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This is such an interesting thread and I feel I should share my story since it's on the other end of the spectrum. I had a poor relationship with work about a
by brainless 3y ago
This is such an interesting thread and I feel I should share my story since it's on the other end of the spectrum.
I had a poor relationship with work about a decade ago. I struggled with very bad health, both physical and mental. I went through a slow journey of recovery that made me unplug from work a lot. I traveled quite a bit, cheap backpacking. I invested in friendships, good food, and very simple life.
In the last couple years I have moved to a village in eastern Himalayas. I gained my anchor: nature. I started a co-living hostel here. I started working in software again but I have no expectations of a traditional career. My passion came back slowly. I have been able to invest in learning new languages, create passion projects, do daily physical chores of running a nomad space.
I have even started learning drums. I have kept investing in people, learning how to build bonds. I also feed animals around me daily. Now I have come around to finally focus on software work full-time again. I'm building a product, but without big financial expectations. I realise this isn't standard, but: software product is about impact to me, not about becoming rich. And I'm deeply content with this.
I have been inspired a lot by Pieter Levels, the founder of nomadlist and have even connected on how I wanted to build things like him. For me, I feel I'm here now since building is not about making tons of money to me. I haven't had as much fun writing code daily as in the last couple years. And I'm 40 years old. Hope it helps.
- brainless 3y agoI'm sorry, as I'm typing on mobile, my reply isn't the most structured. I want to add an important thing: since I unplugged from the money expectations in the last few years, I have been able to simply do nothing whenever I wanted to. Like literally just sit and stare. Or maybe play DotA 2. Hours of games... I have a privilege, I don't have much financial liability so I can unplug easily. But this is what allowed me to heal.
- s3micolon0 3y agoThank you for your response. I think I have been in a similar situation through a lot of ups and downs. And finally I am accepting simplicity. I am 26, software engineer. Typical 9 to 5 tech job. I would like to get to a stage where I am financially independent so that I can a. Read more books b. Build things that I care about. Would love to connect with you to know more insights on how to reach there.
- granshaw 3y agoBingo, exactly per my thoughts here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38986460 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38986460