
Why I left Google - chauzer
https://medium.com/editors-picks/c02f1ff471c6
======
primigenus
If you're having trouble with the idea that there is a real human behind this
article, someone with feelings and motivations for writing what she did and
not just some anonymous internet commenter who "takes a long time to get to
the point" or "has a boring writing style", I recommend watching this video
she published on Youtube in which she responds to questions people had about
her article:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qeyt2Mw4sK4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qeyt2Mw4sK4)

Like the article, it's very honest and personal. It takes guts to broadcast or
publish something like that about yourself on the internet and face the music,
as is apparent by some of the responses here and on Youtube. Consider thinking
about it next time you decide to post a snarky comment or a TL;DR.

~~~
foobarbazqux
I think the primary reason that people here are so negative about it is that
they personally aren't living authentically, that is to say true to
themselves. If you're not living authentically yourself, an encounter with
authenticity in someone else will bring up bad feelings, and so the default
response will be to come up with all sorts of reasons to shame the other
person.

This was one of the best things I've read on Medium. I liked the writing, I
liked the emotion, I liked the imagery, and I liked the self-reflection. It's
true that stories of angst over leaving the corporate world are nothing new,
but the execution was good. It was particularly interesting to hear about her
experience at Google in that light, given their cachet as the be-all and end-
all of big corporate tech employers.

She's lucky she's able to listen and respond to her intuition about what's
right for her personally. One of the great tragedies of Western society is
that consumerism is encouraged over the pursuit of meaningful work.

~~~
altoz
Uh, no. I think they're identifying her for what she is. Immature. She's
coming from a perspective where the world owes her a fulfilling career. Mature
people think about changing themselves, not blaming their situation.

~~~
nostrademons
Actually, mature people think about bringing themselves into harmony with
their situation. That usually involves _both_ changing yourself and your
situation. And I think that's what she's doing here.

Simply changing yourself is a stop-gap measure: most people find out that it
doesn't actually work long-term, because you can't actually change your true
self. You can change your surface behavior, but if those conflict with your
deeply-held values, those are going to leak through in times of stress, and
you won't be able to do your job effectively. It's better to put yourself in a
position where your values and your actions are in harmony: that's why they
call it living with "integrity".

------
neilk
HN is a pretty negative place these days. Ellen Huerta, if you're reading
this, I applaud that you decided not to accept the path that was laid out for
you.

Also, I suspect that most HN readers won't understand the maturity & security
in one's own self-worth it takes to walk away from that level of career
success, and particularly a company like Google.

~~~
ryanSrich
Aside from the article having no real connection to hacking or the startup
world; the prevalent self absorption is what I assume to be the biggest factor
in the negative reviews this article is receiving here on HN.

Was it well written? Absolutely. Could someone take away something beneficial
from it? Most likely. But is it worthy of being on the front page of hacker
news? I'd guess not.

Again, though I've seen a drastic decline in the quality of posts in the short
time I've been here, which is most likely indicative of the overall decline in
quality since combining hacker news and startup news.

~~~
ladybro
Why is it not worthy of being on the front page of HN? While I acknowledge
that this is a tech forum and a thousand posts about Javscript alternatives do
probably belong on the front page, but we're all human and this offers a good
lesson on internal reflection for a situation that we're all probable to
experience down the road.

~~~
ryanSrich
> this offers a good lesson on internal reflection for a situation that we're
> all probable to experience down the road.

Really? All of us?

Honestly though I didn't mean any disrespect to the author or anyone who got
something out of this article.

I was simply pointing out why I thought the majority of the comments were
critical of the piece, which the parent seemed to attribute to HNer's [not]
understading "the maturity & security in one's own self-worth it takes to walk
away from that level of career success" to which I would have to strongly
disagree.

------
untog
TL;DR: it wasn't fulfilling

I don't really feel like I ought be a critic of anyone's writing (given that I
am not one myself) but college boyfriends, wandering away from the campfire to
look at the stars... it seems like the author takes a really long route to get
to the point.

~~~
haberman
If it feels like she took too long to get to the point, maybe it's because you
missed it.

Her point (as I took it) was that she had such a strong habit of living her
life entirely in terms of her accomplishments that she was living her life
inauthentically _without even realizing it_. And it took a whole lot of space
away from her life just to become aware of it.

Not everything can be reduced down to a three-word "TL;DR."

~~~
ulisesrmzroche
It's the same cliche that gets repeated ad-naseum in HN. "Why I left X to
build Y". Yes. YOLO. We know. You're pitching your startup. Is it not ok to
offer critique? Taking too long to get to the point is a cardinal sin in
writing and it's kinda lame to just label it as "haters gonna hate".

~~~
thedufer
Was this a pitch for her startup? She named it once, without a link. And it's
a name that isn't easy to search for. If this is pitching, she's not very good
at it.

Edit: It's [http://letsmend.com/](http://letsmend.com/) \- you can find a
domain registration page if you search her name and the name of the startup.

~~~
ulisesrmzroche
That's what I got out of it. It's all pretty vague, so maybe it's just a post
about how you should eschew the rat-race, go do your own thing, build your
startup, and find happiness. Which is even more meh, honestly. Another key of
good writing is to leave your reader with just one point in mind, one that
never occurred to them before.

~~~
chunky1994
PG also has many essays that are regarding doing your own thing, and about
life. Admittedly, I find PG much better in providing insight, however this
article also does a pretty decent, (albeit with many platitudes) of giving us
insight on living life. Something that apparently many people on HN think is
not meh.

------
nahname
>...breaking up with my college boyfriend. He was brilliant, good looking,
respected, and everyone loved him — I even loved him — but he wasn’t the one.

I'm not even thirty yet, but I feel like most people within my generation are
just spoiled children. It's like we need another world war so people can learn
to properly appreciate what they have, again.

~~~
msutherl
What struck me more is how somebody can get that far in life without properly
examining themselves and their relationship with the world. Isn't she aware of
the stereotype that corporations are full of drones that will suddenly realize
that they've wasted their life when they're forty? Hasn't she picked up a copy
of Be Here Now on a coffee table somewhere? Was that really the first time
that she's gazed at the stars and felt like she could do anything – doesn't
everybody do that when they're 15? I suppose not everybody has hippy parents,
not everybody is allowed to go to bonfire parties in their teens, not
everybody takes LSD before their first corporate job.

It's like we need another world war and then another 60's and 70's, but then
no 80's to erase all the lessons we learned.

Most people that I know who are in my generation (millennial) are incredibly
self-aware and make life choices according to what they want out of life first
and foremost. Sadly that often leaves them stuck without the skills to make a
significant impact on the world and on the lives of those around them.

~~~
vehementi
It's not hard to reason yourself into that situation... part it is that as a
software dev in a corporation, you have a "better" life than 99+% of humans
currently alive, or who have ever lived. You are unfathomably lucky. To even
be in a position to contemplate "Oh, this career isn't spiritually fulfilling
enough" necessitates an unbelievable amount of privilege (not using the word
with any negative connotation). We are having this discussion right now
between a bunch of other incredibly lucky and privileged people. If we
included an average spectrum of 100 people in this discussion, we would have
50 starving people begging for an apple, 40 McDonalds workers pulling extra
shifts to pay for their food tonight, etc. and our complaints would be
absolutely ridiculous. Our discussion here within the HN community is like
people in the yacht club lamenting that their yacht is aging and isn't made
from the most prestigious woods. That is the kind of perspective your favorite
drug can impart...

------
lancewiggs
It feels like she has made the first genuine choice about her life. Most
people seldom, if ever, make a genuine choice, but follow the obvious path in
front of them. In this case, top of class, great college, fantastic job then
career and so forth.

This site is rightly focussed around people who have made or are thinking
about making genuine choices, founding or being part of a start-up.

It took me until I was 29 to make my first real choice, and then, and ever
since then, I've gone about in the same way.

The key is to create real options that are all desirable, and to make a real
choice that is for yourself, your family, and for the societal right reasons,
not (just) for others' expectations.

So what I did, and advise people to do, is to prioritise three completely
different options areas, such as travel, starting a company and going
corporate. Next, work on each of them as hard as you can to make them as
compelling as possible.

If you've done a great job, then the three options will be equally good, yet
very different, and the choice will be incredibly hard. At this stage it's
about refining your criteria and choosing the one that opens the most doors
and leaves the least closed.

Set a date to decide by, maximize the value of each option by pushing hard,
and then pick one.

And I recommend always having a plan B and C, no matter what you are doing.

~~~
psbp
I'm not sure if there was an implication of psychedelics at Joshua Tree, but
this comment in that context would be just as egregiously confining.

------
jamesaguilar
I'm all for personal fulfillment, but this seems like it could apply to anyone
working any job they don't like/love. There is nothing specific to Google in
this. Actually, there's very little specific in this at all. I guess somebody
found it helpful though because it's at thirty points right now and it was at
three ten minutes ago.

~~~
benesch
The difference here is that a software engineering job at Google is widely
considered one of the best corporate software engineering jobs in the world.
There are thousands who'd love to be in her place; as she notes, the external
pressure to like your job at Google is tremendous.

That she had the courage to uproot her entire life, despite the pressure, is
impressive.

(Granted, you could replace "engineer at Google" with "position X at a top
company in field.")

Edit: As noted below, Elle wasn't a software engineer at Google, but an
account manager in the media/marketing department. The point stands, I think.

~~~
oinksoft
The technology may be great, but at the end of the day, you're still working
for a company whose main business is selling ad space. Definitely not a
surprise that many people find this less than fulfilling. The amazing thing is
that Google has managed to sell an employment experience whose most
outstanding feature is creature comforts to a host of smart people.

~~~
cromwellian
The vast majority of Google engineers don't work on ads. The guys working on
Google Maps, feel they are working for a mapping company. The guys working on
Android feel they're working on mobile. The people working on search feel
they're working on machine intelligence issues.

Frankly, as a Google employee, I like that the ads business subsidizes
research into other areas that are not economical yet or which people won't
pay for. The fact that Google culture overall aligns my my views on
intellectual property, progressive ideals, and just not being a douche-bag
cancels out any "taint" that the money is made on (IMHO, tasteful) ads.

I used to work at IBM T.J. Watson research. I had no love for the IBM
consulting or mainframe business, but I never had to deal with it.

Google's main business might be advertising, but that business is mostly
automated, it doesn't take 20,000 engineers to run AdWords.

------
iandanforth
This is the definition of angst. Quite a good example in fact. The most
important line though is:

"The caveat here is that studying hard my whole life and saving for almost 5
years afforded me the opportunity to have this time completely off payroll[.]"

~~~
twelvechairs
except that a lot of smart people in other industries also study hard but
can't save enough for those opportunities. the key is that she also picked a
good industry to be in, which is basically down to luck and the opportunities
offered by where she grew up

~~~
nostrademons
Well, there's some degree of conscious choice involved. When I graduated from
college, I didn't know exactly what industry I wanted to be in either, but I
knew I liked working with computers and I just took the highest-paying offer
that wasn't terrible.

I'm of the opinion that if you know what you want to do, you should do that.
If you don't know what to do, you should take whatever opportunity will expose
you to more opportunities in the future. Saving up money is a part of that.

~~~
twelvechairs
lucky you that your guess went well for you. what worked for you, however, may
not necessarily work for others.

~~~
nostrademons
Salary numbers are not much of a guess - they're stated right there in the
offer letter. Neither are expenses - you know exactly how money will be going
out and can make choices to limit that. What will make you happy _is_ a guess,
and it didn't actually work out the first - or second, or third - time that I
tried. I'm still evaluating whether my fourth choice works on a happiness
level, but if it doesn't, I've got the resources and professional reputation
to try again.

But in the absence of any useful information about that, why not take the
choice that gives you the biggest chance of being able to make more choices
later? Picking a job that gives you savings gives you a bunch of options
later, should you decide that you hate it, and it also gives you information
about what sort of work you like to do. So if your guess works, great, if it
doesn't, you have the resources to try again.

------
ryanobjc
Great write up, I really want to learn what the next chapter brings.

Ultimately, living an authentic life is the only thing that ends up mattering.
There are many ways to do this, and you don't have to make grand moves to get
there, although it can certainly help.

A think a lot of academically gifted folks ultimately can have this problem...
you become so focused on what you DO you forget that you're a Human BEING not
a Human DOING. (props to my friend who gave me that one)

~~~
benesch
I've never understood what it means to live an "authentic" life. I really wish
I did, because it sounds nice.

Is it slowing down to enjoy life? Is it finding the things that make you happy
and pursuing them? Is it doing what your inner voice tells you to do?

Maybe my inner voice is more confused than most, because mine is
simultaneously telling me to get a degree and to drop out of college, to start
a company in the hopes of being wildly successful and to find a nice, stable
job somewhere so I can spend my free time relaxing.

~~~
enneff
If you haven't even finished college then you don't have enough data to work
from. Keep listening to the voice, but be prepared to be confused a lot in
your 20s. That's normal.

------
jusben1369
This is a fairly standard story with a modern twist. Taking the story at face
value she seems as though she was academically very bright from an early age.
With that comes a full set of expectations. "Oh, she'll be really successful
at whatever she does because she's so bright!" comes in a bunch of variations
from teachers, family and friends. Many children want to please their parents
and so follow that path and get oddles of social approval. (good
grades/schools/careers) Google is the West Coast flavor but it could be a
great law firm, Goldman Sachs, medical field etc. At around 30 the majority of
these folks don't have too many more hurdles to clear and they start to
question the "Why" of what they're doing for the first time.

The modern twist is the fact that the author is a little self absorbed and
many people are reacting to that. 8 minute YouTube follow up videos etc. A
very long winded story that could be tightened up.

What's most interesting is how little she's really challenging herself by
changing her environment. Same field (tech) and same state (SoCal vs NorCal)
She saw how a single weekend with people not from her field impacted her life.
Why not take that weekend and stretch it into a year! Imagine what could
happen then? Right now with this path I'd say 50%+ chance "relative" poverty
will set it in 12 - 18 months and she'll be back in the womb of a large
technology company again.

------
onedev
I don't understand all the negative people. I truly don't.

You weren't forced to read about her problems. You weren't forced to upvote
this post to the front page. Yet all you people do is complain.

The post made it to the frontpage because maybe it hit home for a lot of
people here? Perhaps people are fascinated by her very personal story? There
could be a number of reasons.

HN gets very tiring very fast because of all the negativity. It's terrible.
Stop and reflect and realize that HUMAN BEINGS are on the other side of the
words written here.

~~~
marvin
I think it's fear. This essay questions the motivation and premises of the
biggest life choices of many people on Hacker News. Be smart, be ambitious,
study hard, be successful, make a lot of money.

I've seen people recoil very hard when they are reminded about very deeply
buried insecurities. When someone suffers from depression or anxiety, you'll
sometimes see the most incredible mental gymnastics to avoid going into
therapy and doing a bit of introspection. "I don't like the therapist". "It's
boring". "This is pseudoscience". To me this looks like an instance of the
same phenomenon; it's more comfortable to reject this premise entirely than to
consider that it could also be relevant to your own life.

------
khalidmbajwa
I rarely comment on HN or post stuff here and the response to this post is a
reminder of exactly why. The negativity is mind boggling. Here is someone with
an exceptionally told, brilliantly written, truly moving story of why she left
a secure, outwardly perfect life to pursue something she personally found
actually fulfilling.For everyone sitting pretty on their comfy couches, know
this is not easy. Staring at your bank account and seeing it getting close
zero to everyday, while dealing with the all the shit that comes with pursuing
your dreams is truly gut wrenching.You know the lights are about to go off,
and you are giving up everything for it, and you are desperately trying to
keep going. THAT is not easy. It takes guts.

I honestly think HN needs a 'Be Nice' Policy like Quora. I love writing,
sharing and commenting on Quora because people are genuinely warm, cordial,
friendly and very very constructive in their feedback. On HN however it seems
there is a race to see who can post a more Snarky comment. Sad !

------
pcunite
I appreciate the author's transparency. The past 200 years of innovation have
created a world that is hard to _connect_ with sometimes. You used to wake up
every day looking for food ... hand to mouth ... build a fire or freeze to
death. The most joyous times were found simply being with friends and family
with no presumptions of _better-ness_ because you knew how much their horse
cost. There were times to be alone too.

Today its hyper-information, hyper-jobs, hyper-success, hyper-sugary foods.

And what is success? What is living? Why is there _one_ ice-cream stop in
every town instead of every town having its own ice-cream shop? This new
generation wants to understand themselves and how they fit within the spaces
they frequent. They don't want to _live_ inside a commercial anymore.

------
pvdm
Are googlers all narcissists ? I read that article and I only heard "I" or
"me".

~~~
marvin
This is an introspective essay describing a difficult mental process,
involving a complete questioning of one's motivation in life.

Rather than condemn the author for being a narcissist, people should take the
opportunity to study this excellent example of human introspection. I think a
_lot_ of people would benefit from having a close look at their goals and
motivations. Seems like every other week I see a post on Hacker News about
depression or burnout which could have been avoided if the author was able to
look at him/herself from a distance.

------
dylangs1030
Finally, a "Why I Left Google" post that doesn't focus on the company. A lot
of people are saying, "This girl has a lot of angst"...well, at least for once
she talks about herself and her reasons for leaving, rather than the reasons a
company failed her. It's a nice change.

------
imsofuture
Did you just discover you aren't your GPA or your job title? Gimme a break.

~~~
saalweachter
It's a lot harder to realize the game is meaningless when you're winning.

~~~
imsofuture
But no more laudable, or noteworthy.

------
doyoulikeworms
I left Salesforce.com last year with very similar feelings.

[http://www.ckcopprell.com/2012/12/what-
do.html](http://www.ckcopprell.com/2012/12/what-do.html)

In other words, it's called being a twenty-something.

~~~
pavanred
This makes me wonder, we have seen in polls earlier that most people active on
HN are in late 20s or thereabouts. Now, such decisions are very important and
many concur but is it possible most people who agree with her are more or less
in the same age bracket and similar mindsets. Can anyone tell me honestly, how
such decisions play out in the long run? I mean, in about 15-20 years from
now, after taking such a decision, would one be extremely satisfied with
his/her life or will one look back at this as a young person's decision that
gave up on comfortable retirements plans, insurances, mortgages, holidays,
life style etc. I am guessing there should be both kinds but which has higher
odds?

------
ardit33
That was good writing. The people that complain about it being too long are
probably young and don't appreciate a good personal story. This is not about
google, but about author's personal choice to leave something seemingly good
behind in order to do something more meaningful/fulfilling; and how she made
that choice.

------
chuhnk
I love this post, I really do and it's because it resonates so deeply with me.
Ellen is really able to put into words what I could only babble on about in
nonsensical conversations with people over the past 6 months. I left Google
this year too as have many others (if only you could see the internal
epitaph). There were many reasons why I left but none are noteworthy. Many
have found themselves in similar situations, facing adversity in their lives,
achieving the dream and then wondering what next, the quarter life crisis.
Google is the dream but what happens when the dream becomes a reality? Does
the reality live up to what you had imagined it to be? Now what? Do you spend
10 years at Google trying to level up? Do you work on complex problems at
Google scale? Do you even get that opportunity?

------
ajainy
I kind of saved myself lots of frustration, by not reading this article. As
soon as I read, "i will have to leave my boyfriend" and I assume, this is one
narcissistic article, trying to get people listen her babbling because she has
used "google".

------
AznHisoka
Sometimes it's a blessing to be in a job that you can't tolerate, or even
despise, as opposed to a job that feels prestigious, but still doesn't feel
right.

With the former, at least you don't feel the pressure to stay because everyone
wants to work there.

------
pearjuice
Am I the only one who somewhere along the article expected the feminism bomb
to go off? "Right after this sentence! Camp fire, this is a trigger! High
school boyfriend, oh boy here we go!"

Quite surprising it wasn't even remotely refered to at least once.

------
oth3r
This is the most annoying, cringe-inducing post I've ever read on Hacker News.

------
wyclif
Congratulations, this is possibly the most effing boring and self-indulgent
thing I've ever read on HN.

------
mynameishere
For the good of the world, let us pray this woman never has any real problems.
Let's examine her "problems" thus far:

\-- Left her wonderful boyfriend. _Boo hoo hoo_

\-- Left her wonderful job _Boo hoo hoo_

Jesus Christ. The insulation is a thousand miles thick around this person. Is
she _really_ not aware that the universe is full of genuine horrors that don't
involve her silly quest towards self-actualization or what-the-fuck-ever she's
trying to express? Absolutely pathetic.

~~~
nadnerb
Seriously get over it. You are the one that has the problem here. The wish to
become a better individual and not what everyone else thinks you should be is
not a crime. Your response doesn't belong on this site. Grow up.

------
gummydude
To sum it up, she wants a freedom in every aspect of her life. A business
owner suits her well.

------
fchollet
That was like a perfect storm of self-obsession, self-indulgence, self-
aggrandizement and self-pity.

Then again, kudos to her for making a tough decision that made her life
better. Now I sincerely hope that her increased freedom will allow her to
develop a less unhealthy perspective on life than what transpires from her
blog post.

(Not sure why I'm taking the time to react in what is obviously not a
constructive way; maybe I'm just trying to make the nausea go away.)

------
marvin
This link now has 200 comments. 49 of them are pure, vitriolic negativity of
the sort I expect to see when my local small-town newspaper posts an online
story about first-year students getting drunk. Apparently it was flagged off
the front page. Get the fuck over yourselves. If it hurts so much to read a
story about a life crisis, you should probably take a few steps back and
examine your own life.

------
D9u
I commend the author on her decision to strike out on her own, as there's
nothing better than being your own boss, being responsible for your own
failures & successes.

Congratulations, and I wish you all the best!

The comment regarding a recurring dream was something I also experienced.

    
    
        "recurring dream that I was being chased, jumping through windows and doors, but never getting further away from my chaser"
    

After quite some time having this dream, one night the dream ended with my
realization that my pursuer was none other than myself!

I had been running from myself.

This realization had the effect of me going into business for myself, leaving
a high paying job, and struggling for quite awhile before I began to be
successful.

Today I work longer hours than I ever did for that high paying employer, but
the difference is that I enjoy what I do, and I get to choose the projects
that I pour my efforts into.

Too many are content to remain in their respective comfort zones, and this
stifles innovation...

You go, girl!

------
6cxs2hd6
> when I walk along the beach alone on a warm summer night and watch the
> sunset behind the Santa Monica mountains ...

The sun sets in the East?

~~~
travisfischer
The coast takes a sharp turn straight west just north of Santa Monica so from
Venice looking north west you see Malibu and the Santa Monica mountains.
Therefore during the summer the sun does in fact set behind the Santa Monica
mountains as can be seen in this photo.
[http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7369/9267881002_dc30589ab0_o.j...](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7369/9267881002_dc30589ab0_o.jpg)

~~~
6cxs2hd6
I had no idea. Wow, that's beautiful.

------
webo
She made a video response:
[http://youtu.be/Qeyt2Mw4sK4](http://youtu.be/Qeyt2Mw4sK4)

~~~
woofyman
Wow, could she be more self absorbed and annoying ?

~~~
drcross
It's so banal and dull. The White Knightism in this thread also makes me want
to vomit.

------
cromwellian
My takeaway, a mid-life crisis at a young age. I'd also like to ad,
#firstworldproblems ;-)

------
john_c
Reading that makes me angry. As a former ditch-digger, construction laborer,
retail associate, airline baggage handler, and furniture mover, I had to
scratch and claw my way for 10 years to finally get an engineering position at
Google.

This woman seems to have every life opportunity handed to her in a silver
plate since the day she was born that all she had to do is work hard and not
fuck it up. I know people who are brilliant and work immensely hard but just
do not have the socioeconomic status and/or luck to even get an interview.

She just threw away something that millions of people would literally kill
for. Something that I, as recently as 4 years ago, would literally kill for.

~~~
theshadow
I'm sure if a starving child in Africa read your post they would be angry that
someone went out of their way to get angry over another person making very
personal decision. There are greater things in life to angry over than another
person making a decision which they believe will make them happier.

Just because you can't seem to fathom how someone might leave behind a cushy
job does not give you the right to be judgemental. World is a suckier place
when people can't seem to see the world without their tunnel vision.

------
ksmith107
it seems like she never took the time to find herself. It sounds like she was
always involved in something and she was able to shoot strait too the top
without thinking about it much. I think a lot of people people just need some
time to get it figured out and sometimes some fun years at college isn't
enough. I know that was super involved as a undergrad and i thought I had life
figured out by the time i was done, but it wasn't until i was an unemployed,
relatively unknown person in a different area for my graduate studies that I
was able to find out how i wanted i really wanted to do with my own life.

------
marvin
This really hits home for me, and I haven't even finished my degree yet. I
should probably delete this comment so my prospective employers won't find it
when they start trawling through my social networking history.

~~~
gmartres
[https://xkcd.com/137/](https://xkcd.com/137/)

------
frabbit
" I could hear old school hip hop from our camp in the distance, but I was
surrounded by absolutely nothing and no one, and I felt free in the universe."

Please stay away from Joshua Tree and other wilderness areas.

------
theflubba
"It also meant making a physical move to Venice (the one in CA, not Italy) so
that I could fulfill my dreams of a spacious 1br apartment to myself (which I
couldn’t shell out $3k for in SF),"

are you fucking kidding me? rich princess complaining about something most
people would kill to have - a comfortable life.

------
omonra
Title can easily substitute 'Google' with 'a large & successful company'. This
would not change anything about the story but the title would be more honest
(as most who clicked on it here likely expected something Google-specific).

The post is not about Google but author's personal life.

------
ricardobeat
I wish HN would stop talking about itself, and I could participate in
discussion on the linked article for once.

Paradox.

------
ulisesrmzroche
Is this the startup? [http://mend.co/](http://mend.co/) I know the guys who
did that site, but I'm not sure if it's Helen's or not.

------
realrocker
The point of the article is the pursuit of epiphany and not the epiphany
itself.In my opinion she is not there yet.

------
lgrcyanny
I appreciate her choice，live for yourself，live for your heart. It needs great
courage to quit a high salary job.

------
talleyrand
Remember that old poster "Poverty Sucks"? Some thoughts are better left
unexpressed.

------
groundCode
I don't believe it! cummings using capitals and punctuation. :)

------
guynamedloren
I can relate.

------
snambi
but why did she leave? what is the reason?

~~~
jusben1369
She realized she was just following a path that was full of social approval
but didn't feel fulfilling. You could removed Google and add a large
financial/media/law firm and it would be the same article.

------
dude3
too many words

~~~
pcunite
wordiness

~~~
snambi
oh... yeah... way to too verbose. hardcore engineers love to be precise and to
the point.

------
benched
_" It was that moment that I realized I was truly free to do whatever I wanted
in this world"_

I've been there. One tends to have such 'realizations' after working at a job
like hers and banking 100k or 2. This type of freedom is not the general
condition for human beings, is usually fleeting, and is almost always bought
with a lot of money.

