bali for a year, this is a pretty easy way to do it...
- yeetaccount4 5y agoAhah. Went from majoring in math to killing trees. I get to wield what an in-law calls a “motor sword” every day. I feel gud.
- jsemrau 5y agoThat was my 1999. Left for Hawaii. Then CA, Berlin, Tokyo, Singapore. Goodspeed.
- JTBooth 5y agoI took off right before the pandemic. Now I'm living in Tokyo, engaged, and like my job. Doing weird shit rocks.
- nanocat 5y agoAmen!
- lobocinza 5y ago"Doing weird shit rocks!" I want this in a sticker.
- rixed 5y agoSurvivor bias?
- IggleSniggle 5y agoReally hard to know. My personal experience is that whenever I do weird shit, however, I've ended up in a better place? That is also itself a weird thing. Anyway, great comment, I just don't even know how to begin knowing the truth of this one without a personal belief based on lived experience. How would you even design an experiment to find the truth of this one?
- jsemrau 5y agoI guess everyone's journey is different.
- JTBooth 5y agoI don't think so. If you put some effort into your fallback plan, and choose your weird shit so that it's likely to work out, I think it can just be a good bet. And it's hard to imagine working up the energy to do it if you're really happy where you are, you know?
- taf2 5y agoI did a three day weekend in barselon- it was awesome I ported our windows app to Mac - 2004
- carpanddoem 5y agoCongratulations, hope you have a great time! I took an adult gap year, and it was one of the best decisions of my life. Life in an American suburb is a series of goalposts. Every few years, a new school. Then you go to college, find yourself, and discover that a career is more of the same: every few years, a new promotion/job/grant. When I realized that, I figured that my joints and back would be at least as ageist as my future employers, and quit. Having watched a lot of Top Gear in school, I bought a dirt bike, modified an old pickup into a mini-RV, and went on a tour of the US' forests and national parks. It was incredible. Exploring such an enormous and diverse area presents you with a lot of new perspectives. Of course, it was a terrible financial decision which I couldn't really afford, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat. As I enter my 30s and start to see my peers get seriously hurt by activities like skiing and climbing, I find myself scaling back my "see the whole world" ambitions. Maybe I played things too safe, but I'm definitely glad that I didn't stay in my rut. Anyways, it's nice to have a chance to contemplate your place in life and society while you're still spry enough to shurg off a few falls. Even my grandmother took an ill-advised teens-20s road trip across the iron curtain. A good walkabout should be a basic human right.
- nine_zeros 5y agoI am with you. So fkin done with work (aka management and coworkers) wasting my precious time on this planet - on pointless nitpicks and micromanaging standups. Typed from a hammock on a tropical beach.
- ignoramous 5y agoIf you're at a beach, on a hammock... put that phone down, son. (: The news.yc crowd may not be all too different from your managers and co-workers. They are but a similar people in a different setting.
- nine_zeros 5y agoOn a coffee tour, will get back to you later. Jk, its the freedom from having to be present that makes retirement worthwhile. I still love tech and I still want to blog, read and talk about tech. I just don't want to waste my life on bullshit meetings and work that is meant to impress some management.
- hnthrowaway0315 5y agoCongratulations bro. You have the gut to do this with a family. My wife is going to rip me open if I do something similar. Actually after second thought, work is probably more interesting than whatever residual life after it. I'll keep working.
- throwhauser 5y ago> My wife is going to rip me open if I do something similar. Yikes.
- toastal 5y agoI support this. I took 5–6 months off and moved to Thailand a few years back without a real plan other than the minimum to fulfill a student visa. I've done a lot of incidental travels renewing visa. Probably the best move I had made. ชีวิตชิวดี
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 5y agoMultiple mini retirements are where it's at. Enjoy your year off!
- jmspring 5y ago
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- asadlionpk 5y agoYou are likely smart and skilled enough to not ever die of hunger. Have faith and take the leap. Things work out, like they always do.
- devwastaken 5y agoIf you're U.S. based and plan to live in Penang, Malaysia, that is going to be quite rough if/when the children want an American education. Many would kill for u.s. citizenship because of quality of living, medical support, and a court system that is mostly workable if you have money. Of course, I'm assuming based on lack of information. I hope it works for you.
- pzo 5y agoI been in penang few times and even recently lived for a year [spend first one year of pandemic there] There are many expats there and very easy to make friends with locals - most people speak English. Quality of life per dollar is also much better. It's common to eat out 3 times per day outside - and don't havd to be rich or willing to burn lots of money - many locals eat outside because it's good and cheap - 2-3 dollars for good quality even vegan meal. Quality of medicine is also good and much much much cheaper than usa - actually many Indonesian fly to penang to get better quality medical service. Cost of living even with family it will be probsbly like 1/3 of typical expenses in western world. If you can work remotely to us or eu company and stay on business visa (mtep) or malaysia my second home visa (now unfortunately out of reach for most of people) them that's the best of 2 world.
- sriram_malhar 5y agoHave a wonderful time. Carpe annum.
- jodrellblank 5y ago> See y’all in Penang. Then what? I like to imagine that if there is a secret to human happiness it must be something which was available to all the ~hundred billion humans who lived before air travel, boats, cars, cheap foreign holidays. Life would be awfully unfair otherwise. https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/2019/08/14 https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/2019/08/14 I've also holidayed casually enough to know that me alone in a foreign city isn't as exciting as it seemed before leaving, and that the limitations are in me, not the city. ( https://youtu.be/724td2H87d8?t=224 https://youtu.be/724td2H87d8?t=224 )
- carpanddoem 5y agoThen you go back to work. There's nothing wrong with taking some time off to broaden your horizons every now and then. We might all benefit from a stipend to take a long leave for continuing education or travel every decade or so. Many innovations have sprung from the intersections of diverse cultures and fields of study.
- biinui 5y agoI stumbled upon the same line of thought. Many of the things we do nowadays to be happy were unavailable before — travel, buy, consume, etc. Does it mean humans long ago were less happy? Any chance you know any readings tackling this idea?
- freewilly1040 5y agoI’m on the tail end of a 3 month break, returning to work on Tuesday. I worried I would not have enough to do, but id gladly take 3 more months right now.