8 ms·

Self-employed, self-exhausted

84 points by furk 1y ago

AkashKaStudio 1y ago
The amount of em—dashes in there exhausted me lol
- plainOldText 1y ago
  We used to infer one’s mind from their writing. Nowadays? I’m surprised people are too lazy to even remove them dashes. Well, in fact it might actually be a good thing for one can spot when something was AI generated much easier. I feel like original writing is pretty much dead these days. We’re all best selling authors now.
  - sd9 1y ago
    This reads like original writing to me. Too creative for LLMs, at least based on my experience.
  - JKCalhoun 1y ago
    I've been (over) using em-dashes ever since I discovered them. I have no intention of changing. Curiously, I find in editing my dad's auto-biography that a certain generation went crazy over-inserting commas — wherever they think you might want to pause to take a breath or something. To my eye (ear?) the result is a staccato sentence. But the truth is I know nothing about grammar rules — I slept through sentence diagramming in elementary school.
  - PartiallyTyped 1y ago
    I used em-dashes before ChatGPT became a thing, I will keep using them.
- SethMurphy 1y ago
  I have started using —ahem— em dashes more regularly so people think I am as smart —well clever at least— as AI.
  - drooby 1y ago
    It's not just about using well placed em dashes — it's about creating a sense of awe and enlightenment.
    - JKCalhoun 1y ago
      I agree. I could drop using em-dashes. I feel though like the narrative feels broken up. It stops and starts too frequently.
  - robocat 1y ago
    I'd like to do a study whether there's a correlation between liking emdashes and disliking curly brace languages. I find emdashes hard to parse and I don't like them without extra spacing. The punctuation in English feels kinda sucky (and implicit variables suck) compared to some programming languages.
pelagicAustral 1y ago
How did this climbed to hard into the first position is out of my reach, truth is, without so much effort around me I feel like I've outdone myself in a dream, so powerful and clean, that I even shadow myself into irrelevance. /s This whole post is so self-serving and iconoclastic it kind of feels like satire, and if it was, it would be gold, but it's not.... I mean, I don't think it is... The post ends with a "read me or not, but if you want more of my genius, pay me", which I guess it's alright, since I would pay Carmack to write about Doom all day long, but some guy with dogs "curled" around it, writing about how hard it is to conceptualize his next "Sistine chapel"? GTFO
- JKCalhoun 1y ago
  > I would pay Carmack to write about Doom all day long That just shows that each of us have different tastes. You can keep yourself pretty busy if engaging in wondering how every post makes it to the front page of HN.
brabel 1y ago
I live in Sweden where taking 5 weeks off in the summer is the rule. Never got used to it, I take just 2 or 3 and leave the rest of mu vacations for the winter… but I almost never take the full 5 weeks and end up accumulating it over the years. I think I have over 12 weeks pending even after already having taken 3 weeks in July. I just get too bored and start coding anyway, so why not just work and get paid for doing it !
- zelphirkalt 1y ago
  If your work projects are as interesting as your free time projects, I congratulate you to having a great job.
- apples_oranges 1y ago
  Save it up for when you have kids ;)
- anonzzzies 1y ago
  From the Netherlands and not having had to work since I sold my first company at 25 (over 25 years ago), I cannot do more than a week vacation before getting annoyed and bored. I like building stuff: programming, welding, soldering, guitar playing, cooking. But I have no patience for doing one thing: normally I code myself and vibe with multiple claude codes on the boil, my electric guitar is on my lap, there is either YouTube presentations from meetups/events or science podcasts on in the background and then there is cooking and soldering when I happen to get up from the desk. Or I go for a run or meet up with friends. When my friends tell me about their vacation, I fall asleep listening to it, let alone having to live through it. It is a Me thing and nothing wrong with them or me and luckily my wife is even worse, so we work almost nonstop generally. Never makes us exhausted though; quite the opposite.
  - hattmall 1y ago
    "Working" but not having to worry about money certainly doesn't sound very exhausting.
    - 1y ago
safety1st 1y ago
> I used to think that once I made it ... stashed away some savings to weather a health crisis or creative drought ... I’d finally feel free to slow down ... Instead, accomplishment—and the sense of “arrival” I imagined would come with it—proved elusive. I mean, yes? You do indeed need an emergency fund, and the theory, which various retirement vehicles are designed to support, is you set up your affairs to permanently slow down at around 65. Before that is outside of the reach of most people, but if you want to do it sooner, the way is straightforward: increase your savings rate. It's math and economics... once you don't need the income anymore, you get to slow down, until then, you manage your stress and anxiety as best as you can. I am also self employed, fortunate enough to be in the technology profession where we're relatively well paid - I hit the "I could stop at 65" number a few years ago and the way I see it every year I put in at this point, is just bring that number down lower. At some point my age and that number will meet in the middle.
- JKCalhoun 1y ago
  > At some point my age and that number will meet in the middle. Hopefully. The author mentions: "The leukemia diagnosis and relapses certainly intensified the urgency I feel around work…"
  - safety1st 1y ago
    Ouch, I feel terrible for having missed that. Well for the rest of us...
    - esseph 1y ago
      ... we might pop up with cancer tomorrow under a routine checkup.
      - safety1st 1y ago
        Prior to an actual diagnosis, an excess of this type of fear is irrational. You have two powerful tools at your disposal. #1, most people who take care of their bodies will live long and healthy lives. So the first tool is just to take care of yourself through diet and exercise and watch your risk of deadly diseases plummet. #2, insurance exists and the medical field is extraordinarily effective. Rich people beat all kinds of conditions. Worried your insurance isn't good enough? Buy more. Keep making more money, and keep buying more insurance. Insurance is tool #2. This may sound harsh but I really don't know a lot of people, in America or elsewhere, who take care of their body, have a Cadillac fantastic insurance plan, and are worried about illness destroying their life. People who are already unhealthy, on the other hand, or don't have great insurance, are worried about this constantly. Now it's unfortunate that society can't guarantee that optimistic state of mind and health for everyone but until it can, it's diet, exercise, and more income that you funnel into more insurance, for you and your family that are the solutions. After a diagnosis these tools, especially #2, start becoming less effective because now you've got a pre-existing condition and in particular you're kind of stuck with whatever insurance you had when it happened. So the urgent message here is to get on this stuff now, and sleep better tomorrow (and live longer) because you did it.
Havoc 1y ago
So much fluff Thank goodness for LLMs >The author's core message is about breaking free from a lifelong pattern of tying self-worth to constant productivity and output, realizing that true creativity and well-being require intentional rest and "revery" (contemplation/dreaming), rather than relentless striving.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- uludag 1y ago
  The author is literally an artist though. What you call fluff may be a worthwhile artistic and emotional expression. If someone stopped at this summary they would have missed out on a nice poem by Emily Dickinson for example. Oh wait, let me summarize it: > The poem describes how a prairie can be made using clover, a bee, and imagination. there, that's better. no more fluff.
  - _luiza_ 1y ago
    Oh, this is lovely! It's rare that I see such a clear cut argument for how _not_ to use llms. People do argue for and against, but usually less effectively than what you did here. Kudos to clarity!
- mre 1y ago
  As a counterpoint, I quite enjoyed the writing style. Not everything has to be summarized. To me, it was more about the human experience.
- jrnkntl 1y ago
  https://maalvika.substack.com/p/compression-culture-is-making-you https://maalvika.substack.com/p/compression-culture-is-makin...
- thom 1y ago
  You're born, you live, you die. There, I have freed you from the rest of this mortal coil.
slyfox125 1y ago
Life isn't inherently easy - or fair. For most, it is much easier today because of the efforts of those who came before us. We are lucky for those efforts because they afford us moderation and comfort that are not guaranteed. To expect results without hard work is presumptuous and pretentious, of which this author has in spades.
- dakiol 1y ago
  It’s a bit trickier than that imho because Hard work doesn’t guarantee results either. And since, as you said, life isn’t fair, we are faced to… randomness. True story, working hard/intelligently does buy us some tickets to a decent life, but it’s not 100% jackpot. I know plenty of people that worked hard, they studied things that are not in demand, and so they are work in whatever they can with shitty salaries. I worked as hard as them, but studied (by luck I guess) something with demand (software engineering), and so I can afford some more niceties in life. And I know people who didn’t work as hard as others, and live a better life than many. So, it’s more complicated than “work hard”.
- PartiallyTyped 1y ago
  There’s plenty of productivity to afford all of us housing, utilities, food, and healthcare. The only real reason we don’t do that is because we take hard work as a virtue, it’s not; ignore the effects of luck, the capacity for hard work is derived by luck; and like to imagine ourselves being rich one day and think that hard work is enough. Homelessness is not a bug, it’s a feature, and so is every other aspect of society that directly or otherwise forces us plebs to be obedient cogs in the wheel unless! Great things demand hard work, there is nothing great about basic needs.
- esseph 1y ago
  Also the sacrifices of those before us. Weekends, 8 hour work day, paid time off, etc.
reactordev 1y ago
This is why I highly suggest every once in a while go on a cruise. Specifically a cruise. You’re trapped on the boat. Forced to face the moment, forced to let it go, and party until you get back to reality. Positive vibes where you have no choice but to shed the stress. It’s worth it. Even a cruise to no where for 5 days.
- evrimoztamur 1y ago
  I don't think you have to waste your money or time on a cruise. Just being on a boat does it, in fact a blow-up boat for three people (for a good friend and cooler bag with snacks and drinks) will completely detach you from the realities of land life.
  - reactordev 1y ago
    That may be true. I just know what worked for me. I lack a lake or blow up boat to try but I guess that’s why so many people like paddleboarding?
- cindyllm 1y ago
  [dead]
- yukinon 1y ago
  Thank you for this, what a great perspective! I've never been on a cruise because I always figured "but what is there to do?". But you're right, that's the point. I might actually book one now.
  - reactordev 1y ago
    Just remember, you’re just as much a stranger to them as they are to you. Just make sure you buy the drink package because you don’t want to be paying per pour. I have some wonderful memories of my trip.
- ornornor 1y ago
  There may be other ways to experience this. Cruise ships are some of the most polluting way to experience a vacation there is. It’s also not for everyone, like an all inclusive vacation.
roncesvalles 1y ago
Something dystopian about regarding rest as something that just helps you work harder later.
yapyap 1y ago
“ I used to think that once I made it I’d finally feel free” How you do one thing is how you do everything and once the baseline shifts to your new normal (most likely after a few weeks or months) you will feel the same as you did on your old baseline before the big change. This is the human condition, you have to figure out how to improve your baseline to improve life. ((or at least, that has been my experience living life))

84 points by furk 1y ago

AkashKaStudio 1y ago

The amount of em—dashes in there exhausted me lol

plainOldText 1y ago
We used to infer one’s mind from their writing. Nowadays? I’m surprised people are too lazy to even remove them dashes. Well, in fact it might actually be a good thing for one can spot when something was AI generated much easier. I feel like original writing is pretty much dead these days. We’re all best selling authors now.
- sd9 1y ago
  This reads like original writing to me. Too creative for LLMs, at least based on my experience.
- JKCalhoun 1y ago
  I've been (over) using em-dashes ever since I discovered them. I have no intention of changing. Curiously, I find in editing my dad's auto-biography that a certain generation went crazy over-inserting commas — wherever they think you might want to pause to take a breath or something. To my eye (ear?) the result is a staccato sentence. But the truth is I know nothing about grammar rules — I slept through sentence diagramming in elementary school.
- PartiallyTyped 1y ago
  I used em-dashes before ChatGPT became a thing, I will keep using them.
SethMurphy 1y ago
I have started using —ahem— em dashes more regularly so people think I am as smart —well clever at least— as AI.
- drooby 1y ago
  It's not just about using well placed em dashes — it's about creating a sense of awe and enlightenment.
  - JKCalhoun 1y ago
    I agree. I could drop using em-dashes. I feel though like the narrative feels broken up. It stops and starts too frequently.
- robocat 1y ago
  I'd like to do a study whether there's a correlation between liking emdashes and disliking curly brace languages. I find emdashes hard to parse and I don't like them without extra spacing. The punctuation in English feels kinda sucky (and implicit variables suck) compared to some programming languages.

pelagicAustral 1y ago

How did this climbed to hard into the first position is out of my reach, truth is, without so much effort around me I feel like I've outdone myself in a dream, so powerful and clean, that I even shadow myself into irrelevance. /s This whole post is so self-serving and iconoclastic it kind of feels like satire, and if it was, it would be gold, but it's not.... I mean, I don't think it is... The post ends with a "read me or not, but if you want more of my genius, pay me", which I guess it's alright, since I would pay Carmack to write about Doom all day long, but some guy with dogs "curled" around it, writing about how hard it is to conceptualize his next "Sistine chapel"? GTFO

JKCalhoun 1y ago
> I would pay Carmack to write about Doom all day long That just shows that each of us have different tastes. You can keep yourself pretty busy if engaging in wondering how every post makes it to the front page of HN.

brabel 1y ago

I live in Sweden where taking 5 weeks off in the summer is the rule. Never got used to it, I take just 2 or 3 and leave the rest of mu vacations for the winter… but I almost never take the full 5 weeks and end up accumulating it over the years. I think I have over 12 weeks pending even after already having taken 3 weeks in July. I just get too bored and start coding anyway, so why not just work and get paid for doing it !

zelphirkalt 1y ago
If your work projects are as interesting as your free time projects, I congratulate you to having a great job.
apples_oranges 1y ago
Save it up for when you have kids ;)
anonzzzies 1y ago
From the Netherlands and not having had to work since I sold my first company at 25 (over 25 years ago), I cannot do more than a week vacation before getting annoyed and bored. I like building stuff: programming, welding, soldering, guitar playing, cooking. But I have no patience for doing one thing: normally I code myself and vibe with multiple claude codes on the boil, my electric guitar is on my lap, there is either YouTube presentations from meetups/events or science podcasts on in the background and then there is cooking and soldering when I happen to get up from the desk. Or I go for a run or meet up with friends. When my friends tell me about their vacation, I fall asleep listening to it, let alone having to live through it. It is a Me thing and nothing wrong with them or me and luckily my wife is even worse, so we work almost nonstop generally. Never makes us exhausted though; quite the opposite.
- hattmall 1y ago
  "Working" but not having to worry about money certainly doesn't sound very exhausting.
  - 1y ago

safety1st 1y ago

> I used to think that once I made it ... stashed away some savings to weather a health crisis or creative drought ... I’d finally feel free to slow down ... Instead, accomplishment—and the sense of “arrival” I imagined would come with it—proved elusive. I mean, yes? You do indeed need an emergency fund, and the theory, which various retirement vehicles are designed to support, is you set up your affairs to permanently slow down at around 65. Before that is outside of the reach of most people, but if you want to do it sooner, the way is straightforward: increase your savings rate. It's math and economics... once you don't need the income anymore, you get to slow down, until then, you manage your stress and anxiety as best as you can. I am also self employed, fortunate enough to be in the technology profession where we're relatively well paid - I hit the "I could stop at 65" number a few years ago and the way I see it every year I put in at this point, is just bring that number down lower. At some point my age and that number will meet in the middle.

JKCalhoun 1y ago
> At some point my age and that number will meet in the middle. Hopefully. The author mentions: "The leukemia diagnosis and relapses certainly intensified the urgency I feel around work…"
- safety1st 1y ago
  Ouch, I feel terrible for having missed that. Well for the rest of us...
  - esseph 1y ago
    ... we might pop up with cancer tomorrow under a routine checkup.
    - safety1st 1y ago
      Prior to an actual diagnosis, an excess of this type of fear is irrational. You have two powerful tools at your disposal. #1, most people who take care of their bodies will live long and healthy lives. So the first tool is just to take care of yourself through diet and exercise and watch your risk of deadly diseases plummet. #2, insurance exists and the medical field is extraordinarily effective. Rich people beat all kinds of conditions. Worried your insurance isn't good enough? Buy more. Keep making more money, and keep buying more insurance. Insurance is tool #2. This may sound harsh but I really don't know a lot of people, in America or elsewhere, who take care of their body, have a Cadillac fantastic insurance plan, and are worried about illness destroying their life. People who are already unhealthy, on the other hand, or don't have great insurance, are worried about this constantly. Now it's unfortunate that society can't guarantee that optimistic state of mind and health for everyone but until it can, it's diet, exercise, and more income that you funnel into more insurance, for you and your family that are the solutions. After a diagnosis these tools, especially #2, start becoming less effective because now you've got a pre-existing condition and in particular you're kind of stuck with whatever insurance you had when it happened. So the urgent message here is to get on this stuff now, and sleep better tomorrow (and live longer) because you did it.

Havoc 1y ago

So much fluff Thank goodness for LLMs >The author's core message is about breaking free from a lifelong pattern of tying self-worth to constant productivity and output, realizing that true creativity and well-being require intentional rest and "revery" (contemplation/dreaming), rather than relentless striving.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
uludag 1y ago
The author is literally an artist though. What you call fluff may be a worthwhile artistic and emotional expression. If someone stopped at this summary they would have missed out on a nice poem by Emily Dickinson for example. Oh wait, let me summarize it: > The poem describes how a prairie can be made using clover, a bee, and imagination. there, that's better. no more fluff.
- _luiza_ 1y ago
  Oh, this is lovely! It's rare that I see such a clear cut argument for how _not_ to use llms. People do argue for and against, but usually less effectively than what you did here. Kudos to clarity!
mre 1y ago
As a counterpoint, I quite enjoyed the writing style. Not everything has to be summarized. To me, it was more about the human experience.
jrnkntl 1y ago
https://maalvika.substack.com/p/compression-culture-is-making-you https://maalvika.substack.com/p/compression-culture-is-makin...
thom 1y ago
You're born, you live, you die. There, I have freed you from the rest of this mortal coil.

slyfox125 1y ago

Life isn't inherently easy - or fair. For most, it is much easier today because of the efforts of those who came before us. We are lucky for those efforts because they afford us moderation and comfort that are not guaranteed. To expect results without hard work is presumptuous and pretentious, of which this author has in spades.

dakiol 1y ago
It’s a bit trickier than that imho because Hard work doesn’t guarantee results either. And since, as you said, life isn’t fair, we are faced to… randomness. True story, working hard/intelligently does buy us some tickets to a decent life, but it’s not 100% jackpot. I know plenty of people that worked hard, they studied things that are not in demand, and so they are work in whatever they can with shitty salaries. I worked as hard as them, but studied (by luck I guess) something with demand (software engineering), and so I can afford some more niceties in life. And I know people who didn’t work as hard as others, and live a better life than many. So, it’s more complicated than “work hard”.
PartiallyTyped 1y ago
There’s plenty of productivity to afford all of us housing, utilities, food, and healthcare. The only real reason we don’t do that is because we take hard work as a virtue, it’s not; ignore the effects of luck, the capacity for hard work is derived by luck; and like to imagine ourselves being rich one day and think that hard work is enough. Homelessness is not a bug, it’s a feature, and so is every other aspect of society that directly or otherwise forces us plebs to be obedient cogs in the wheel unless! Great things demand hard work, there is nothing great about basic needs.
esseph 1y ago
Also the sacrifices of those before us. Weekends, 8 hour work day, paid time off, etc.

reactordev 1y ago

This is why I highly suggest every once in a while go on a cruise. Specifically a cruise. You’re trapped on the boat. Forced to face the moment, forced to let it go, and party until you get back to reality. Positive vibes where you have no choice but to shed the stress. It’s worth it. Even a cruise to no where for 5 days.

evrimoztamur 1y ago
I don't think you have to waste your money or time on a cruise. Just being on a boat does it, in fact a blow-up boat for three people (for a good friend and cooler bag with snacks and drinks) will completely detach you from the realities of land life.
- reactordev 1y ago
  That may be true. I just know what worked for me. I lack a lake or blow up boat to try but I guess that’s why so many people like paddleboarding?
cindyllm 1y ago
[dead]
yukinon 1y ago
Thank you for this, what a great perspective! I've never been on a cruise because I always figured "but what is there to do?". But you're right, that's the point. I might actually book one now.
- reactordev 1y ago
  Just remember, you’re just as much a stranger to them as they are to you. Just make sure you buy the drink package because you don’t want to be paying per pour. I have some wonderful memories of my trip.
ornornor 1y ago
There may be other ways to experience this. Cruise ships are some of the most polluting way to experience a vacation there is. It’s also not for everyone, like an all inclusive vacation.

roncesvalles 1y ago

Something dystopian about regarding rest as something that just helps you work harder later.

yapyap 1y ago

“ I used to think that once I made it I’d finally feel free” How you do one thing is how you do everything and once the baseline shifts to your new normal (most likely after a few weeks or months) you will feel the same as you did on your old baseline before the big change. This is the human condition, you have to figure out how to improve your baseline to improve life. ((or at least, that has been my experience living life))