This place gets that ways some times. I like reading the comments here, as there are a lot of insightful comments that I often learn more from than the article itself.
Though sometimes it feels that if you are not working at one of the FAANGs making $400k/year that you are a total loser.
Though sometimes it feels that if you are not working at one of the FAANGs making $400k/year that you are a total loser.
That's the socially acceptable thing to brag about, but it's absolutely not "everyone" here. A lot of people downplay it if they don't fit that narrative.
But it's kind of a skin deep thing. HN is vastly more diverse than that.
Of course it is not everyone, but it is a reoccurring theme. Especially in threads that discuss working at a start up which is a fair number of the threads around here. Likely it is just a very vocal minority, but still it is annoying.
People working at a startup are defacto not working at a FAANG company.
It's a "vocal minority" because this is the virtual water cooler for Y Combinator. They aren't even trying to brag in such cases. They are just trying to make their life work.
I feel this way too. I have a colleague who graduated a semester or two after I did. He currently makes a bit more money than I do, and every so often, I wonder if I'm doing it right.
Then I consider the conversations that we have. He's always having to learn something new (not exploratory learn, but forced to learn due to someone with clout shoehorning some ill-fitting tech into the project) or rewrite a steaming pile of crap left by someone who thought they had all the answers. He works with greener tools and tech stacks, and sometimes he gets to write kick ass proofs-of-concept. Yet he always feels like it's time to look for another job after about a year.
I have a stable job where I'm appreciated. It's not perfect. I absolutely have my complaints, but I know that a fair share of those complaints are shallow gripes. My tech stack is a bit more mature, but it's modern enough that I can keep pace in discussion. I put in my 40 hours, and I'm done. I put in time for vacation, and management just says, "Alright, have fun."
When I stop to think about our ever diverging career paths, I always realize that his career is not the type that I want.
Well here's a thought that might help (and I swear I'm not doing the same thing they're pointing out in the article, because as you'll see, it really isn't even particularly positive, hahaha):
To the extent each of those companies is working against the public interest (which you can decide for yourself or debate with someone), their employees are all traitors against the people. And buying a traitor always costs a lot of money. Even Judas got 30 pieces of silver. (And even if that story is a work of fiction, that detail is still a masterful touch, no?)
So maybe you have less money, but maybe you're also slightly less fucked-up inside, less cut-off from yourself, less prone to attack people for trivial reasons, and less plagued by thought patterns cluttered with convoluted self-justifications. Think about it and... [silly comment about anticipated downvotes redacted]
> And buying a traitor always costs a lot of money. Even Judas got 30 pieces of silver.
30 silver pieces actually wasn’t much money. These are commonly thought to refer to a silver shekel. If so, it’d be 30x11.4g or 342g of silver total, about $164 at today’s prices.
30 shekels was also the price of a slave according to Exodus 21:32. So, the fact that the Pharisees paid Judas only the price of a slave shows their immense disrespect for the Christ.
What I do is take it and turn it on 'em. I make about $15k a year but it's off open source software development on Patreon plus some livestreaming, and literally everything I produce is available free.
Want to impress me? Continue to make $400k a year whilst giving everything you do away for free. Otherwise you are merely exploiting the workers and making things worse for everyone, and the more astonishing your 'score' at capitalism the worse you are :D
For all that folks like that spout on about 'making the world a better place', often that means 'cashing out on a software patent for an obscure relational database interfacing protocol'… very better, much wow. That really did a lot, and was unequivocally helpful to humanity ;P :)
Though sometimes it feels that if you are not working at one of the FAANGs making $400k/year that you are a total loser.